WD Caviar Black: 640 GB versus 1 TB

I see the 1 TB has double the cache, and a dual processor. Does this translate to noticeable improvement in performance? The most demanding use I'll put it to is video editing in FInal Cut.
I see a lot of people recommending the 640, so I was wondering if there's an advantage to that besides the price.
Thanks

Hi-
With either drive, performance improvement over older drives is definitely to be had.
The WD 1TB drive is about the best current 1TB drive, but the 640GB Caviar is still a better boot drive.
http://www.barefeats.com/harper14.html
The 6400 AAKS runs a bit cooler and is quieter than the 1TB, and is an all around performer.
WD6400AAKS
For a 1TB capacity drive, as long as not set in a RAID, the Black drive is hard to beat.
WD Caviar Black
Notibly absent from the performance test database is the 6400AAKS, but, you can see how the 1TB Black stacks up against other drives at Storage Review Drive Performance Resource Center.
Select a test in the top window, and click "Sort" to see how the drive compares to others "head to head".
BTW, I run three of the 6400AAKS drives. Love 'em!

Similar Messages

WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS - hard drive - 640 GB - SATA-300

I currently use an external hard drive to store my music ec on and have noticed that it is getting more and more sluggish and that the internal hard drive seems considerably faster.
For this reason I'm looking at installing an additional internal hard drive.
I'm looking at Western Digital's Caviar Black 640GB. Will this work on my mac and what do I need to get it installed?
Many thanks

Should work fine. I just did the same thing with the Western Digital Caviar SE16 640--
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%20Digital/WD6400AAKS/
The Hatter has recommended this drive, and works great for me, but I imagine the Black would work the same. Mine was easy to install. The user guide for your computer has detailed directions, but if it's like my late 2005 2 Ghz G5, leaves out exact details about plugging in the power and data cables: the little "trick" is that the connections for the upper and lower hard drive come off the same cable. Pulling the cable further out reveals a second set of connections coming off it. These will plug in your upper drive, and the connectors at the end, which were previously in your upper drive, will now plug in the lower drive.
Take the instructions for discharging static electricity very seriously!
OWC has great tech support and video instructions online. You can also search "Caviar Black" on this forum and maybe see distinctions between that and the SE16. Good luck!

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drive - anyone using these in internal bay

Just a side thread to a current discussion I've started (http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1125&start=0) to try to see if anyone can report positive results using a Western Digital Caviar Black in their Mac Pro, especially if they're doing so as the Startup Disk.
I have horrible performance with a new one and want to see if others have had good or bad experience.

Out of curiosity did you prepare the drive properly? Most new bare drives have not been partitioned for use on the Mac and also are formatted FAT32. Consider doing the following;
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
I have seen elsewhere some mention that WD drives have some configuration jumpers. You might check the information about the drive's configuration at the WD support site to be sure that the drive is correctly configured (if there is a need to do so, that is.)

WD Caviar Black 64 MB cache

I am installing a new 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black (WD1002FAEXSP) internal drive in my Power Mac G5 dual 1.8 GHz with 10.4.11. I installed this new drive in place of a fully functioning WD1001FALS
drive, which is identical to the new WD1002FAEXSP drive except 64 MB
rather than 32 MB cache. The new WD1002FAEXSP drive is not recognized
in either drive bay, using either set of data/power cables, whereas
the WD1001FALS drive works fine in either. I suspect damage in
shipment, as two WD1002FAEXSP drives arrived with no packaging other
than the small manufacturers box, and the second one was not even
taped shut. Is there a compatibility issue with this drive that I don't know about? Anyone else have this problem? Thanks.

Check WDC for jumper settings and knowledge base (any drive model has quick link to relevent articles).
I strongly recommend Amazon and OWC for their safe shipping. When I bought direct from WDC 4 yrs ago I was stunned by their 'lack of attention to packing needs' but maybe they don't like small orders (but was only place I found carrying a specific model I needed sets of).
Will say that the G5 1.6/1.8 are usually the hardest to deal with in drive compatibility.

1TB WD Caviar Black $60 at Best Buy

I don't usually do the Black Friday, get up and brave the crowds thing, but the 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive is on for $59.99, a good $30 reduction from the usual (give or take)...

just bought 3, but they made it a pain to do. You have to order one at a time

K8n Neo4 Platin PCB1 with WD Caviar black 500gI b lots of crashes

I was happily using my computer for about 4 years. Than I decided WD Caviar black would be a good one to upgrade my old drive I bought it. now I'm having all lock downs.
When I connect it as non boot drive it works ok for about an hour or such, than when I try to do something with that drive i.e. open a file in explorer my computer locks down (Explorer gets hung). I tried it as a boot drive with fresh Xp and Vista,... even more problems occurred. (I don't know if its me or not but I felt like after I installed Nvidia drivers comp got crazy didn't even boot with drive read errors faulty files n such). I tried it with SATA mode 1 jumper I tried it as a single drive. I tried disabling command queue. Nothing helped. But when I tried it with my friends comp no problems at all.
Kay, Full specks u say.....
MSI K8N NEO 4 PCB1 BIOS 1.D
AMD Atlon 64 Venice 3200+ S939 @2000 MHz
DIMM DDRAM 512MB PC400 Kingston CL2.5 X 2
DIMM DDRAM 512MB PC??? Twinmos X 2
NEC DVD RW 4550A
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 150GB
WD Caviar black 500GB
Palit Geforce 9600GT Sonic
FSP Blue Storm II 500w
Good enough? I was half sleeping that night so sorry for the grammar

About jumpers yes I trided it with SATA mode 1 both with jumper and drivers both didn't help.
Quote from: Fredrik on 29-May-09, 00:08:54
Falling out devices are a sign of a poor PSU.
BlueStorm was an average PSU to begin with. Four years later...
What solves the problem has to do with the PSU.
Okey, I don't want you to rush out or to the online stores to buy a new PSU. I would much rather you somehow tested the one you got, to determine whether that is the problem. One way of testing is if you have an older and weaker graphics card. Both graphics card and modern hard disks put strain on the 12V line, so testing that way could make your hard disk be found every time.
I see but the problem is my PSU in not 4 years old. I upgraded my PSU with my graphics card which is one year old at most. I have an older Vcard. IF it goes to that I'll try that. But what about problem going on with only one drive ?
ALso I changed my drivers to the ones from and MSI the situation seams to be improved but not solved.

Performance difference 1T caviar Black 64cache vs 1T Samsung F3 ?

Hello to all.
Been lurking here trying to figure out a new build.
Never built a PC before. Can't be that hard with helpful forums like this one.
I'm looking to build a i72600k based system with 2xraid0 and an additional HD for OS.
If there a big difference between the caviar and the F3 in real world performance when being used onboard raid0?
The price savings when buying 4 drives can add up. Tring to build a BFTB system.
My intended purpose in building a new system is editing video from my new Panasonic HDC-TM700.
As well as editing video, I'll be purchasing CS5 Master and use Photoshop quite a bit as well as the other software that comes with the master collection.
Thanks for your help.
James

Jim
I've been reading up on this since late last fall. The problem is the more I read, the more I realize I have to learn. I can build just about anything and enjoy the challenge. Not looking to place in the top few on the PPBM, Just looking to get a fast system that will require a minimum amount of power as well. One of the reasons I'm looking at the more expensive/efficient PSU. I Not sure I want to go with the SSD raid0 for OS. Thought most people said to run away from raid0 for the OS.
To answer your A&B I posted the list below.
Trying to use this as a UPS backup.
http://www.ultraproducts.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1815470&pagen umber=2&RSort=1&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=5&body=#ReviewStart
And this for NAS backup:
Update22-108-065
Synology DS211J Diskless System DiskStation 2-bay NAS Server for Small Office and Home Use
Model #:DS211J
Item #:N82E16822108065
Return Policy:Standard Return Policy
In Stock
Note (Add22-108-065)
Save Cancel
$209.99
$209.99
Update22-152-245
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Model #:HD204UI
Item #:N82E16822152245
Return Policy:Standard Return Policy
In Stock
Note (Add22-152-245)
Save Cancel
$89.99
-$10.00 Instant
$159.98
Subtotal:
$369.97
Here's what's on the wishlist as of now.
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ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
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Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K
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1
CORSAIR Professional Series AX750 750W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817139016
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$10.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card
$179.99
$169.99
2
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 996776
Item #: N82E16820226099
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
$199.98
1
Rosewill RCR-IC002 74-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port / Extra silver face plate
Item #: N82E16820223109
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$16.99
4
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822152185
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$5.00 Instant
$279.96
$259.96
1
LITE-ON SK-1788/BS 2-Tone PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard
Item #: N82E16823107120
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$7.99
1
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822152244
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$42.99
1
Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical
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$15.99
1
GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814125333
Return Policy: VGA Standard Return Policy
-$15.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card
$204.99
$189.99
1
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
Item #: N82E16835103065
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$34.99
1
LG Black 10X Blu-ray Burner - Bulk SATA WH10LS30 LightScribe Support
Item #: N82E16827136181
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$89.99
1
ViewSonic VP2365wb Black 23" IPS LCD Monitor w/4-port USB hub, height&pivot adjustment
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Return Policy: Monitor Standard Return Policy
-$40.00 Instant
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ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
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Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders
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$139.99
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COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
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Identifying black and white versus greyscale in PDF

Is there a way to identify from within a scanned PDF document (ie, something like a document property) that it was scanned as greyscale, black and white, or color? My company is using Acrobat 7.0. We have a requirement, for a variety of reasons, that PDFs for certain projects be provided as black and white scans only, but all too frequently we get them in greyscale or color. We need to be able to easily identify that a PDF is not black and white.
Thanks in advance!

Try the Preflight Tool.

WD Caviar Black 2TB Disk with 5years Warranty expired

anyone see this problem with your WD Caviar Blak 2TB Disk.i bought this because of the 5yr warranty provided by the disk. when tried to claim warranty, warranty checks show that it alreay expired. did i missed something here? appreciate you share your experience and how to go about get the RMA replacement

Hi there, welcome to the community.
In some cases, the warranty if off because is set by default by the manufacturing date, I would contact support. and see if they can update the warranty to the purchase date.

1TB WD Caviar Black SATA internal drive won't mount on desktop or Disk Util

I just installed this brand new drive in bay B of my G5 tower...it doesn't appear on the desktop, and not in Disk Utility. Can a 1 TB SATA3 drive be functional in a G5? The owner's manual only mentions a maximum 250GB (or 500GB drive, don't recall) ; maybe that was the biggest available in 2004/05?

Thanks, all. I found a link to WDC drive jumper settings (http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?p_faqid=1337&p_created=1112379341&p_sid=eST7ItDi&p_accessibility=0&p_red irect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NDg3J nBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX 2ZubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWp1bXBlciBzZXR0aW5ncyBzYXRh&p_li=&ptopview=1), and jumpered pins 5 and 6 to limit transfer speeds to 150 MB/s. On restart, the OS prompted me to initialize, which I did, and voila, the drive is mounted.
Question: it appears the jumper setting is to convert a SATA2 dirve to SATA1. Is there any reason to try (or jumper setting that would enable) converting my SATA 3 drive to a SATA2 configuration?

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum and installing XP on WD 1TB Caviar Black SATA-II HDD...

I haven't flashed my BIOS ever. So some will be glad to hear that since I never needed to--but I think I might have to now.
My comp crashed (just made a very long story short ), so I bought a new HDD and it's the one described in the title. It's "SATA-II" as the misnomer goes but when I installed windows on it things seemed to go just fine (at least it didn't give me any errors)--indicating the mobo didn't have any trouble allowing to install (if it has anything to do with the install in the first place). And that was without a jumper to make it go to 150 mb/s (the HDD was OEM and didn't come with one :()
When I went to booted up again after installing, I received the renowned "Error loading operating system" message.
So! I figure I need to update the BIOS so it can better interface with the new HDD. Is that a correct assumption or could my error be due to something else (like the jumper)?
Thanks for any help!
EDIT: Forgot to mention that I already had/have a SATA-II drive (300 mb/s one) installed and working just fine, recognized by windows, before the crash...but it wasn't the boot drive...so maybe that makes a difference?
EDIT 2: I tried to use the BIOS util provided on these forums but I can't use it since I have no working install on the windows drive for my PC. I'll look on the other forum page for a way to make a USB BIOS flasher on an independent computer, but if you have the link for me, that'd be even better. If I find it soon, I'll edit this out. Thanks.
EDIT 3: Eh, so it looks like it just needed a good restart...everythings fine--no flashing needed. Woohoo!

Thank you for all the replies. Upgrading to the latest Nvidia IDE-drivers did not fix my problem. Moving to other SATA-ports did not help either. Upgrading the mobo's BIOS is not really an option (I'm using one version before the most recent and there isn't anything in the fixlist of the latest BIOS).
Now I've contacted Maxtor for (hopefully) a new firmware.
Quote from: rogueUK on 31-July-06, 16:55:42
insego please use the SEARCH BUTTON
I did use the search function to find other people with similar problems. The reason I started a topic of my own was because of the text you get while joining:
Quote
Do not hijack another persons topic. If you have a similar problem, start your own thread anyway.
Maybe in retrospect I should first have tried the solutions in other topics.

Can someone read this?

Not sure if this is the corrrect forum. I keep getting this BSOD from a cold boot. After reboot, the computer is fine. Is there something here that points to the problem?
Thanks,
cusafr
MSI 790FX-GD70
AMD Phenom II X4 955BE
Cooler Master V8-120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
Nvidia EVGA 9800 GT-512 Video Card
OCZ AMD Black Edition Memory-8GB (4x2) DDR3-1600 (Running at 1333)
Corsair 750TX Power Supply
WD 640 Caviar Black 640 GB-SATA HDD
DVD-Lite-On (ATAPI iHAS 24) SATA-24x Burner
DVD-Plextor PX-712A SATA 16x Burner
Cooler Master HAF 922 Case
Dell 2408WFP 24" Monitor
Dell 1720dn Printer
Windows 7-64 Bit
PS-2 Gateway Keyboard
Logitech MX-Laser Mouse
Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting
Date: 12/19/2009 2:51:23 PM
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: James-PC
Description:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000050 (0xffffffffffffffd0, 0x0000000000000001, 0xfffff80002a7a00c, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 121909-27471-01.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting" Guid="{ABCE23E7-DE45-4366-8631-84FA6C525952}" EventSourceName="BugCheck" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-12-19T20:51:23.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>35517</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>James-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="param1">0x00000050 (0xffffffffffffffd0, 0x0000000000000001, 0xfffff80002a7a00c, 0x0000000000000000)</Data>
<Data Name="param2">C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP</Data>
<Data Name="param3">121909-27471-01</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

http://www.osronline.com/ddkx/ddtools/bccodes_4qsn.htm
Quote
Bug check 0x50 usually occurs after the installation of faulty hardware or in the event of failure of installed hardware (usually related to defective RAM, be it main memory, L2 RAM cache, or video RAM).
Another common cause is the installation of a faulty system service.
Antivirus software can also trigger this error, as can a corrupted NTFS volume.
http://www.osronline.com/ddkx/ddtools/bccodes_0ug7.htm
Quote
Bug check 0x7F usually occurs after the installation of faulty or mismatched hardware (especially memory) or in the event that installed hardware fails.
A double fault can occur when the kernel stack overflows. This can happen if multiple drivers are attached to the same stack. For example, two file system filter drivers can be attached to the same stack and then the file system can recurse back in, overflowing the stack.
The first parameter, in your case, is 0x8, indicating a 'double-fault'
What I would suggest:
1) Update your video card drivers, if you haven't already.
2) Test your memory sticks together, and individually, with >>Memtest86<<
3) Try another video card, see if the same thing happens.
Additionally, as this appears to be a hardware issue, rather than a Windows 7 issue, I'll move to AMD64 area.

Correct Internal HD for Mac Pro 2009

Is this one of the proper ones for 2009 Mac Pro?
WD Caviar Black 640 Model WD6401AALS.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319
I just noticed it said SATA and not SATA II. Apple manual says SATA but some sites say SATA II...
Did i order the wrong one?

In addition to power cycles and inadequate cooling, the main source of added wear and tear to a hard disk drive is head movement, or "seeks". Other than defragmenting or optimizing, the main activity that causes a lot of extra head movement is partial secure erasure, such as with Finder's Secure Empty Trash or Disk Utility's Erase Free Space options. Simple erasure of an entire volume (or repartitioning of a disk without moving files beforehand) doesn't involve a lot of extra head movement, as you can tell from the fact that it doesn't take much time or produce much "thrashing" noise from the drive. Secure erasure of an entire volume takes a long time but doesn't result in as much movement of the heads back and forth as partial secure erasure does.

Hard drives. catch and performence.

So i recently got me 2 wd 640 black with 32 mag catch.
I whas thinking of adding 1 of my old wd 640 blue as a temp/crap hdd
Will having 2 hdd with 32 meg catch and 1 with 16 meg catch decrese the performence in any way?
And will 3 hdd decrese the performence vs having 2 hdd?
Btw i must recomend the caviar black 640 gig with 32 meg catch.... wow what a harddrive =)

Will having 2 hdd with 32 meg cache and 1 with 16 meg cache decrease the performence in any way?
No
And will 3 hdd decrease the performance vs having 2 hdd?
No

Sonnet G5 Jive...

I'm thinking of installing a sonnet G5 jive
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/g5_jive.html
in my G5 tower. I'll probably use sonnet's Tempo SATA card to connect the drives. Has anyone used this set up? Anyone have any opinions on it?

Yes, and I actually have recommended them
And have not heard or seen anyone pull or find it was trouble.
People have used it to run 2-3 WD 10K VelociRaptors in Quad G5; 3 x WD Caviar Black 640s, etc.
A cheap or poorly built molex Y-splitter for power could be the most vulnerable element.

WD Caviar Black: 640 GB versus 1 TB

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