by Andrey Kuznetcov
03/03/2006 | 02:59 PM
Notebooks-oriented hard disk drives have to be constantly improving in storage capacity and speed parameters to be real competitive against their desktop counterparts of the ordinary 3.5” form-factor. We already know how the manufacturers are going to increase the capacity (for details see our recent review called Seagate Momentus 5400.3 160GB Hard Disk Drive with Perpendicular Recording Technology), but what about the speed?
<%BANNER[article]%>It’s now over two years since Hitachi suggested a simple but effective way to improve the performance of a 2.5” HDD – by increasing the spindle rotation speed to 7200rpm (for details see our review called Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 HDD: 7,200rpm Achieved!). Yes, this may seem a rather rude solution, but why not, especially if the drive’s power consumption and heat dissipation remain low as dictated by the notebook market?
Seagate has also released its 7200rpm 2.5” Momentus 7200.1 drive since then (for details see our article called 2.5” Momentus Hard Drives from Seagate: Two New Members of the Family Arrived), and Hitachi itself hasn’t stopped, either. After a long while, the Travelstar 7K60 series has got a replacement, Travelstar 7K100. As the name suggests, the maximum storage capacity in the new series is 100GB and it includes 6 hard disk drive models in total. The capacities available are 60, 80 and 100GB; the buffer is 8MB big in every model of the series. The declared average seek time is 10 milliseconds at reading and 11 milliseconds at writing; the latency is 4.2 milliseconds.
Hard disk drives of this family feature low power consumption and a number of exclusive technologies that have proved their efficiency in other HDD series from Hitachi. They are TrueTrack, Ramp Load/Unload, Femto Slider, Enhanced ABLE, FDB spindle motors, PRML, Adaptive Formatting, GMR head, Hitachi GST and HDD Reliability.
In our today’s review we include a couple of earlier tested products, drives from the Travelstar 7K100 family and a SATA-interfaced model from Seagate’s Momentus 7200.1 series. So, we will be comparing the speed of the following hard disk drives today:
We will see how the two generations of Hitachi drives differ in performance (by the example of the 60GB models) and will also compare the newest 2.5” hard drives from Hitachi and Seagate.
Let’s have a closer view at the new models now.
This drive has a storage capacity of 60GB and is equipped with a traditional ATA interface. We’d like to use the name of this model as an example of how Hitachi’s HDD markings should be read. The first two digits after the letters “HTS” indicate the drive’s spindle rotation speed (“72” = 7200rpm). The next two digits stand for the maximum storage capacity in this family, which is 100GB on this case. Then, the next two digits more tell you the storage capacity of the given model (“60” = 60GB). Among the other symbols you may want to note the last pair of letters: “AT” stands for Parallel ATA and “SA” for Serial ATA interface.
The average retail price of this drive is $160.
Besides having a storage capacity of 100GB, this model also supports the newer SATA interface.
The average retail price of this drive is $220.
Like the 100GB ATA (ST910021A) model, this hard drive has a storage capacity of 100GB and a spindle rotation speed of 7200rpm. The buffer size is 8MB; the average seek time is 10.5 milliseconds and the latency is 4.2 milliseconds. The difference between the two models is in the interface. The reviewed model supports Serial ATA. Like all models of this series, the drive features a Softsonic FDB motor and QuietStep ramp load technology for better acoustic characteristics.
The average retail price of the drive is $230.
The following testing utilities were used:
Testbed configuration:
The tests were performed with the generic OS drivers. The drives were formatted in FAT32 and NTFS as one partition with the default cluster size. In some cases mentioned specifically we used 32GB partitions formatted in FAT32 and NTFS with the default cluster size, too.
The operating characteristics of the drives will be compared with those of two earlier tested products, Seagate 100GB ATA and Hitachi 7K60 60GB, which too have a spindle rotation speed of 7200rpm and an 8MB buffer. Check out the table below for the detailed technical characteristics of the HDDs.:
Click to enlarge
The low-level IOMeter test helps explore the speed characteristics of a hard disk drive at linear reading and writing. The test utility is sending a stream of read/write requests with a request queue depth of 4. The size of the data block requested is changed each minute. We will see the dependence of the linear read/write speed of the drives on the size of the data block.
The linear speed diagram shows that both the drives from Seagate have similar results despite different interfaces. The 60GB drive from the K7100 family is far better in read speed than the 60GB drive from the K760 family beginning from a data chunk size of 16KB. The Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) is considerably slower than the two Seagate drives. The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) boasts the highest read speed of all beginning from 32KB data blocks.
The second diagram shows the linear write speed of the drives. You can see that there are no great changes since the previous diagram. The results of the Seagate drives are still very close. The 7K100 family drive again looks the better of the two 60GB models from Hitachi as it has a higher write speed on large data blocks. The SATA-interfaced 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) model is again the fastest, confirming its superiority over the opponents at processing large data blocks.
Here are the data-transfer graphs for the three hard disk drives:
The Hitachi 7K100 100GB obviously has a higher read speed than the two other drives.
Now let’s compare the performance of the drives in FAT32 basing on the High-End Disk WinMark scores. We use the generic names of the drives instead of their model names for better readability.
The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) with SATA interface is obviously the best in this test. It is followed by the two Seagate drives which differ but little between each other. The Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) goes next and the last place goes to the 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00) which performs considerably worse than the other products.
Let’s now switch over to NTFS and see what happens.
The Seagate with the classic ATA interface wins this test. The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) has the second place, turning in the highest Business Disk WinMark score. The third place goes to the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB SATA (ST910021AS) which is followed by the Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00). The old Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00) has the last place and a noticeably lower performance than its younger opponents.
The data transfer rate diagram shows that the high results of the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) in the previous tests are well grounded. The read speed of this drive is considerably higher than that of the other drives. The leader is followed by the two Seagate products, the ATA-interfaced being preferable to the SATA one. Next goes the Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00), while the old Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00) has firmly established itself in the last position.
The last diagram in this section shows you the measured average access time of the drives. The numbers are close due to obvious reasons, yet the Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00) can be singled out as having the best average access time, quite to my surprise.
Now we will check the real-life performance of the hard disk drives in our own 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. The real-life speed of the drive is then calculated.
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. The patterns are then copied within one partition (Copy Near) and from one partition to another (Copy Far).
We’ll first examine the case of FAT32.
The first diagram shows the file creation (write) speed. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) is the best in the three large-files patterns, but loses the top place to the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) in the small-files patterns. The latter takes the third place when processing large files, however. The other drive from Seagate was the second best at processing large files, while the oldest product in this review, Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00), has the worst performance in this test.
The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) is the best across all the five patterns at reading files. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) is again faster than the other Seagate which in its turn equals the performance of the Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00). The drive of the older 7K60 family is everywhere the slowest.
The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) is the best at copying files of three patterns within one partition and is good in the remaining two. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) seems to be the second best in this test and it is once again better than the SATA-interfaced Seagate, in four patterns out of five. Strangely enough, it is not the old 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00), but the new Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) that has the worst performance in this test.
When the files are copied from one partition into another, the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) has the highest speed in three patterns out of five. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) is the second best in this test and the SATA version of this drive is again a little slower. The struggle of the 60GB models ended in a victory of the older one, again.
And now let’s see if the results are any different in the NTFS file system.
The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) is an unrivalled leader at creating (writing) files as it wins all the five patterns here. The SATA version of the drive takes the second place in the three large-file patterns, but loses it to the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) in the other two cases. The Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) takes the fourth place in this test and the old Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00) is by far the worst drive here.
The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) wins the file read test and is followed by the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) which in its turn is just a little faster than the other drive from Seagate. The Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) and Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00) occupy the fourth and fifth places, respectively, in the results table. Note, however, that all the drives have very similar speeds in this test.
When copying files within one partition, the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) is the fastest in three patterns out of five. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) follows close behind the leader, though. The SATA-interfaced Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB SATA (ST910021AS) is the last on the podium. The Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00)takes the fourth place while the Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00) is just too slow at processing the small-file patterns.
The Copy Far diagram points at the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) as the winner. At least it is the fastest in three patterns out of five. The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) takes the second place and is followed by the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB SATA (ST910021AS). Next goes the Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00), which is much better than the old Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00) model.
We once again make use of PCMark04 to see a fuller picture of the performance of tested hard disk drives. This program benchmarks the performance of the drive in four different modes: Windows XP Startup reflects the disk subsystem load at system startup; Application Loading is the disk activity at sequential starting-up and closing of six popular applications; File Copying measures the HDD performance when copying a set of files; Hard Disk Drive Usage reflects the disk activity in a number of popular applications. These four parameters are used to calculate the overall performance rating according to this formula:
HDD Score= (XP Startup Trace x 120) + (Application Load Trace x 180) + (File Copy Trace x 28) + (General Usage x 265)
You can refer to this article for details about the benchmark.
We ran each test ten times and averaged the results which were then represented in tables and diagrams that follow below.
Unfortunately, we didn’t perform this test when we were testing the Hitachi 7K60 60GB (HTS726060M9AT00), so only four devices take part in it.
The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) comes out on top in the Windows XP Startup test and is followed by the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) which outperforms its SATA-interfaced opponent from Seagate. The Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) has the lowest result here.
The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) beats the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) in the Application Loading test. The 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) is third, and the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB SATA (ST910021AS) has the lowest result.
The File Copying diagram shows that the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) regains the top position, pushing the Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) down to the second place. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB SATA (ST910021AS) is only third, however. The 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) has the lowest performance here and is considerably slower than the other participating drives.
Hitachi’s drives are better than Seagate’s in this HDD Usage test, the 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) and 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) models taking the first and second place, respectively. The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB SATA (ST910021AS) is third and the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA is fourth and they are both far behind the Hitachi drives.
The last diagram shows the overall HDD scores. The Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00) is unrivalled, its main opponent Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) occupying the second position. Next goes the SATA-interfaced drive from Seagate; the Hitachi 7K100 60GB (HTS721060G9AT00) has the lowest performance score in PCMark04.
So, we’ve just had an opportunity to compare the fastest hard disk drives of the 2.5” form-factor. 7200rpm drives of that size may be viewed as representing the technical potential of the manufacturer as flagship products do.
The selection of drives for this test session allows making some curious observations. For example, we can see how technologies are improving over time and how they affect the operating characteristics of Hitachi’s 60GB drives of the 7K60 and 7K100 families. There really is a considerable performance increase. The higher areal density results in higher linear read and write speeds and improves the performance in a number of real-life tests. The Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 60GB enjoys an advantage over the Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60GB in most tests, with rare exceptions.
We can also see the effect of the interface on the drive performance. The UltraATA interface most modern 2.5” drives are equipped with has a theoretical bandwidth of 100MB/s against 150MB/s of Serial-ATA, but it doesn’t mean the latter interface is superior in practice. The maximum internal data-transfer rate of the reviewed drives is far within the limit of the external interface and our tests have proved this once again: the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) with the traditional ATA interface is almost everywhere faster than its SATA-compatible mate Seagate Momentus 100GB SATA.
But what device is the winner of our tests? In fact, there are two drives that are worthy of one another – Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) and Hitachi 7K100 100GB (HTS721010G9SA00). These devices have achieved the highest results in most of the tests. The SATA-interfaced Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 100GB has won more tests in total, so it can be considered as the best among the presented devices.
You may want to consider it first if you need a high-performance HDD. If the SATA interface doesn’t suit you, the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB ATA (ST910021A) may make a worthy alternative. Alas, the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB SATA, which has also been in our focus, can’t contend with the two mentioned devices and does worse than its SATA-interfaced opponent from Hitachi. Still, its performance is high enough, so you may want to consider it as an option, too.