X-bit labs

Hard Disk Drives of Different Types: Hitachi 7K200 vs. Everyone Else

[ 05/02/08 | by Aleksey Meyev]

Thanks to rapid growth of data density, 2.5-inch HDDs became fit not only for notebooks but also for desktop systems. But how their performance compares against that of 3.5-inch models? Our today’s review is going to answer this question, too.

SSD, i-RAM and Traditional Hard Disk Drives

[ 04/23/08 | by Aleksey Meyev]

In this article we are going to introduce to you two solid state drives from Samsung and a unique data storage solution from Gigabyte aka i-RAM. Let check out their performance compared to that of conventional hard disk drives.

External Hard Disk Drives Roundup: 160GB Storage Capacity

[ 02/27/08 | by Aleksey Meyev]

We would like to introduce to you 9 external storage solutions with 2.5”hard disk drives of 160GB inside. We will talk about products from Fujitsu, Maxtor, Seagate, TEAC, Transcend, Toshiba and ZIV.

Roundup: Five 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drives with 250GB Storage Capacity

[ 01/11/08 | by Aleksey Meyev]

Today we are going to talk about five 2.5-inch hard disk drives based on platters that use second-generation perpendicular recording technology. These will be solutions from Fujitsu, Hitachi, Samsung and Western Digital.

Hard Disk Drive Power Consumption Measurements: X-bit’s Methodology Indepth

[ 12/06/07 | by Oleg Artamonov]

Our today’s article discusses in detail X-bit proprietary methodology for HDD power consumption measurements. We will talk about power consumption measuring techniques, there cons and pros, and explain how this type of measurements will be done for all our HDD reviews from now on.

Roundup: Six 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drives with 160GB Storage Capacity

[ 12/05/07 | by Aleksey Meyev]

Today we will discuss six 2.5 HDDs with 160GB storage capacity, 5400rpm spindle rotation speed and SATA interface. These will be solutions from Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital.

250GB Hard Disk Drives Shootout: 30 HDDs Tested

[ 11/15/07 | by Sergey Romanov]

HDDs with a storage capacity of 250 gigabytes currently have the most optimal price/performance ratio. Among the thirty 250GB products included into this roundup we have only published the results of the three HDDs from Hitachi before. So, our new testbed has a new SATA/PATA controller, and today we can offer you the test results of all 30 HDDs tested on it.

Western Digital Passport Mobile Hard Disk Drive with 250GB Storage Capacity

[ 09/05/07 | by Aleksey Meyev]

We would like to introduce to you a new external hard disk drive from Western Digital built on 2.5-inch HDD and featuring the today’s largest storage capacity for a solution of this kind. It supports USB interface and offers unprecedented performance – a significant step forward compared with its 120GB predecessors we reviewed before.

Ultra-Small Hard Disk Drives: Does It Make Sense?

[ 08/29/07 | by Aleksey Meyev]

Hard disk drives built on 1-inch platters and USB flash drives. Same size, same storage capacity, same functionality. But similar technologies very rarely can exist side by side: competition inevitably eliminates one of them. Which one has better chances today? Let’s find out from our new article!

Mission "Defragmentation". Part 2: PerfectDisk

[ 08/09/07 | by Aleksey Meyev]

This time we are going to check out defragmentation using one of the third-party software applications. We are going to compare the hard disk drives in PerfectDisk 8.0 from Raxco Software. We will also look at how the per-platter data density and the size of the cache-buffer affect the defragmentation efficiency.

SanDisk Extreme IV Compact Flash Card and New Card-Readers

[ 07/30/07 | by Aleksey Meyev]

SanDisk Extreme IV flash card is guaranteed to deliver superb performance compared to the previous series cards in virtually every parameter. But you should be aware that the card can only give you its best when you insert it into an appropriate reader. Find out more about the best SanDisk card-readers in our new article.

Way to the Top: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 HDD Review

[ 07/12/07 | by Sergey Romanov]

We would like to introduce to you the world’s first hard disk drive featuring 1TB storage capacity and a 32MB cache buffer. It also boasts second-generation perpendicular recording technology and thermal fly-height control technology. Are you curious to find out more about this solution from Hitachi and its performance compared to the entire lineup of predecessors? Then read our review!

Fujitsu Handy Drive 120GB Portable Storage Solution Review

[ 07/05/07 | by Aleksey Meyev]

Today we are going to introduce to you one of compact, but capacious external storage devices from Fujitsu – the new 120GB Handy Drive designed in 2.5-inch form-factor and offering 4,200rpm HDD spindle rotation speed. We are going to compare its performance against that of the solutions from Transcend and Western Digital.

Mission "Defragmentation"

[ 06/20/07 | by Aleksey Meyev]

In this article we’ll discuss if defragmentation can be used as a performance test for hard disk drives. We will also see how the time it takes to perform a defragmentation procedure depends on the Native Command Queuing technology support. 16 hard disk drives participated in our test session.

Pioneer BDR-101ABK Blu-Ray Burner Review

[ 06/06/07 | by Andrey Kuznetcov]

Today we are going to introduce to you one of the first Blu-ray optical devices in our lab – the Pioneer Blu-ray burner. How fast is it? How well can it work with the regular DVD disks? What are the advantages and drawbacks of this expensive solution? Find out from our detailed review!

2.5-Inch External Hard Drives with 120GB Storage Capacity

[ 04/02/07 | by Aleksey Meyev]

It is increasingly more important to be able to move from one PC to another or carry around large amounts of information. Therefore we decided to take a closer look at three solutions that offer great portability, sufficient storage capacity and small and thin dimensions. Our article is devoted to the products from two well-known storage solution makers – Western Digital and Transcend.

Battle for 160GB: Hard Disk Drive Roundup Part I

[ 03/16/07 | by Alexey Volkov]

After we covered hard disk drives with the highest storage capacity available today in our previous articles, it sounds reasonable now to turn our attention to the other end of the capacity scale. Today we will look at 11 HDD models with 160GB storage capacity from Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, Maxtor and Western Digital.

400GB Hard Disk Drives in RAID 0, RAID 5 and RAID 10 Arrays: Performance Analysis

[ 02/23/07 | by Nikita Nikolaichev]

Today we are going to conduct a detailed study of RAIDability of contemporary 400GB hard drives on a new level. We will take two "professional" drives from Seagate and Western Digital and four ordinary "desktop" drives for our investigation. The detailed performance analysis and some useful hints on building RAID arrays are in our new detailed article.

Three 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drives with 120GB Storage Capacity

[ 02/13/07 | by Andrey Kuznetcov]

120GB models seem to be the most interesting option right now among hard disk drives of the 2.5” form-factor. Currently offered by all the leading manufacturers, they provide an impressive storage capacity at a rather low price. Todayw e will introduce to you three new models from Hitachi, Samsung and Western Digital.

Western Digital My Book Pro Edition 500GB External HDD Review

[ 01/06/07 | by Andrey Kuznetcov]

We will discuss a new external solution from Western Digital supporting three different interfaces: FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0. As you will see from the results of our test session it is an excellent solution offering highest practical speed when using FireWire 800 interface. And together with its stylish design it will make a great addition to your system.