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PSA: Multiple WD “5400RPM” drives sold as “5400RPM” are actually 7200RPM

tomcam 6y ago
Is that... is that a bad thing? Article got too deep in the weeds for my meager hardware knowledge, but I thought faster was better.
- salawat 6y ago
  It depends. If you were relying on the specific performance characteristics of a bunch of 5400 RPM drives all with predictable characteristics which you can't rely on because a random sampling of what you ordered isn't conformant? That's bad. If you're a homegamer with maybe 5 to 10 drives in a RAID setup, it may not be catastrophic, but you could end up with half your drives being noticeably louder/hotter running than others. If you're spec'ing out an enterprise level co-location in a datacenter with a strict budget for power supply/space/cooling and you've got a thousand drives or some such coming, randomly distributed between spec conformant vs. not... Then you have issues. What's really squicky though is if they're selling 7200 RPM drives locked to 5400 RPM performance speeds in firmware; at that point you get the MTBF/attrition rate of a 7200 RPM drive, but only get the benefit of an effectively gimped piece of hardware. That's bad as a manufacturer since you aren't even really being either direct or honest about what you're selling, which makes life more difficult for the buyer. Sometimes there is a place for less physically stressed drive. If you're relying on it you expect to get what you ordered. Not something that just happens to be coming off the assembly line lodged with firmware, and a different sticker. In my case, I'm not sure I'd be adversely effected, but I can imagine circumstances where that volatility could leaded to unintended outcomes. I do not like that. But that's life nowadays.
  - tomcam 6y ago
    That really helped. Inconsistent RAID arrays was a super helpful example, thanks.
  - tomcam 6y ago
    Reread this amazing answer a few more times. Humbling. Also just concluded that I literally know only enough about hardware to be dangerous. Thanks once more.

Is that... is that a bad thing? Article got too deep in the weeds for my meager hardware knowledge, but I thought faster was better.

salawat 6y ago
It depends. If you were relying on the specific performance characteristics of a bunch of 5400 RPM drives all with predictable characteristics which you can't rely on because a random sampling of what you ordered isn't conformant? That's bad. If you're a homegamer with maybe 5 to 10 drives in a RAID setup, it may not be catastrophic, but you could end up with half your drives being noticeably louder/hotter running than others. If you're spec'ing out an enterprise level co-location in a datacenter with a strict budget for power supply/space/cooling and you've got a thousand drives or some such coming, randomly distributed between spec conformant vs. not... Then you have issues. What's really squicky though is if they're selling 7200 RPM drives locked to 5400 RPM performance speeds in firmware; at that point you get the MTBF/attrition rate of a 7200 RPM drive, but only get the benefit of an effectively gimped piece of hardware. That's bad as a manufacturer since you aren't even really being either direct or honest about what you're selling, which makes life more difficult for the buyer. Sometimes there is a place for less physically stressed drive. If you're relying on it you expect to get what you ordered. Not something that just happens to be coming off the assembly line lodged with firmware, and a different sticker. In my case, I'm not sure I'd be adversely effected, but I can imagine circumstances where that volatility could leaded to unintended outcomes. I do not like that. But that's life nowadays.
- tomcam 6y ago
  That really helped. Inconsistent RAID arrays was a super helpful example, thanks.
- tomcam 6y ago
  Reread this amazing answer a few more times. Humbling. Also just concluded that I literally know only enough about hardware to be dangerous. Thanks once more.