by Andrey Kuznetcov
02/13/2007 | 11:19 AM
120GB models seem to be the most interesting option right now among hard disk drives of the 2.5” form-factor. Currently offered by all the leading manufacturers, they provide an impressive storage capacity at a rather low price whereas their spindle rotation speed of 5400rpm guarantees relatively low power consumption. We have reviewed such HDDs before (check our Storage section for mroe articles) and we are about to check out three more in this review.
Please meet our testing participants.
The Travelstar 5K160 series includes models with capacities of 40, 60, 80, 120 (the one we are about to test), and 160 gigabytes. The 120GB model has two platters and four heads. Its spindle rotation speed is 5400rpm and it has an 8MB cache buffer. Our model is equipped with a PATA interface. Its average seek time is no higher than 11 milliseconds. The drive can sustain an operating shock up to 325G and a non-operating shock up to 1000G.
The main technological feature of the series is Perpendicular Magnetic Recording technology that increases the areal density with all the ensuing consequences. As opposed to the traditional recording method, the data bits are placed in perpendicular rather in parallel to the surface of the platter. The manufacturer calls such drives “super-pendular” ones. Among other innovations implemented in such HDDs the following should be emphasized: iridium-magnesium-chromium (IrMnCr) magnetic heads that ensure increased performance and reliability at read operations; fluid dynamic bearings in the electromotor increase its reliability and reduce noise; “on-the-fly” error correction; ABLE and HiVERT technologies to minimize power consumption; TrueTrack technology to protect the drive against shocks and vibration; adaptive formatting; Ramp Load/Unload technology that places the heads on a special ramp off the platter surface when the drive is not at work; and Smooth Stream technology that works with the PATA interface to optimize audio/video data streams.
We can’t tell you the retail price of the drive as it was not selling yet at the time of our writing this review.
The SpinPoint M60S series includes 80, 100 and 120GB models. The model we are going to test – the 120GB one – has two platters and four heads. Its spindle rotation speed is 5400rpm; the cache buffer is 8MB large. Our model is equipped with a SATA interface. Its average seek time is not higher than 12 milliseconds. The drive can sustain an operating shock of 325G and a non-operating shock of 1000G.
This HDD features a magnetic recording technology that utilizes the tunneling magnetoresistive effect (TMR). The following innovations are also implemented in this device: GMR heads; support for the native SATA command set; fluid dynamic bearings in the motor; Load/Unload Head technology; support for the ATA Security Mode Feature Set, ATA SMART Feature Set and ATA Automatic Acoustic Management Feature Set; the hardware error correction mechanism Multi-Burst On-The-Fly Error Correction; SilentSeek technology; and Hybrid Latch System for Reliability and Quietness.
The average retail price of the drive is $125.
This HDD series includes 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120GB models. The model we will test has two platters and four heads. Its spindle rotation speed is 5400rpm. The cache buffer is 8MB large. The drive is equipped with a SATA interface. Its average seek time is below 12 milliseconds. The drive can sustain an operating shock of 300G and a non-operating shock of 1000G.
Like the drives from other manufacturers, this one features a number of exclusive innovations, particularly WhisperDrive technology with noise-reducing SoftSeek algorithms. The robust stainless-steel cover of the drive provides a better protection for the internal components. ShockGuard technology protects the drive’s mechanical components and the surface of the platters against shocks. The specially designed DuraStep ramp places the heads off the operating surface of the platters when the drive doesn’t work.
The average retail price of the drive is $120.
The following testing utilities were used:
Testbed configuration:
We installed the generic OS drivers for the drives and formatted them in FAT32 and NTFS as one partition with the default cluster size. For some tests 32GB partitions were created on the drives and formatted in FAT32 and NTFS with the default cluster size, too. HDDs with a Serial ATA interface were connected to a Promise SATA150 controller. We’ll add the results of five HDDs we have tested earlier to give you a fuller picture. For detailed specifications of the drives, click on the table below:
Click to enlarge
IOMeter is sending a stream of read and write requests with a request queue depth of 4. The size of the requested data block is changed each minute, so we will see the dependence of the drive’s linear read/write speed on the size of the data block.
The linear read speed diagram shows that the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is the slowest drive of all when processing small-size data blocks. When the data chuck gets larger, this drive becomes roughly equal to the other HDD from Samsung and to the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200VE. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 has a rather average speed when reading small data blocks and is only faster than the Toshiba MK1234GSX when it comes to reading larger blocks. Finally, the third drive we’re interested in, the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS, doesn’t show anything exceptional when processing small data blocks, but becomes one of the best at reading larger blocks.
In the sequential writing test the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI still looks poor when processing small data blocks and is not much better when processing larger blocks. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 is somewhat faster on small data blocks, but is slow on larger blocks. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS is the best of the three HDDs we’re checking out here. It is among the leaders, although not the best one, irrespective of the size of the data chunk.
In the Database pattern the drive is processing a stream of requests to read and write 8KB random-address data blocks. The ratio of read to write requests is changing throughout the test.
We built three diagrams for different request queue depths to illustrate the performance of the HDDs in this test.
The first diagram represents the most common case when the queue is only one request deep. It’s clear the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 is poor in this test, “competing” with the Fujitsu for the ignominious last place. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS, on the contrary, is among the leaders. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI has satisfactory results.
The request queue depth increasing to 16 requests, there are no big changes in the ranks. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS is still among the best whereas the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 is the slowest again. The results of the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI are average.
The request queue depth is at its maximum of 256 requests, but there are still no changes. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 is an outsider while the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS is a leader. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI doesn’t show anything exceptional; its performance is average.
These patterns simulate the load typical of the disk subsystems of File and Web servers. The drive’s performance rating is calculated in this test by averaging its speed under all possible loads.
The first diagram shows what HDDs are better suited for the disk subsystem of a file-server. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS is third here. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is fifth and just a little behind the other Samsung. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 performs poorly, taking the last but one position in the diagram.
The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 makes a surprising rush in the web-server pattern, being second in performance. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS is only fifth, and the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI occupies the last but one position.
The Workstation pattern simulates the typical load on a workstation at request queue depths up to 32. This test was performed on the full capacity of the drives as well as on 32GB partitions created on them.
To calculate the overall performance rating of a drive in this test, we use the following formula:
Performance = Total I/O (queue=1)/1 + Total I/O (queue=2)/2 + Total I/O (queue=4)/4 + Total I/O (queue=8)/8 + Total I/O (queue=16)/16 + Total I/O (queue=32)/32.
The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS is a leader in this test; its results are similar to those of the Toshiba MK1234GSX. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI takes sixth place in the diagram and is followed, although at a rather big distance, by the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00.
The multi-threaded tests simulate a situation when there are several (from one to four) clients accessing the drive at the same time and the drives are processing requests for reading or writing 64KB data blocks for 30 seconds. The depth of the outgoing request queue is varied from 1 to 8.
We built diagrams for the case with the shortest request queue. It is the most common situation in practice.
The first diagram shows the speed of multi-threaded reading. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is the best of the three HDDs we’re interested in. It doesn’t slow down much as the number of users increases and delivers high performance. Unfortunately, we can’t say anything good about the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS and Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 because their read speed degrades much as the load increases.
It’s somewhat different with multi-threaded writing. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 is a loser here as its speed lowers much more than that of the other HDDs at higher loads. The write speed of the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS doesn’t sink that low. The speed of the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is even more stable – this HDD is only slower than the Seagate drive here.
First, you can have a look at the data-transfer diagrams of the three drives:
There’s no significant difference between the diagrams. The only thing we can see here is that the graph of the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS is very typical of adaptive formatting technology.
The other WinBench tests, except for the access time test, were performed on a 32GB partition created on the HDDs.
First, let’s check the drives out in FAT32.
You can see that the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is the best of the three HDDs we are interested in. It is somewhat slower than the related model from the same manufacturer, which is actually the fastest of all in this test. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS is fourth, but it has the highest Business Disk WinMark score. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 is at the bottom of the diagram, even though it has a good Business Disk WinMark score.
The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is victorious when we use NTFS. Third place goes to the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS. Alas, the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 looks utterly hopeless. It is again in the last position of the diagram and considerably worse even than the closest opponent.
This diagram shows the read speed at the beginning and end of the hard disks, which is indicative of the advantages of the tech process employed by the manufacturer. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS takes third place and is the best among the tested trio. It is also a little faster than the related model from the same company. Next goes the duo of Samsung drives in which the HM120JI is somewhat slower. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 finds itself in the last but one position.
The last diagram shows the measured access time of the HDDs. It is the highest, i.e. the worst, with the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 and the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS are somewhat better in this parameter – they take third and fourth places, respectively.
Now we will check the real-life performance of the hard disk drives with the FC-Test utility which measures the time it takes to create (i.e. write), read and copy certain file-sets which differ in the number and size of the files included, and then calculates the speed of the drive. This utility gives you an objective picture of performance because it emulates the real operating situations for the hard drive.
The Windows and Programs patterns consist of many small-size files, while the MP3, ISO and Install patterns include fewer files of a bigger size. Two 32GB partitions are created on the drives for the copy operations, and the file-sets are then copied within one partition (Copy Near) and from one partition to another (Copy Far). The creation (writing) and reading of the file-sets is done in the first partition.
We’ll first test the drives in the FAT32 file system. The first diagram shows the results of measuring the speed of creating (writing) the file-sets. For better readability, we only put the results of three out of the five file-sets into the diagrams. So, the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is the fastest drive among the three we’re discussing in this review. It is just a little slower than the other model from Samsung. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS looks good, too. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 doesn’t deserve any praise from us as it is the slowest of all the eight devices.
The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is still among the best when reading the file-sets. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 looks good in this test, too. It is far from being an outsider here and its read speed is higher than that of the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS
The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI and the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS are roughly similar to each other and among the best devices overall when copying the file-sets within the same partition. Alas, copying files involves writing them, which is the weak aspect of the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00. That’s why it is slower than the rest of the HDDs here.
This diagram shows the speed of copying files from one partition to another. The picture is generally similar to what we have seen above. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI and the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS are again among the best devices, showing similar results, whereas the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 is the weakest one here.
Now let’s see how the drives are going to perform in NTFS.
The first diagram shows the speed of creating (writing) the file-sets. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI looks the best of the three reviewed drives and is among the leaders overall. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS looks good, too. Unfortunately, the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 stumbles on write operations and turns to be the slowest in this test.
The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is among the top four when reading the file-sets. The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT doesn’t look out of place here, delivering performance comparable to the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS.
The Copy-Near diagram shows that the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI and the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS are among the fastest devices. The low write speed of the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 dragged it down to last place.
The last diagram shows the speed of copying files from one partition to another. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI is the fastest of the three reviewed drives and is only second to the Seagate among the drives included into this test. The Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS has rather high results, too. As you might have expected, the Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 remains the slowest device of all.
So, we have tested three 2.5” hard disk drives with a capacity of 120GB, an 8MB cache buffer and a spindle rotation speed of 5400rpm, and compared them with five similar HDDs that had been tested earlier in our labs. The single difference between the devices is their interface, PATA and SATA, but it can hardly matter much because performance of these drives is yet far from approaching the interface bandwidth.
What have we got in the end? The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541612J9AT00 looks obviously inferior to its opponents in most of our tests. Its very low write speed is the main reason for that. Notwithstanding the interesting technologies implemented in this drive, you should not buy it if you want to have the highest performance possible. We should make allowances for the drive’s firmware, however. Perhaps it is going to perform faster with newer firmware versions.
The other two HDDs, both supporting the SATA interface, delivered predictable results. The Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI and the Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS have PATA-interfaced counterparts we had tested earlier, but there is no great difference between the results of the related HDD models. These two HDD models are both much faster than the Hitachi and are roughly equal to each other, perhaps with a minor advantage on the part of the Samsung SpinPoint M60S HM120JI. Each of these drives will surely make a good buy.