Conclusions

We have so many different systems here as test beds, therefore we looked upon what can be found in the most common environment of entry level high end systems.    Both the Intel X38 and QX9650 are extremely comprehensive parts, not the complete top of the range but near enough and therefore would show the best performance levels at which end user would be looking to upgrade their hard drive at a later date.   More than likely sooner now after seeing these results today.  We have also decided upon splitting the review into several sections and todays Part 1 look certainly has been spectacular to say the least.  Wait and see what's to come next.

When a hard disc of this magnitude arrives and lives up to its claims then one has to start investigating just how good it really is within professional applications.  Today, the VelociRaptor drive has excelled itself ripping it way though the most strenuous of renders and tests we put at it.  Initial claims were that the drive would excel itself much more than its predecessor.  It most certainly has.  So down to possible target markets, such as the enterprise blade servers and their massive arrays, the studio looking for exceptional render times to get the finalised product out on time to the client, the SoHo user who relies heavily upon this type of disc for a fast post and the loading of a huge Outlook PST folder and last but not least, the speed demon, the fastest gamer on the block.  The list is endless to were the drive can be positioned.   Good company strategist will be already positioning the drive into front line bleeding edge blade/server systems that require fast turn around results, thereafter into the back room for fast storage backup.  A drive that has a 5 year limited warranty can be positioned in many places when technology replaces. 

The drive has astonished us here with its insurmountable raw performance which sees applications whistling open and slamming shut.   A good example being; installation of Windows from completion of the Hard Disc Format to Desktop with Windows being installed took a meagre 23 minutes to complete.  Just after we were getting used to the superb high performance output of the Western Digital RE-2 drives, this comes along and hits us fully by surprise with its simply stunning performance.

All things apart lets look at some ecological points of what the drive has to offer

1.   Read/Write Consumption 6.08 Watts
2.   Idle Consumption 4.2 Watts

Many of you may have missed these important critical factors.  Its important to realise today just how much actual power is being drawn by the system.  Once more Western Digital have focused upon this critical factor driving home the energy efficiency message.  Fast is good, but fast in this instance is also cost effective.

To reiterate the results gained previously by avoiding complexities:

HD Tach results remain very good and are what one would have expected from the ICH9 chipset.   With burst speeds of up to 260 MB/s and average reads of 106MB/s is exceptional from just 1 drive.   One point within this sector that has to be noted and fully emphasised is once more that the CPU utilisation has a very small footprint indeed at only 2%.   Interestingly enough just goes to prove on how energy efficient the Intel stock mainboards are.

PCMark 2005 Advanced – Up from 5841 to 8467 a 44.95% increase in the Hard Drive I/O output within the test

MAXON Cinebench 10 – once more 10% increase in the I/O Render output of the CPU.

SPECapc for Solidworks 2007 – Day in the Life Scores (left hand column) are better (Lower = Better) the Complete Score shows a 7.5% increase in performance; SPECapc Score (right hand column) increase in performance by 6.19% the rest of the results in this section are better (Higher = Better)

SPEC Viewperf 10 - As seen within page 8 of the review increased across the board which is very difficult to achieve within a test of this nature. FSAA and Multithreading tests show nice incremental increases in many areas.

What we have to fully consider that all of the above results are raw data, there has been at no time any utilisation of Diskeeper which is our norm to have in situ.  Taking this factor into consideration we should actually see a further increase in performance from the VelociRaptor.  This will be investigated at further point in the not too distant future and the data published.

For those of you who saw the sneaky peak over on Page 2a into the new Akasa 966 HSF first demonstrated at Cebit, we now have our hands on the first engineering sample.   It performed remarkably whilst under the pressure of all that has been thrown at the system over the last 5 days back to back.   AT most we saw within the bios on reboot checking the CPU running at 41C after the long Underwater Scene render.  Hmm not bad for the engineering sample that still has to be fitted with its posh PWM fan and some final fine tuning.   Akasa have a winning beastie here. 

For many, it still takes some believing, what was a 3 1/2" Disc has now been crammed into a 2 1/2" disc.    Spectacular engineering to say the least.  But lets not forget that 2 of Western Digitals key scientists won the Noble Peace prize in 2007 for Physic's.  With this in mind is it any wonder that they have achieved so much with this petite bombshell.   The radical design and implementation of this ingenious product has many companies buzzing with excitement on how much time, energy and complete efficiency is to be saved. 

Down to availability and costings; the drive should be shipping mainstream into OEM's S.I.'s and VAR's mid May which is not all that far away now.  Cost, initially the cost of the VelociRaptor has been pitched at approximately £160 UK Pounds, $300 US Dollars or €195 Euros by some already (Ex. Taxes and Shipping).  There will be companies out there who will be selling it a tad more, but for those wanting it first then be prepared for a premium.  If we recall correctly when the first 36GB Raptor hot the streets pricing was about the same then as now.   So realistically a few years down the line we have many more GB's with much more bang for our buck.

Ultimately, it goes without saying that this hard drive has really performed phenomenally with its breath taking performance in all of the arenas shown today.  If you want the fastest hard drive in town; then stop right here as this is the one of choice.     If you think that todays review is fast, then hold your horses, we are just at the starters gate.

Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - VelociRaptor Pictures
Page 2a - Exclusive Sneak Preview - Akasa 966 HSF
Page 3 - System Configuration and Software Used
Page 4 - HD Tach Version 3.0.4.0 & PCMark 2005 Advanced
Page 5 - Cinebench
Page 6 - Autodesk 3ds Max 9 SP2 Scenes
Page 7 - SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007™
Page 8 - SPECviewperf 10 ® run_all
Page 9 - SPECviewperf 10 ® Multi Sampling (FSAA)
Page 10 - SPECviewperf 10 ® Threads
Page 11 - Conclusions