X-bit labs

250GB Hard Disk Drives Shootout: 30 HDDs Tested (page 15)

Category: Storage

by Sergey Romanov

[ 11/15/2007 | 11:36 AM ]

MP3 Pattern

Now we reduce the size of the files to the typical size of an MP3 composition. The next pattern includes 271 files totaling 990 megabytes.

It’s something in between the Install and ISO patterns. The two generations of Maxtor HDDs struggle with each other, leaving no chance to their opponents. The Samsung SP2514N is the only HDD that finds itself capable of winning second place from the Maxtors. The other Samsung is among the group of slow HDDs that mostly consists of Seagate and Hitachi products.

Taking the maximum read speed of the drives for the reference point, the reading of MP3 files produced predictable results. The DiamondMax Plus 9 drives are very successful while the Maxtor 7L250S0 fails obviously. The four HDDs from the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 series are not quite good, either. The WD2500KS and WD2500JS are rather slow, too.

Copying the MP3 file-set proved to be a problem for all Hitachi drives and, to a lesser extent, for the Maxtors. But both Seagate drives with a 16MB buffer follow close behind the leading Samsung SP2514N.

The Seagate ST3250624A triumphs in the Copy Far test, even outperforming the speedy Samsung SP2514N! The Samsung SP2504C, on the contrary, shows the lowest result just like it did with the Install file-set. This seems to be an inconvenient load for the Hitachi drives as well.