IO Meter

We compared the new 1 TB Western Digital VelociRaptor to the 600 GB VelociRaptor and the 300 GB VelociRaptor so you can see the difference between this new VelociRaptor, and its predecessors.

If you wish to see how the 1 TB VelociRaptor compares to other hard disk drives, take a look at our Hard Disk Drive Performance Comparison Guide.

Throughput (Random Access)

Shockingly, the new 1 TB VelociRaptor did badly in random accesses, compared to its predecessor. It was significantly slower at random writes, and a little less so at large random reads. The good news is its small random reads are slightly faster than the two older VelociRaptors.

This is because of the "Advanced Format Technology effect". The 512-byte emulation mode used saps performance, greatly increasing the latency to perform random accesses, particularly writes. The only reason why the new VelociRaptor managed to eke out a small improvement in small random read speed is because of the higher throughput afforded by the Advanced Technology Format.

Random Access Time

Although Western Digital never listed the new VelociRaptor's random access time in its specifications, our test revealed why. The new VelociRaptor's random access times were much poorer than its predecessor. Again, a victim of the "Advanced Format Technology effect".

In Western Digital's defence, this cannot be helped as long as they have to use the 512-byte emulation mode. Until that ends, all AFT drives will suffer from the same effect.

CPU Utilization (Random Access)

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