Could you include WD's 7200 rpm SATA drive. Thanks

"Meanwhile, the manufacturers are not all represented with equivalent (of the same generation) devices. Yes, it’s really hard to make a truly comprehensive roundup – we just couldn’t find a few interesting models in time for this test session."

:(

Thanks for yet another very thorough and well-written review!
As I have the old IBM DTLA and the Maxtor 6L6080L4 drives, it was interesting to see how these old drive perform.

In the 120GB review I would like to see the Western Digital WD1200PB included (the first WDseries to incorporate Fluid Dynamic bearings). I think they are fast and they start up Win2000 very well, even though the firmware indicates a "moderate" setting; low acoustics, etc - AND they are VERY quiet, someting I value higher than outright performance.
Also, the Seagate 7200.7 120GB unit is relavant for me - very quiet, BUT heats up a lot. Seems to be fast - I use it for video editing and conversion. It gets hot even with liquid cooling, which I use for my drives. During heavy defragmentation the temperature rises 6 degrees celcius, using "Drive Temperature" version 1.00 from DaleSoft.
Thanks again for your very thorough reviews which always give much deeper information than most other reviews on the internet.

I look forward to reading the 120GB review.

Yours Sincerely,
Henning Christensen, Denmark

I am using a WD raptor 36Gb as a prim. HD and the WD1200PB as the second HD. Therefore I would be interested to see how the WD1200PB compares to other 120 Gb HDs.

Add some temperature and noise level if you can, if not possible at least some coment if it "sound's" or not and if burn's or not, some people need "cool" hd's other noiseless.
Imagine a 24h operation computer in a room with people, noise can be important.

Excelent review.

Really nice roundup! Thanks for using same-sized HDDs and not forgetting one of the main manufacturers.

What a pity, that there was no Samsung drive with 8 MB cache. :(

In your 120GB-roundup (isn't 120GB too close to 80GB? what about 160GB ;-), I'd like to see a competition between (all with SATA, 7200rpms, 120GB, 8MB cache):

Maxtor 6Y120M0
Samsung SP1213C
Seagate 3120026AS
Hitachi HDS722512VLSA80
Western Digital WD1200JD

I'm also interested in the differences between WD-drives with and without fluid bearings, but I don't know, if there's already a WD1200PD (SATA), so what about WD1200PB against WD1200JB?

I know, measuring temperatures and noise levels isn't easy, but a few words would be very helpful, even if it's only your personal impression.

"This article is actually intended to be the first of a series of HDD roundups." So if there's a future 200GB-roundup, you could compare Seagate 3200022AS (SATA, 7200rpms, 200GB, 8MB cache, 100GB/platter!) with 80GB/platter-drives.

Thank you very much!

Jannik, Germany

I don't understand why you test these drives, they have a verry bad relative pricing. You should set priority to testing those drives that are relatively cheap and therefore more interesting. (Which are the 160Gb versions at this time)

Maybe you can still take some 160Gb disks up in the next roundup?

I have heard that different capacities of hitachi 7k250 drives come from different countries, and the lower capacity drives dont have the performance, the bigger ones have. They say you can sopt the difference with your bare eye, different "shelling" ;). it would be great to find out if theres any truth behind that, if not, then its propably not even worth mentioning in the review.

WOW! What an article! The authors must have read my mind! For the past week I have been looking for just such an article as this - as I have recently been trying to re-evaluate the practicality and efficacy of my internal & external Hard Drives as the new and "highly anticipated" computer-based technologies & protocols stand ready to revolutionize the computer architecture and industry at large! This "MEGA ROUNDUP..." couldn't have been more timely for my purposes. Not only am I highly appreciative of this apparent 1st-installment of "MEGA ROUNDUP", but you can be assured that I will be just as enthusiastic about each and every "MEGA ROUNDUP" follow-up! Thanks, again, for a really terrific & informative article.

Be careful how you read this article. Just cuz it's fast don't mean squat. Working in the PC/Tech business I've tried all the above mentioned drives. Maxtor drives are a crap shoot as you might get ones made in the old Quantum plants (which are bad, bad drives). Western Digitals drives are ok.. just.. ok. I've had to replace a number of them 3 -6 months later due to failure. Samsung.. stay the F away from them. While they aren't the fastest, Seagate drives have been the most reliable to date.

Again, just cuz it's fast don't mean squat. Articles like this one can be misleading, so be careful.

Loved the HD comparison article, but it would've been nice if SCSI drives were thrown into the mix as well.

I think it would be good to consider testing with two of the best
80GB drives. And I also think that comparing with 2-3 RAID0 systems
wold be also a nice ideea. (for example, in Romania it's cheaper to
buy two 120GB 8MB cache drives for RAID0 than an Western 740GD
drive, and i think the results are also better, but until i see the
benchmarks...). That's all.
I hope my feedback is sent in the right place, and, excuse my
english.

I'd like to see IBM Deskstar HDS722512VLAT80

Good Job, but:

1) Performance, done
2) Noise, no
3) Heat, no
4) Price comparision, no

Let's hope you can make the next reviews even more complete.

Great article. I was hoping you'd give us some recommendations at the end. I'd like to hear what the authors thought the best drive was and which drive was the best for performance to cost ratio. I saw that the raptor ran away with many of the tests but its very expensive. I couldn't clearly see which drive you'd recommend in the mainstream hard drive market.

but, But, BUT... how noisy are they ?

i would like to see the manufacturer's acoustic ratings, and hear your impressions about real-life noise levels

Thanks

123

Excellent testing methodology. The next question is are the faster drives also better made and more reliable?

Thanks,
Steve

good article
i was please to see that my WD's 7200 rpm SATA drive came out on top
i have two of theses hared drives set up in a raid 0 config and they are very fast
the first test i saw was that my win\xp only takes 10-12 seconds to boot up from the windows screen compared to 50-55 seconds with my old drives

im just waiting 4 my nvidia 6800 to come in to do some 3d mark tests etc.
i dont think i will be un-happy with the results

the WD's 7200 rpm SATA drive is a 10 in my book

Hello,can I request you the latest prices of hardwares.