Re: [SOLVED] Is squeeze compatible with WD20EARS and other 2TB drives?
Dotan Cohen put forth on 1/9/2011 5:58 AM:
> Thanks, Klistvud. I just purchased a WD10EARS (1 TB drive) and I
> noticed that my writes are _slow_. I think that it may be a KDE issue,
> there even is an open KDE bug that copy/paste is vry slow. But even
> copying via cp I feel that it's not moving, I need to benchmark the
> drive. Your post gives me some other things to check and configure.
> Thank you!
Given the inherent performance problems Linux currently has with the
512/4096 byte sector hybrid drives, called "Advanced Format" by Western
Digital, my recommendation to Linux users is to stay away from these
drives at all costs, regardless of how attractive the price/GB ratio is.
Specifically regarding the WDxxEARS drives, WD has a drive of the same
capacity but with native 512 byte sectors in either or both of the Blue
and Black product lines. The only advantage of the Green (EARS) line is
a 3TB drive model not present in the Blue/Black lines.
Additionally, the Blue and Black drives have full 7.2k spindles and will
thus yield far superior performance to the Green (EARS) drives for the
same size drive.
If one is so power consumption conscious to be suckered into a Green
(EARS) drive, then one needs to realize the CPU dissipates about 10
times the wattage/heat of a hard drive. Thus, concentrate your power
saving efforts elsewhere than the disk drive. Buy a non "green" drive,
and save yourself these sector alignment/performance headaches.
Dotan, in your case, you should have purchased a WD10EALS instead of the
WD10EARS:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701277.pdf
This Blue series 1TB drive has vastly superior performance and little
additional power consumption compared to its WD10EARS cousin.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136534&cm_re=wd10eals-_-22-136-534-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136490&cm_re=WD10EARS-_-22-136-490-_-Product
The Blue drive costs $5 USD more at Newegg. In all respects it is a
vastly superior drive for Linux users over the WD10EARS Green drive--no
sector alignment headaches, 50%+ better streaming and random IOPS
performance.
--
Stan
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