What is the best : single platter OR 2 platters ?

[John2020]

Hello guys
I want to buy WD 500 GB Blue ..
What is the best : WD5000AAKS single platter OR 2 platters ?
Does the number of platters affect drive life or not?
Does the number of platters affect drive speed or not?

 

[John2020]

any idea .......

 

[Guest]

In theory, multiple platters should speed access as the head may not mave to travel so far for different bits of data. But as usual with engineering it's not the technology that counts as much as how well it's executed.

More platters, more power, more heat.

 

[John2020]

does this mean WD5000AAKS single platter is low speed and short life??

 

[John2020]

any reply ??

 

[Guest]

No. The single platter might not get so hot. But theoretically it might not be so quick as an equivalent drive with multiple platters.

 

[cjl]

Fewer platters at a given capacity is better, all else being equal. Fewer platters means that the drive is faster, cooler, and quieter.

The reason fewer platters is faster is because a drive can only read from one head at a time, and the higher the data density on each platter, the more data each head passes over each second. Between two otherwise identical drives, always chose the one with higher density platters.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Fewer platters are better in every capacity, a single higher density platter is far faster then two lower density platters. The hard drive head reads more data in a smaller movement resulting in lower latency, higher reads, and higher writes. Plus few platters means less power to turn them, quieter, and less heat generated. Moreover if you have two platters thats 1 extra platter that can fail.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

In your example, data will past the read head twice as fast with one platter as with two. So you wanna go full speed or half speed ????

500 Gb platters is where it's at:

WD Black (2 TB model only has 500 GB platters)
Spinpoint F3
Seagate 7200.12

 

[cjl]

In your example, data will past the read head twice as fast with one platter as with two. So you wanna go full speed or half speed ????

Well, that isn't quite true. Platter density increases through two methods. First, the linear density along a track can be increased. Second, the number of tracks can be increased. Only the first method increases read speeds - adding more tracks with the same amount of data per track does not improve read speed at all. Because of this, the speed should go up roughly as the square root of the platter size, assuming track density and data density along a track are increased at the same rate (a decent assumption). Because of this, a 500GB platter should be around 1.414 times faster than a 250GB platter (sqrt(2) times faster).

 

[Guest]

Well, I'm sorry I misled about speed.

 

[cjl]

No worries

I learn things here every day

 

[sminlal]

If you have a choice of two drives with the same capacity, go for the one with the fewest platters for the reasons elucidated above.

But it's common for manufacturers to sell a series of drives with the same platter density with one, two or three platters per drive. For example, a drive series with platters that hold 500GB might be available in 500GB, 1TB, and 1.5TB sizes. If you're looking for the best performance, you should buy the drive with the highest capacity (the 1.5TB drive with 3 platters).

The reason for this is that 500GB is spread across all of the tracks of the 1-platter drive, but the same 500GB can be fit into perhaps only 1/4 of the outermost tracks of the 3-platter drive. This means that you'll do a lot less seeking to access 500GB of data on the larger drive.

 

[John2020]

WD 500G single platter have poor access time than dual platters ..
WD5000AAKS-00M9A0 single platter : 15.2 ms

WD5000AAKS-22A7B2 dual platters : 12.5 ms

15.2ms problem ?

 

[John2020]

15.2ms problem ?

 

[cjl]

It shouldn't be. It'll make a small difference, but I doubt you would actually ever notice or care in normal use.

 

[John2020]

My friend have "WD 500G Blue Single Platter WD5000AAKS-00V1A" .. Access time up to 19.1ms !!!!!!!!!!

WD5000AAKS-00V1A already have Access time 19.1ms ..
Is it problem access time 19.1ms ??? Please reply ..

 

[cjl]

19?

Wow - that's kind of bad. Is it set to quiet mode? Often, there is a setting in the BIOS to change drive modes, and I would always tend to put them into the highest performance mode if possible.

 

[John2020]

No, The setting in the highest performance mode ..
Access time 19.1 in all WD5000AAKS single platter !!!
What do you think ?? is it all WD5000AAKS single platter have bad speed ??
What the best speed WD5000AAKS single platter OR WD3200AAJS single platter ??
Thank you

 

[cjl]

Clearly, they aren't all that bad since you posted a result above with 15ms on the same drive type. Honestly, something's wrong if a 7200rpm drive is taking 19ms. That's slower than most notebook drives. They also shouldn't vary that much (4ms).

 

[blackhawk1928]

John2020, just because a couple drives can make an exception doesn't disprove this. Moreover, what we are talking about is theoretical. The speeds also depend on many other things, manufacturer, material...etc