Western Digital Raptor WD740GD

Note: Since the publication of this review, this drive has been retested under Testbed4, a newer hardware/software/benchmark platform. Please see this article for updated results. This review remains for reference purposes only.

Western Digital Raptor WD740GD Capacities Model Number Capacity WD740GD 74 GB Lowest Real-Time Price: Introduction Over two months ago, Western Digital provided StorageReview with a couple prototype samples of its new Raptor WD740GD, the successor to a drive that stormed its way into the enthusiast community earlier this year. Despite the lack of a key feature, tagged command queuing, the engineering sample hinted at performance not previously heard of outside the latest crop of 15,000 RPM monsters.

For more information on the drive's specs and performance potential, please review SR's Western Digital Raptor WD740GD Preview.

The WD740GD hit general availability in mid-December. Though it took much longer than hoped, the firm has finally supplied SR with production samples. This newest Raptor features a 10,000 RPM spindle speed, two 37 GB platters, a 4.5 millisecond advertised seek time, an 8-megabyte buffer, and a 5-year warranty.

Though the product itself features firmware-level tagged command queuing, at the time of this writing, no appropriate controllers were available from several likely manufacturers. TCQ will likely bring significantly better performance scaling as multi-user loads increase; as of now, however, it remains a future promise. This initial review features the Raptor operating with a Promise SATA150TX4 controller.

In the following tests, the Western Digital Raptor WD740GD will be compared against the following drives for the following reasons:

Western Digital Raptor WD740GD Beta Sample	The sample previously reviewed by SR
Western Digital Raptor WD360GD	The review unit's predecessor
Maxtor Atlas 10k IV	Current-generation 10k RPM SCSI drive
Fujitsu MAP3147	Current-generation 10k RPM SCSI drive
Seagate Cheetah 10K.6	Current-generation 10k RPM SCSI drive
IBM Ultrastar 146Z10	Current-generation 10k RPM SCSI drive
Maxtor Atlas 15k	The reigning champion for single-user performance
Hitachi Deskstar 7K250	The fastest 7200 RPM SATA drive currently available
Western Digital Caviar WD2500JD	Western Digital's current 7200 RPM SATA drive