Western Digital WD2000JB

Western Digital WD2000JB
Rotation speed	7200RPM
Buffer size	8MB
Interface	IDE ATA-100
Average seek time	8,9 ms
Average write time	10,9 ms
Accessories	1st Promise Ultra TX2 PCI ATA-100 controller, 1st 80-pin flat cable, Manual, device drivers, ”Data Lifeguard Tools” software
Estimated price:	~3000 kr (1$ ~ 10 kr)

Lets go directly to what we’ve experienced as the
biggest flaw with the product, the price. For about 3300 kr nowadays you can
get two 120GB 8MB harddrives from Western Digital and run them in a RAID 0-configuration
which gives considerably better performance and apart from that adds 40GB
in addition to the 200GB model. Therefore we think that a more humane price
would have been placed around 2500 kr. If you have no prospect or mood to
run a RAID-configuration and at the same time is in need of a very large drive
there is not much to chose except WD2000JB. On the other hand there is nothing
wrong with the accessibility. Just about every big retailer of PC-components
have got the drive included in their assortment.

When it comes to the hardware in the package we
find except for the drive itself an extra PCI-harddrive controller of the
well known trademark Promise. The thought behind the included controller card
is that consumers whose motherboard does not support for drives of this size,
are also to be able to make use of the full capacity of the drive. The reasoning
is sound and we welcome the extra hardware but the big question we asked was:
Why was not a controller card with a BIOS capable of supporting drivers larger
than 137GB chosen? It was indeed easily taken care of by downloading the latest
BIOS from Western Digital’s homepage and then updating the controller with
the latest BIOS-version. However this requires an extra stage of operation
for the consumer when installing the drive and everyone might not like the
idea of flashing a BIOS in DOS-environment. Apart from the controller there
is also an 80-pins flat cable enclosed to run the harddrive in ATA-100 mode.
Considering the high price we would have liked Western Digital to include
a rounded IDE-cable, especially while rounded cables are not to be considered
as something exotic nowadays.

The package

Apart from device drivers a diskette containing
a diagnosis tool called "Data Lifeguard Tools" is also included.
With the help of this diagnosis tool the user is supposed to be able to diagnose
eventual corruptions on the harddrive so that safety copies can be made in
good time before any serious hardware flaw occurs and destroys the data on
the drive. The included manual is very comprehensive and detailed and explains
everything you could possibly need to know using both pedagogic text and illustrations.

This clearly is an impressive package of accessories considering that most
drives only come in a anti static bag when they are sold in bulk exportation.

Accessories
We look at the amount and usability of enclosed accessories and software.

Now lets take
a look at the testing system.

We have tested the harddrive in three different
configurations. First with the drive connected to the IDE-channel of the motherboard,
then with the harddrive connected to the enclosed controller card and finally
we have tried the drive on the SATA-controller of the motherboard which is
managed by the HighPoint HPT374-controller. As reference drive we have a Seagate
Barracuda IV with a capacity of 80GB and also a RAID 0-array consisting of
two Seagate Barracuda IV with 80GB each.

The drives are tested using the programs HDTach and SiSoft Sandra 2003.

Our first testing program is HDTach. The program
tests the read and write speed of the drive sequentially over the entire drive.
That means that the program begin measuring by the outermost track of the drive
and then works its way track by track to the center. The closer the center of
the platter the head gets, the slower the drive will read and write.
Many tests create a temporary file on the harddrive, which is then used to test
the speeds of the harddrive but the drawback with this method is that the reading
and writing speeds vary depending on where on the harddrive the file is created.
This problem is avoided with HdTach which tests the outermost track to the innermost
as we mentioned and then reports the result on average. A negative side with
HdTach as testing method is that real-life data never actually is sequentially
stored and therefore applications won’t read and write sequentially. In spite
of this, the program is suitable to give us a general picture of the performance
of the drive.

The first result we show is the seek time and random
access time. In advertisement the low seek times of the drives are often praised
to the skies, but this measurement is quite misleading. The seek time is the
time it takes for the head to move to a position on the drive while the random
access time is the time it really takes to read on a certain spot on the drive.
Furthermore the seek times given by the manufacturers are often a bit beautified.
The random access time consists of seek time plus rotation latency. The average
rotation latency for a 7200 RPM harddrive is 4.15 ms. If we want to calculate
the seek time we subtract the rotation latency from the random access time.
In the chart below we have compiled these values and compared them with the
seek times claimed by the manufacturers. Observe that lower seek times are better.

MK= the harddrive connected to the IDE-channel
of the motherboard

PCI= the harddrive connected to the enclosed controller

SATA= the harddrive connected to a ATA->SATA
converter on a Highpoint 374-controller

As we see the Seagate drive differs with about
1 ms in the tests while the WD drive sticks much closer to the claimed value.
Both drives perform a bit better connected to the PCI-card.

The next test shows the "burst speed"
of the harddrive which is the speed with which the harddrive can reach data
using the built-in "read-ahead memory" (cache) of the drive. The
RAID configuration is clearly superior in this test. Other than that, the
WD-drive performs quite equally in it’s different configurations. The Barracuda
is a bit quicker in this test and it’s lowest value matches the fastest
value of the WD-drive.

When we test the read speeds of the drives the
scenario gets turned around. The Western Digital-drive outclasses everything
the Seagate products have to offer and not even the RAID configuration
can keep up anymore. We can do nothing but congratulate the technicians
at Western Digital. To beat Seagate’s Barracuda IV with more than 10000kB/s
and even outclass the RAID-configuration is impressive to say the least.
On the other hand the reference drive is of an older model than the WD2000JB.
Things had most likely looked a bit differently if we had had the possibility
to compare WD2000JB with the next drive in the line of Barracudas: Barracuda
V.

Even in writing tests Western Digital is far ahead
of the competitors.

Next test is the well known SiSoft Sandra 2003.

---

SiSoft Sandra 2003 tests the read and write speed
of the harddrive as well as the seek time. These results are added to one another,
creating a value called "Drive Index".

Even here the WD2000JB performs outstandingly.
In one configuration with only one drive the Barracuda is once again not able
to keep up. As expected the RAID-configuration on the other hand gives the
WD2000JB quite a beating. How the whole thing would have looked if we had
the possibility to try WD2000JB in a RAID-configuration we can only speculate
about, but we have a hunch, the name of the victor would most likely have
been spelled Western Digital. Once again a brilliant result by the Western
Digital drive.

Performance
The performance is compared to products in the same and adjacent price category.

In the next section we look at how the drive is
to work with on a common day.

---

So how does the drive perform in everyday usage?
During the time we had the drive in the testlab it’s performance was exemplary.
It worked outstandingly both with the included controller and of course on
the internal IDE-channels of the motherboard. Even with the ATA->Serial
ATA converter the drive worked without a flaw, which is not something to be
taken for granted, since there has been quite a lot of problems with the SATA-function
on the Highpoint 374 controller we used during the tests. If you are working
by the computer during a longer period of time, the sound level becomes an
important variable for a nice working environment. If you look at the big
picture, the trend is moving in favour to the more silent components and Western
Digital is hardly a great source of any noise.

WD2000JB keeps itself on a more than acceptable level of sound. Not reads/writes
nor the idle spinning of the discs causes any nerve-racking noise. Certainly
our reference drives from Seagate are a bit more silent, but we yet we stick
to calling this drive one of the more quiet ones. The generation of heat is
somewhat larger than what we’ve experienced with other drives, among which
WD’s own 80GB-version is included. That does not however create any bigger
problem and with a normal air circulation you’ll notice nothing of it.

How the drive acts when it’s working is not the
only aspect we put below "Operation", we also want to know what
happens when it breaks. When it comes to terms of warranty Western Digital
sticks to the common rules in the line of business. The standard drives equipped
with 2MB Cache memory is compromised by a one-year warranty which became the
standard last fall from the earlier 3-year warranty. The special edition drives
with 8MB of cache memory however are still compromised by the 3-year warranty
which makes them even more exclusive. The fact that the line of business determined
to lower the general warranty to one year was experienced as a set-back for
most consumers, especially if you consider the large number of IBM-drives
that have had to be replaced during the last years. Therefore we see the three-year
warranty period as a big plus of this product. That the harddrives all the
suddenly have become so free of flaws that a one-year warranty would be sufficient
we find very hard to believe. However we would like the readers to observe
that there is a possibility to get a three-year warranty of Western Digital
even concerning the standard drives with 2MB of cache. At purchase an opportunity
to pay a small amount of money extra to prolong the period of warranty to
three years is offered. If the harddrive had been more quiet than the competitor
Seagate’s products it would undoubtedly have gotten 10 points, but now the
mark ends at strong 9.5.

Operation
We examine the sound level, generation of heat and period of warranty of the unit and also other aspects which can extinguish the unit during daily operation.

---

We have to admit that it is with at tear of sorrow
that we part from our newly found friend WD2000JB. Our time in the testing lab
has been short but very intense. Western Digital got a lot of attention for
the first versions of "Special Edition" and WD2000JB continues in
the same style just as expected. The only weakness that we can find with the
drive is the price, you have to pay pretty much more per GB than if you buy
a smaller drive of the same type. But if you feel like running 0.4 terabytes
in RAID for example then there is no better option.

The performance really is in first-rate when it comes to IDE-drives and just
as the carton states there is enough horse power here to challenge modern SCSI-drives.
With that type of performance it is also impressive that the sound can keep
itself at the relatively low level which it actually does.

Western Digital WD2000JB is rewarded with the prize of Best Product which it
well deserves as the only real weakness is the high price.

We have nothing to say other than that we are very
impressed by the product from Western Digital and that we eagerly look forward
to receiving their 10000-drive and their SATA-drives. We have already applied
for testing examples of these products and hope that we as soon as possible
will be able to deliver reviews of them.

Western Digital 2000JB:
Pros: + Best performance among IDE-harddrives + Good package of accessories + Excellent in operation Cons: – Rather expensive
Price/accessibility:	8.0
Accessories:	9.5
Performance:	9.5
Operation:	9.5
Final mark:

We would like to thank Western Digital
for having made this review possible.

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