Disk Transfer Rate

This chart shows you the range of platter-to-buffer transfer rates from the innermost track to the outermost track. In other words, it shows you the range of disk transfer rates of the hard drives (from minimum and maximum).

Thanks to the use of higher-density platters, the 1 TB Western Digital Scorpio Blue hard disk drive actually beat the 500 GB Western Digital Scorpio Black (a 7200 RPM hard disk drive) in the overall transfer rate range. Its minimum platter-to-buffer transfer rate (at the innermost tracks) was 56.8 MB/s, 4.4% slower than the Scorpio Black hard disk drive, but at the outermost tracks, it managed an astounding 111 MB/s, making it 4.7% faster than the Scorpio Black.

Platter Data Transfer Profile

We compared the WD10JPVT's platter profile to that of the 640 GB Scorpio Blue (WD6400BEVT). We chose to use the WD6400BEVT in this comparison because this was the most recent two-platter 5400 RPM hard disk drive from WD. The only difference between the WD10JPVT and the WD6400BEVT are their platters - the WD6400BEVT uses lower-density 320 GB platters.

The maximum platter transfer rate appeared to be about 118 MB/s which progressively dropped across the platter to about 57 MB/s at the last track. This drive has about 20 density zones. The platter quality seems to be very good in this sample, with only two visible dips which suggest the use of replacement sectors.

Thanks to the higher-density 500 GB platters, the WD10JPVT boasts a marked transfer rate advantage over the WD6400BEVT. The performance difference actually increased as we moved from the outer tracks to the inner tracks.

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