A Tale Of Two VelociRaptors

Dashken · 12th Nov 2008, 10:11 PM

The Western Digital VelociRaptor is an amazingly fast hard disk drive. Targeted at the blade server and enthusiast markets, this Serial ATA hard disk drive not only delivers incredibly fast seek times and throughput, it also does it in a compact 2.5" form factor. Western Digital offers three versions of the VelociRaptor - BLFS, HLFS and GLFS.

The choice of models available made us wonder if there is any performance difference between the different models, so we decided to test it out. We had earlier reviewed the BLFS model but Chai bought a HLFS model so we thought it was a great opportunity to compare the performance of the two models.

Link : A Tale Of Two VelociRaptors

mikegas · 13th Nov 2008, 10:36 AM

minor difference only. I don't think WD is making anymore of GLFS, they just realize their stupidity creating a enterprise sata drive that doesn't fit into backplane ... The stupidity is just not as worse as Seagate using Samsung drive in thier freeagent ..

Adrian Wong · 13th Nov 2008, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikegas

minor difference only. I don't think WD is making anymore of GLFS, they just realize their stupidity creating a enterprise sata drive that doesn't fit into backplane ... The stupidity is just not as worse as Seagate using Samsung drive in thier freeagent ..

Hehe.. I guess they were hoping that many desktop users would buy the VelociRaptor. Still, why not just make the HLFS? You can mount the HLFS in a standard PC case anyway.

mikegas · 13th Nov 2008, 11:54 PM

Well .. at first they make GLFS .. then only .. oops realize their mistake and make HLFS ... that's the story..

Chai · 14th Nov 2008, 12:10 AM

Velociraptor was designed for consumer at first, I guess. AFAIK, they may also fix the noisy GLFS model caused of the vibration proned heatsink.

Adrian Wong · 14th Nov 2008, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chai

Velociraptor was designed for consumer at first, I guess. AFAIK, they may also fix the noisy GLFS model caused of the vibration proned heatsink.

Hmm.. I think the heatsink is pretty much the same as that of the HLFS and mounted the same way. Looks like it was "bonded" to four metal "shoes" on the heatsink very securely, so I don't think the heatsink will cause a significant amount of vibration unless the GLFS heatsink is quite flexible.

Chai · 14th Nov 2008, 07:52 AM

The heatsink doesn't have to be flexible to cause any vibration. The best example would be mounting the HDD to your case. It will definitely be much noisier than not mounting on to the case. The heatsink design between GLFS and HLFS is very different.

mikegas · 14th Nov 2008, 11:01 AM

Hmm .. no more GLFS for me to test .. lol .. yes design is very different. HLFS has to accommodate an extra PCB.

Chai · 14th Nov 2008, 01:54 PM

Silent PC Review actually highlighted the noise issue to WD, and they were surprised about their findings. I think WD may have done some improvement in terms on the heatsink vibration along with the SATA backplane support.

In terms of idle noise level, Velociraptor beats all 3.5" drives, including GP series. That's what SPCR mentioned. This was one of the main reason why I considered this drive.

If the drive sounded like the pre-FDB days, I wouldn't even consider...

Since this drive is made here, maybe Mike knows something about the improvement made on this drive.

mikegas · 14th Nov 2008, 02:30 PM

Nope. I don't know. I am not the Product team. Every drive is a black box to me; I won't know until go poke around in the system.

12th Nov 2008, 10:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
Dashken Administrator! Join Date: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Penang Posts: 30,231 Reputation: 2352 Rep Power: 60	A Tale Of Two VelociRaptors The Western Digital VelociRaptor is an amazingly fast hard disk drive. Targeted at the blade server and enthusiast markets, this Serial ATA hard disk drive not only delivers incredibly fast seek times and throughput, it also does it in a compact 2.5" form factor. Western Digital offers three versions of the VelociRaptor - BLFS, HLFS and GLFS. The choice of models available made us wonder if there is any performance difference between the different models, so we decided to test it out. We had earlier reviewed the BLFS model but Chai bought a HLFS model so we thought it was a great opportunity to compare the performance of the two models. Link : A Tale Of Two VelociRaptors __________________ \| Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.2Ghz \| ASUS P5B-E Plus \| G.SKILL 2x1GB DDR2 800 \| 6 HDDs (2TB+ only ) \| NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT \| Dell E248WFP 24" Widescreen \| \| Intel C2Q Q9450 \| MSI P45 Neo3-FR \| 2 x 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Gold Edition \| 1 x Seagate 250GB HDD \| 2 x Seagate 750GB HDD \| 3 x Seagate 1TB HDD \| NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT \| Cooler Master CM690 chassis \| Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 550W PSU \| Dell E248WFP 24" Widescreen \| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 \| Blog : Dashken's I-Blog Gallery : Dashken's I-Paintings

14th Nov 2008, 12:10 AM	#5 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 27,884 Reputation: 4630 Rep Power: 81	Velociraptor was designed for consumer at first, I guess. AFAIK, they may also fix the noisy GLFS model caused of the vibration proned heatsink. __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/ Last edited by Chai : 14th Nov 2008 at 12:17 AM.

14th Nov 2008, 07:52 AM	#7 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 27,884 Reputation: 4630 Rep Power: 81	The heatsink doesn't have to be flexible to cause any vibration. The best example would be mounting the HDD to your case. It will definitely be much noisier than not mounting on to the case. The heatsink design between GLFS and HLFS is very different. __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

14th Nov 2008, 01:54 PM	#9 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 27,884 Reputation: 4630 Rep Power: 81	Silent PC Review actually highlighted the noise issue to WD, and they were surprised about their findings. I think WD may have done some improvement in terms on the heatsink vibration along with the SATA backplane support. In terms of idle noise level, Velociraptor beats all 3.5" drives, including GP series. That's what SPCR mentioned. This was one of the main reason why I considered this drive. If the drive sounded like the pre-FDB days, I wouldn't even consider... Since this drive is made here, maybe Mike knows something about the improvement made on this drive. __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

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13th Nov 2008, 10:36 AM	#2 (permalink)
mikegas I'm a regular Join Date: 7 May 2008 Posts: 464 Reputation: 206 Rep Power: 4	minor difference only. I don't think WD is making anymore of GLFS, they just realize their stupidity creating a enterprise sata drive that doesn't fit into backplane ... The stupidity is just not as worse as Seagate using Samsung drive in thier freeagent ..

13th Nov 2008, 11:54 PM	#4 (permalink)
mikegas I'm a regular Join Date: 7 May 2008 Posts: 464 Reputation: 206 Rep Power: 4	Well .. at first they make GLFS .. then only .. oops realize their mistake and make HLFS ... that's the story..

14th Nov 2008, 11:01 AM	#8 (permalink)
mikegas I'm a regular Join Date: 7 May 2008 Posts: 464 Reputation: 206 Rep Power: 4	Hmm .. no more GLFS for me to test .. lol .. yes design is very different. HLFS has to accommodate an extra PCB.

14th Nov 2008, 02:30 PM	#10 (permalink)
mikegas I'm a regular Join Date: 7 May 2008 Posts: 464 Reputation: 206 Rep Power: 4	Nope. I don't know. I am not the Product team. Every drive is a black box to me; I won't know until go poke around in the system.