Western Digital Hard Drive

[Anaxagoras1986]

I have a Western Digital Caviar HD as you can see. I have read that WD drives have some trouble with high FSBs and they start corrupting data and such. Can anyone clarify this for me. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[RED Hot Machine]

All harddrives will start to curropt data once they get to a certain FSB. I've found that it is not always the drive that is causing the data to become curropt though.

I've had a weak PSU cause data curroption on several occasions. Also your ram can cause it aswell, if it is not upto the job.

Like all things todo with overclocking, some hardware will do high FSB's and some don't.

My advice is crank the FSB up and see what happens.


Good Luck



Andy

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

Thanks, but I dont really want to see it all of a sudden die on me! I am talking about just a little bit. Like...150 or something. I didnt think I would have any probs but I want to make sure cuz it would really suck if I lost all ofmy data. Would it just corrupt new stuffthat i change or the entire thing?

 

[skahtul]

I would back up everything you need, there is always a chance of data loss, even without OCing it at all.

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

Ya I agree, I plan on backing everything up on my brother's soon but do you think 150 would cause any probs?
I have not unlocked it so it would be running 11.5 X 150 = 1725. I have a pretty nice cooler on it, the CPU temps dont go very much over 100!

 

[skahtul]

Well, I don't think you would really have any problems. I know increasing the voltages on the DDR seems to help a bit. Also a few points of a volt to the CPU won't hurt to much(unless you fry it )
My 1600xp runs at 150 x 11.5 (unlocked) full time, but the voltage is at 1.85 so there is a risk. If I up it past 160 at 11.5 then it corrupts the OS badly. I can run it at 165 x 9 and don't seem to have any problems. I have been running at these higher speeds for a few months, but that is not really a long time.
Oh, also I just cooked my 1.3 Duron unlocking/overclocking it, so there are risks.

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

Well, my load temps are around 110 (or so the temp sensor says). With the stock cooler they used to be around 115-125. I really like the new cooling. I hope ill be able to get the 150 that im after.

 

[macklin01]

My WD200BB corrupted data starting at a 159 MHz FSB / 4 = 39.75 PCI clock. Quite consistently. I've heard many others run into hdd trouble at that magical 39.75 PCI bus speed ... (and temps weren't the issue)

If you're serious about a large FSB overclock, you should make sure your mobo has a 1/5 divisor (or other good divisors, depending on yoru platform.)

-- Paul

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

Ya i kniow temps dont cause it. I am only planning on going to a 150DDR and I do have a 1/5 PCI divider. My board has ALOT od O/Cing features or so I am told.

 

[macklin01]

Good deal. And if you look at my sig, you'll see that a 150MHz bus even with a 1/4 divider is okay for a WD. (In fact, I had great overclocks with up to 156-158 MHz FSB, 1/4 divider.) You'll be in super shape with a 1/5 divider. I would recommend trying to go for 165 MHz FSB with a 1/5 divider if you can, though, because I think you'll be losing performance on your hdd otherwise. (150/5 = 30 MHz FSB, so ATA 100 will run more like "ATA-90".)

Good luck, and have fun! -- Paul

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

Thanks for the help. I dont think my XP will run at 165 w/o unlocking it though. I guess ill run 150 for now, even wih the HDD loss.

 

[macklin01]

Good for you! Unlocking would be ideal here, but the loss shouldn't be too bad. It shouldn't be any worse than a 10% loss. So long as you have block writes enable, UDMA 100, etc., it won't be too bad.

Have fun! -- Paul

 

[bee]

WD drives suck.

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

Umm..not really. The special editions are especially nice.

 

[macklin01]

Moderately priced, good performance, not very noisy, reliable. (what were those deathstar drive about again? ) Also the only one of the major drive manufacturers that still provides the option of upgrading to a 3-year warranty after dropping warranties to 1 year when all the other drive makers did it.

-- Paul

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

Ya exactly.
What does Maxtor, Seagate, and the no name brands like Fugitsu, etc. have that makes them 'not suck'?

 

[macklin01]

Maxtor has ATA-133 (hype), seagate has some of the quietest drives available (barracuda), and while their max transfer rates aren't the highest, their min transfer lates also aren't the lowest. (more consistent transfer rates). I think fujitsu boasts "cheap". Aren't they the ones with the 4 million (potentially) defective drives? (due to a shorting logic chip)

-- Paul

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

My bros Celery had a fugitsu. That POS flew apart after a few years! Shows the quality...

 

[macklin01]

Well, a few years isn't too bad for a hdd. I'm generally happy with 3 years. -- Paul

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

ya but this was about 1.5-2 yrs. and it was always having some probs. I have some ancient seagates and such that are from the 486, 386 age and some even from the 286 age and they still work like a charm. Of course there isnt much i can do with them except for use for components for a bunch of SC lan games!