WD5000AAKS reviews?

Has anyone been able to find any reviews for this drive?

I've only found this one: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212652;pid;3469;pt;1

It is rather brief and has no comparisons or benchmarks. Certainly this new and improved WD5000KS with less platters but higher platter density should garner some attention, right?

hey i was actually looking at BOTH of these hard drives as well
the WD5000KS and the WD5000AAKS

i couldnt notice any difference except model numbers, could you provide some insight?

thanks

WD5000KS has 4x125 GB platters.
WD5000AAKS has 3x166 GB platters.

Less platters in general translates to --> less noise, less heat.
Higher platter density in general translates to --> faster performance.

...but I would still like to see formal reviews.

thanks, there seems to be only a 5 dollar difference at ZZF btwn these

Cyrilix said:

WD5000KS has 4x125 GB platters.
WD5000AAKS has 3x166 GB platters.

Less platters in general translates to --> less noise, less heat.
Higher platter density in general translates to --> faster performance.

...but I would still like to see formal reviews.

Click to expand...

I just bought an AAKS the other week. Is there a particular benchmark that you are looking for? If it is easy to run, I would gladly oblige you. I have both Linux and windows hosts.

I've owned both WD5000KS and WD5000AAKS.
I lost record of the benchmarks I did, but the AAKS won (though not by much).

They both get really hot (so much for less platters) and have similar noise levels (no measurements - just my ears).

The server in my sig is currently running 6 AAKS.
Get the AAKS.

Yeah, I have 8 WD500AAKS in my server. I don't have any WD5000KS to compare it too, but i do have 2 of the WD25000KS. I actually can't tell a difference in heat, as I have them in front of hardrive coolers, but so far they've both been reliable and fairly quiet, at lease compared to my Seagate 160gb IDE, I think it's from the 7200.9 series.

Spring for the Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA2 drive instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152052

Recently scored #1 overall in PCWorld's hard drive tests (excluding Raptors). Also known to be exceptionally quiet - with AAM enabled, these drives are near silent.

drizzt81 said:

I just bought an AAKS the other week. Is there a particular benchmark that you are looking for? If it is easy to run, I would gladly oblige you. I have both Linux and windows hosts.

Click to expand...

There isn't a particular set I care about.. I'm just curious to see how well they perform in the grand scheme of things, the entire suite of tests that formal reviews tend to run on multiple drives.

That said, I was originally planning to buy the RE2, but given that this was so much cheaper (and was on sale at ncix -- I live in Canada), I bought a few.

I just picked up a pair of these drives for $95 CAD each. Awesome deal, if you ask me!

Hi there,

Can I ask you where you picked up the WD 500GB drive for $95?

Thanks.

I know it isn't what you're looking for, but here's a review of the 7500AAKS. I would imagine they use similar firmware, at least.

Sorry to dig up a very old post, but ...for those who happen to Google this in the future...

HD Tune: WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B Benchmark



Transfer Rate Minimum : 59.2 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 116.1 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 92.9 MB/sec
Access Time : 12.4 ms
Burst Rate : 93.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 4.1%

HD Tune: WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B Information

Firmware version : 01.03B01
Serial number : WD-WCASZ0037***
Capacity : 465.8 GB (~500.1 GB)
Buffer size : 16384 KB
Standard : ATA/ATAPI-8 - SATA II
Supported mode : UDMA Mode 6 (Ultra ATA/133)
Current mode : UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)

S.M.A.R.T : yes
48-bit Address : yes
Read Look-Ahead : yes
Write Cache : yes
Host Protected Area : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Management: yes
Power Management : yes
Advanced Power Management : no
Power-up in Standby : yes
Security Mode : yes
Firmware Upgradable : yes

WarMace said:

Sorry to dig up a very old post, but ...for those who happen to Google this in the future...

HD Tune: WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B Benchmark

http://warmace.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/wd5000aaks-benchmark.jpg

Transfer Rate Minimum : 59.2 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 116.1 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 92.9 MB/sec
Access Time : 12.4 ms
Burst Rate : 93.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 4.1%

HD Tune: WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B Information

Firmware version : 01.03B01
Serial number : WD-WCASZ0037***
Capacity : 465.8 GB (~500.1 GB)
Buffer size : 16384 KB
Standard : ATA/ATAPI-8 - SATA II
Supported mode : UDMA Mode 6 (Ultra ATA/133)
Current mode : UDMA Mode 5 (Ultra ATA/100)

S.M.A.R.T : yes
48-bit Address : yes
Read Look-Ahead : yes
Write Cache : yes
Host Protected Area : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Management: yes
Power Management : yes
Advanced Power Management : no
Power-up in Standby : yes
Security Mode : yes
Firmware Upgradable : yes

Click to expand...

Wow that WD5000AAKS is fast compared to mine.

But that is an older test, id run it again but the system the drive is in isn't working atm.

Here's mine, picked it up from Staples a while back for $50