The high-performance capabilities of Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives were validated recently, when Western Digital’s Raptor 10,000-RPM SATA outperformed 10,000- and 15,000-RPM SCSI drives from two competitors in separate independent, head-to-head comparison tests conducted by and published in the June issue of Maximum PC magazine and the upcoming July issue of Custom PC magazine.
“Going into this test, we thought Western Digital’s 10K WD Raptor would hold its own; instead it actually dominated,” said Maximum PC staff. “[WD Raptor] ate a couple of SCSI drives for lunch. Point, set, and match to the Serial ATA camp.”
Maximum PC magazine tested three hard drives for its recent performance comparison between SATA and SCSI: WD Raptor and Maxtor’s 10,000- and 15,000-RPM SCSI drives. The magazine’s journalists used Simplisoft’s HD Tach 2.61 benchmarking software.
Western Digital vs. Seagate
In a separate review, Custom PC magazine compared the WD Raptor 74-GB drive to a 15,000-RPM Seagate SCSI drive, with the Western Digital drive outperforming the competitor in a Paint Shop Pro imaging editing test.
“These comparisons prove that the performance of hard drives is defined by hard-drive platform mechanics, electronics and firmware, and not by the SCSI or SATA interface,” said Richard E. Rutledge, vice president of marketing for Western Digital. “WD Raptor has an enterprise-class mechanical platform comparable to SCSI, is the first and only SATA drive to spin at 10,000 RPM, and Maximum PC’s and Custom PC’s results verify WD Raptor as one of the fastest hard drives available, regardless of interface.”
Hard drives with the SCSI interface have long offered the best performance and have been used in applications requiring the fastest read-and-write speeds, such as servers and storage subsystems. SATA technology is a new, lower-cost, disruptive technology, displacing SCSI in an increasing number of enterprise computing and storage applications.
Serial ATA vs. SCSI
“Serial ATA, especially the WD Raptor, is being selected over SCSI by a majority of our customers,” said Mike Fay, vice president of sales for Colfax International, a custom-engineered computer systems company based in Sunnyvale, California.
“They are asking for Serial ATA, rather than SCSI, because they demand high performance and high reliability at the best possible price point,” said Fay.WD Raptor hard drives have been claimed the fastest SATA hard drives available by numerous media outlets, including Maximum PC in a separate article, StorageReview.com and others. The drives are designed for storage environments such as high-end workstations, servers and storage subsystems, where performance and reliability are critical.
Available in 36- and 74-GB capacities, WD Raptor drives offer average seek times as low as 4.5 milliseconds, 1.2 million hours Mean Time To Failure and a five-year warranty.
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