X-bit labs

Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 Hard Disk Drive Review

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 08/14/2006 | 10:41 AM ]

Today we will test the 2.5-inch ultra slim Hitachi hard disk drive with ATA-100 interface, 7,200rpm spindle rotation speed and 100GB storage capacity (HTS721010G9AT00). This solution can be considered the fastest 100GB hard disk drive with a spindle rotation speed of 7200rpm among all that we have tested in our labs so far

Table of contents:

• Closer Look
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Performance
  
• Intel IOMeter: Sequential Read & Write Patterns
  
• WinBench 99
  
• FC-Test
  
• PCMark04
  
• Conclusion
  

2.5” hard disk drives with a spindle rotation speed of 7200rpm and large storage capacity are not yet widespread in the market, so each such model provokes a genuine curiosity in a hardware reviewer. Not long ago we offered you a comparative test of a large group of 7200rpm hard drives with different capacities and now we are going to add to it with a review of a hard drive from Hitachi’s Travelstar 7K100 family that has the above-mentioned characteristic traits and a storage capacity of 100 gigabytes.

Let's meet our hero.

Closer Look

We once reviewed the closest relative of this drive, its version with the Serial ATA interface (HTS721010G9SA00). The HTS721010G9AT00 model is equipped with a Parallel ATA interface (ATA-6) and the rest of its characteristics are the same as the Serial ATA version has: 100MB capacity, 8MB buffer, 7200rpm spindle rotation speed, <10ms average read seek time, and 4.2ms latency. The drive has good acoustic characteristics thanks to the improved design and fluid dynamic bearings. Enhanced Adaptive Battery Life Extender technology implemented in the device helps reduce the amount of power consumed. The high reliability of the drive should also be mentioned: it can withstand an operating shock of 300G and a non-operating shock of 1000G. TruTrack technology ensures stable and correct operation of the drive under strong external vibration and shock. The dimensions of the device are 100 x 70 x 9.5 millimeters; its weight is 115 grams.

The average retail price of the drive is $195.

Testbed and Methods

The following testing utilities were used:

• WinBench 99 2.0
• FC-Test 1.0
• IOMeter 2003.02.15
• PCMark04

Testbed configuration:

• Albatron PX865PE Pro mainboard
• Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz CPU
• IBM DTLA-307015 hard disk drive, 15GB
• Radeon 7000 32MB graphics card
• 256MB DDR SDRAM
• Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4

We installed the generic OS drivers for the drives and formatted them in FAT32 and NTFS as one partition with the default cluster size. In certain cases 32GB partitions were created on the drives and formatted in FAT32 and NTFS with the default cluster size, too.

We will evaluate the HTS721010G9AT00 drive by comparing it with three earlier-tested products that also have a spindle rotation speed of 7200rpm, a capacity of 100GB and an 8MB buffer (for details see our rpevious article called 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drives with 7,200rpm Speed: Five Models Tested). For detailed specifications of the drives follow this link.