X-bit labs

Roundup: Six 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drives with 160GB Storage Capacity (page 10)

Category: Storage

by Aleksey Meyev

[ 12/05/2007 | 03:04 PM ]

Now let’s see what we have in the same tests but when the HDDs are formatted in NTFS.

The results of writing in NTFS are almost the same as in FAT32: the Samsung is the best with small files while the Western Digital, with large files. The HDDs from Toshiba and Hitachi have poor results again.

The Fujitsu is good at reading but is now closely followed by the drive from Western Digital. The HTS541616J9SA00 is the slowest drive in three out of the five patterns. The Seagate is surprisingly slow with MP3 files while the Samsung is the loser in the ISO pattern.

The Samsung is in the lead when copying small files. The Fujitsu wins with large files and the Seagate with the ISO pattern. It’s all just as it was in FAT32.

Performance in PCMark 2004

PCMark04 benchmarks the HDD in four different modes: Windows XP Startup is the typical disk subsystem load at system startup; Application Loading is the disk activity at sequential starting-up and closing of six popular applications; File Copying measures the HDD performance when copying a set of files; the Hard Disk Drive Usage parameter reflects the disk activity in a number of popular applications. These four parameters are used to calculate the overall performance rating according to the following formula:

HDD Score= (XP Startup Trace x 120) + (Application Load Trace x 180) + (File Copy Trace x 28) + (General Usage x 265).

The Toshiba wins the XP Startup trace quite to my surprise as this HDD hasn’t done anything exceptional in the previous tests. It is followed by the Samsung and Fujitsu, which have been the leaders at copying in FC-Test. The HDD from Western Digital shows the lowest speed.

The Toshiba is still in the lead in this Application Loading test. The Samsung is second, followed by the drives from Fujitsu and Western Digital. The Seagate and Hitachi are bringing up the rear.

The File Copying test agrees with the FC-Test results: the Samsung, Fujitsu and Seagate take first, second and third places, respectively. The Hitachi has the worst result of all. The Toshiba, which has been successful in the other PCMark tests, is only fifth.

The Toshiba is on top again, yet is not far from the others. The Samsung is second while the Seagate takes last place. The others have similar results.

The Samsung boasts the highest overall score, over 4000 points. The Fujitsu is second due to its excellent result in the copying test and good results in the other tests. The Toshiba was let down by the copying test and is only third with its overall score. The Hitachi and Seagate are the worst drives according to PCMark.