X-bit labs

Hard Disk Drives of Different Types: Hitachi 7K200 vs. Everyone Else (page 9)

Category: Storage

by Aleksey Meyev

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

Web-Server, File-Server , Workstation Patterns

This group of tests simulates disk loads typical of servers and workstations. Such applications are not typical for mobile devices, so I won’t analyze the results deeply. The names of the patterns are self-explanatory. The Workstation pattern is used with the full capacity of the drive as well as with a 32GB partition. The request queue is limited to 32 requests in the Workstation pattern.

The results are presented as performance ratings which are calculated by the following formulas:

Rating (File-Server) = Total I/O (queue=1)/1 + Total I/O (queue=4)/2 + Total I/O (queue=16)/4 + Total I/O (queue=64)/6 + Total I/O (queue=256)/8

Rating (Web-Server) = Total I/O (queue=1)/1 + Total I/O (queue=4)/1 + Total I/O (queue=16)/2 + Total I/O (queue=64)/4 + Total I/O (queue=256)/6

Rating (Workstation) = Total I/O (queue=1)/1 + Total I/O (queue=2)/1 + Total I/O (queue=4)/2 + Total I/O (queue=8)/3 + Total I/O (queue=16)/4.

It’s the Seagate 7200.10 that wins this test, but you may note that the 2.5” drives with a spindle speed of 7200rpm are not much slower. The Seagate 7200.1 and Hitachi 7K100 are only slower at high loads while the Hitachi 7K200 is even faster at a request queue of 1. It’s also interesting that the 5400rpm Fujitsu MHY2 BH overtakes the old Seagate 7200.7: the high recording density and effective firmware algorithms beat the higher spindle speed.

The results produced by the Web-Server pattern as similar to the previous test, but the firmware algorithms play a bigger role here. This is the reason why the Hitachi 7K100 and Seagate 7200.1 outperform the Fujitsu MHW2 BJ which is based on higher-density platters. Note that the Seagate 7200.7 is the slowest of all, including the Fujitsu MHV2 BT that has a spindle rotation speed of only 4200rpm and the lowest recording density among the 2.5” models included into this review.

The Seagate 7200.10 wins the Workstation pattern when the entire disk capacity is used for the test. The 2.5” drives with a spindle speed of 7200rpm are not far behind, though. The old Seagate 7200.7 is outperformed by the Seagate 7200.1 and Hitachi 7K200. The HDDs with lower spindle rotation speeds cannot match their faster mates in this test.

There are certain changes in the results when we limit the test zone to a 32GB partition. First of all, the 3.5” HDDs improve their positions. Second, the 5400rpm Fujitsu MHY2 BH performs better, overtaking the Hitachi 7K100.