X-bit labs

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

Category: Storage

by Aleksey Meyev

[ 05/02/2008 | 05:14 PM ]

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.

Table of contents:

• Testing Participants
  
• Hitachi Travelstar 7K100: HTS721010G9SA00
  
• Hitachi Travelstar 7K200: HTS722020K9SA00
  
• Fujitsu MHV2 BT: MHV2200BT
  
• Fujitsu MHY2 BH: MHY2200BH
  
• Fujitsu MHW2 BJ: MHW2160BJ
  
• Seagate Momentus 7200.1: ST910021AS
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Performance in Intel IOMeter
  
• Sequential Read & Write Patterns
  
• Disk Response Time
  
• Database Pattern
  
• Multithreaded Read & Write Patterns
  
• Web-Server, File-Server , Workstation Patterns
  
• Performance in WinBench 99
  
• Performance in FC-Test
  
• FAT32 File System
  
• NTFS File System
  
• Performance in PCMark 2004
  
• Conclusion
  

2.5-inch hard disk drives used to be considered an attribute of notebooks while their low storage capacity was put up with as an annoying, yet inevitable, drawback. This attitude seems to call for a revision now thanks to the rapid growth of recording density. The capacity of 200-250 gigabytes (and even 320GB in newer models) is quite enough not only for an office/workstation PC but also for a home multimedia/gaming system. What is good about 2.5” HDDs, they feature low power consumption and, accordingly, low heat dissipation. They are also small and produce little noise. No wonder then that we now often hear about non-mobile applications of such HDDs. They are installed into compact computers such as the Mac Mini or AOpen miniPC. People who build silent PCs install such HDDs into full-size system cases instead of noisy 3.5” models. And if you are planning to assemble a compact Network Attached Storage or even an inexpensive 1U server with a good disk subsystem, you may want to consider using 2.5” HDDs as well.

What about performance? How do 2.5” drives compare with their larger counterparts in terms of sheer speed? This question has become even more interesting after 2.5” HDDs with a spindle rotation speed of 7200rpm were introduced. It’s the same speed as 3.5” drives have. In this review, we will try to compare 2.5” HDDs not only with each other but also with two 3.5” HDD models.

We’ll also check out the influence of such parameters as recording density and spindle rotation speed on HDD performance. To carry such a test out we will benchmark not only new HDDs but also previous-generation models. Thus, we will compare, for example, a 7200rpm drive with low recording density and a 5400rpm drive with high recording density.

A total of ten devices will take part in this test session:

• Two 2.5” drives from Hitachi with a spindle rotation speed of 7200rpm: the new 7K200 generation and the old 7K100 generation (its recording density is twice lower)
• Three 2.5” drives from Fujitsu with different spindle rotation speeds: MHW2 BJ (7200rpm), MHY2 BH (5400rpm), and MHV2 BT (4200rpm)
• Three drives from Seagate with a spindle rotation speed of 7200rpm: 2.5” model from the 7200.1 series and two 3.5” models from the 7200.7 and 7200.10 series.

We tried to pick up HDDs with a storage capacity of 200GB but the Fujitsu MHW2 BJ is 160GB (Fujitsu hasn’t yet achieved a recording density of 100GB per platter in its 2.5” 7200rpm drives, and 160 gigabytes is the highest capacity in the series). The Hitachi 7K100 and Seagate 7200.1 belong to the previous generation when the maximum recording density was 50GB per platter and have a capacity of 100GB only. It would have been better to take a Seagate drive from the newer 7200.1 series, but we couldn’t get one.