Modding A Barracuda 7200.11 Into A VelociRaptor

Discussion in 'Reviews & Articles' started by Adrian Wong, Feb 4, 2010.

  1. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    That's a really catchy title, isn't it? Who wouldn't want to turn a "slow" 7,200 RPM hard disk drive into a super-fast 10,000 RPM Western Digital VelociRaptor? After all, the 300 GB model of the much-vaunted HDD speed king retails for US$ 199.99, while a 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 only costs US$ 109.99. Imagine getting the performance of the VelociRaptor with the capacity and price of the Seagate Barracuda!

    The guys at TechwareLabs came up with an apparently nifty way to "transform" the 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 hard disk drive into a VelociRaptor-killer. But before you go rushing out to grab yourself a 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 hard disk drive, please note that their mod basically involves crippling the Barracuda...

    [​IMG]

    Link : Modding A Barracuda 7200.11 Into A VelociRaptor
     
  2. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Modding A Barracuda 7200.11 Into A VelociRaptor Rev. 1.1

    That's a really catchy title, isn't it? Who wouldn't want to turn a "slow" 7,200 RPM hard disk drive into a super-fast 10,000 RPM Western Digital VelociRaptor? After all, the 300 GB model of the much-vaunted HDD speed king retails for US$ 199.99, while a 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 only costs US$ 109.99. Imagine getting the performance of the VelociRaptor with the capacity and price of the Seagate Barracuda!

    The guys at TechwareLabs came up with an apparently nifty way to "transform" the 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 hard disk drive into a VelociRaptor-killer. But before you go rushing out to grab yourself a 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 hard disk drive, please note that their mod basically involves crippling the Barracuda...

    In this revision, we updated the article, listing the steps taken by TechwareLabs, added additional commentary to the results discussion and clarified the partitioning solution for the all-knowing pundit.

    [​IMG]

    Link : Modding A Barracuda 7200.11 Into A VelociRaptor Rev. 1.1
     
  3. Zaspath

    Zaspath Newbie

    Theoretically speaking could you not just Defrag (I know some system files are un-movable) to move the required files into the first 300gb? Not sure if such an option exists in any of the defrag tools out there, but if so this might be a third option?

    (Edit: Probably not as simple as I make it out to be, especially with Windows system files, but could apply to your games, apps, media and work files)

    Z.
     
  4. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    But you can't ensure that the files will stay at the first 300gb forever.
     
  5. ZuePhok

    ZuePhok Just Started

    this si misleading. raptor's primarily advantage is not sustainable trasnfer speed but awesome random read/write. the same goes to SSD.

    this mod is like saying, why would we want to buy an Intel SSD when you can have one built by ocz (entry level stuff) for half the prize!
     
  6. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    No, current defrag applications do not allow you to specific which files to move up.

    I know the really old defraggers allow you to do that, but the new defraggers generally are designed to rearrange your data according to usage patterns - highly accessed data gets moved to the outer tracks and vice versa.
     
  7. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Yeah, the random read / write speed is awesome. Thanks to its excellent seek speed. :thumb:

    Actually, Chai pointed out that if you limit the HDD to use only the outer 300 GB (like they suggested), it will help reduce average seek time as the read/write heads will never move away from the outer tracks, so they only have a very short distance to move.

    Of course, the track-to-track seek time remains higher than the VelociRaptor, so the VelociRaptor will still have a big random read/write advantage over the "short-stroked" Barracuda.
     
  8. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    The Barracuda 7200.11, even with its higher areal density, has a track-to-track seek time of 0.8 ms (read) to 1.0 ms (write). The WD VelociRaptor only has a track-to-track seek time of 0.7 ms (read/write).

    But look also at the average rotational latency, which is time it takes to spin the platter half a rotation. The VelociRaptor's higher spindle speed gives it a HUGE advantage here. The VelociRaptor only need 3.0 ms while the Barracuda 7200.11 needs 4.16 ms (39% more).

    Of course, that's the rotational latency as measured at the mid-point of the platter's recording area. Restricting the Barracuda to the first 300 GB will help reduce the average rotational latency but I don't think it will come close to the VelociRaptor.
     
  9. ZuePhok

    ZuePhok Just Started

    haha. then might as well just get two black 640, and RAID0 them right? better performance, possibly cheaper (sorry cant verify this Im too lazy to check the price right now).

    But seriously, no point getting a raptor. our high performance PC has been chocking for 10 years.

    SSD is the real deal. move on! move everything to silicon!
     
  10. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    LOL!! SSDs are not cheap, you know.. and they have limited storage space. For tons of movies and you know what, larger terabyte HDDs are the way to go. :haha:
     
  11. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    RAIDing them do not give better seek time. That's why RAID is basically useless except for sequential transfer rate.

    Before SSD came (or specifically Intel SSD), Raptor is still the superior drive to get if you need good seek time.

    Now, Intel SSD or the new Sandforce based SSD should be the first consideration for most consumers. Personally, I think SSD won't drop that much in the future, because larger capacity will always phase out the older models, keeping the price high.
     
  12. ZuePhok

    ZuePhok Just Started

    RAID 0 setup was meant to compare with the 1.5TB mod, not ssd or raptor. since the mod improves only sequential, a RAID 0 black will get you 200MB/s sequential, even better.
    I've been running RAID 0 for so many years, using raptor, black, 16SE, deskstar, I can't tell the differences in day to day operation really. But once silicon storage stuff gets into picture, things just change!

    adrian: true. So instead of getting an intel SSD, you will be better off with a decent SSD, and spend the rest on a large drive to store data that you don't access every minute.
     
  13. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    I don't know about in SG, but in MY, Intel SSD is one of the most value for money SSD, especially among the better SSDs (Intel or Indilinx based). RAID 0 only improve sequential transfer rate, but short stroker will improve the random seek time slightly.

    Jmicron is cheap, but there are many issues with it.

    I definitely agree with you about matching the SSD with a large capacity drive, but Adrian is looking at the POV of a notebook user (only 1 HDD).
     
  14. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    One issue with SSD (other than the comparatively limited write cycles) is performance degradation due to internal fragmentation. But I guess you can solve it by regularly "defragging" it using special utilities.

    Yeah, no doubt that fast SSDs do offer a very noticeable boost in performance. SSDs just have a tremendous advantage in random accesses.

    Coming back to topic, it is this random access performance that defines the VelociRaptor, not its transfer rate (as high as it is). So modding the Barracuda won't really give you that kind of performance that the VelociRaptor can.

    It would be quite something else if they actually modded the Barracuda to spin at a higher speed, but as it is, the effect is just an illusion. We can get the same thing by partitioning the drive, something which all of us have been doing for years.
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2010
  15. ZuePhok

    ZuePhok Just Started

    HAHA! i want that! I dun mind if the drive could last only for a year after modding it!
     
  16. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    That would be a really neat mod, eh? :wicked:

    I thought that's what they did... :wall:
     
  17. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Modding A Barracuda 7200.11 Into A VelociRaptor Rev. 1.2

    That's a really catchy title, isn't it? Who wouldn't want to turn a "slow" 7,200 RPM hard disk drive into a super-fast 10,000 RPM Western Digital VelociRaptor? After all, the 300 GB model of the much-vaunted HDD speed king retails for US$ 199.99, while a 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 only costs US$ 109.99. Imagine getting the performance of the VelociRaptor with the capacity and price of the Seagate Barracuda!

    The guys at TechwareLabs came up with an apparently nifty way to "transform" the 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 hard disk drive into a VelociRaptor-killer. But before you go rushing out to grab yourself a 1.5 TB Barracuda 7200.11 hard disk drive, please note that their mod basically involves crippling the Barracuda...

    In this revision, we updated the article with a note on Seagate's support for TechwareLab's modding method, as well as a link to The Hard Disk Drive Short Stroke Guide

    [​IMG]

    Link : Modding A Barracuda 7200.11 Into A VelociRaptor Rev. 1.2
     

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