Two Tests by Independent Third Parties Demonstrate Superior Performance of 10K RPM Serial ATA Drive; SATA Replaces SCSI in Many Applications
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The high performance capabilities of Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives were validated recently, when WD Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA drives from Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC - News) 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 (UK).
“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.
In a separate review, Custom PC magazine (UK) 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 utilized 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.
WD Raptor hard drives have been claimed the fastest SATA hard drives available by numerous media properties, including Maximum PC in a separate article, StorageReview.com and others. The drives are designed for enterprise 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 (ms), 1.2 million hours MTTF (Mean Time To Failure), and a five-year warranty. These attributes are attracting systems builders and storage manufacturers to the capabilities of SATA and WD Raptor.
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About Western Digital
Western Digital, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company's core business produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users' data close-at-hand and secure from loss. Western Digital was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers and selected resellers under the Western Digital brand name. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.
Western Digital and the Western Digital logo are registered trademarks and WD Raptor is a trademark of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.
© Press Release 2004
