7k500 vs WD5000BEKT

so it took me lots of research to realize that the WD should be faster than the Hitachi due to its lower access time (14.5 vs 16.6 for read; 7.8 vs 8.2 for write).
source: Benchmarks 2009 2.5? Mobile Hard Drive Charts

people saying the opposite would typically refer to this post:
Ultimate Notebook Hard Drive Performance: Western Digital Scorpio Black vs. Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 | StorageReview.com

however, I have to say that I found the problem in this review - look at the 1MB IOPs on their 320GB Scorpio Black. It says 26 IOPs, which is the main point of why they got lower performance from that drive. Now I dont know if WD updated their firmware but it does look so:



as you can see - 34 IOPs for 1MB, or a serious boost in performance.

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Anyways, here's the Western Digitan Scorpio Black 500gb 7200rpm





and here's the Hitachi Travelstar 500gb 7200rpm





I'm not sure if this ^ is a typical hitachi graph, as at the first link up top they found average max speed of 108.7MB/s for the Hitachi, and 105.1 MB/s for the Scorpio Black.

let me know what you all think

P.S.
Of course it would be hardly any visible difference in real world usage

 

I've been using 7200RPM drives since the 7k40. They all seem about the same to me.

 

7K500 is the way to go
Very satisfied with it.
My pick speed is about 104 MB/sec however and 80MB/sec average.

 

Bingo. The real-world performance difference in 7200rpm drives will be so small, that you won't really notice the difference.

Real-world performance is determined by random read speeds, and not sequential read speeds. All of the "big" numbers that you see people claim about 80MBps vs 100+MBps is sequential read speeds, which doesn't really affect day-to-day usage.

If all of your research shows that drive_A is faster than drive_B in theoretical benchmarks, then you might as well buy the slightly faster drive. But in real-world performance, you won't be able to tell much of a difference.

 

I have both the 7K500 and the WD5000BEKT, there is no noticeable difference between them in everyday usage. The WD5000BEKT is a bit louder but again, the difference is minimal. You can't go wrong with either drive.

 

With pretty much all 7200 RPM hard drives, it comes down to noise and price. WD Scorpio Black units tend to be louder, but they seem to go on sale more often. The Travelstar can be had for usually around $65-$70. The Scorpio was available at Newegg for $60. I personally prefer Western Digital drives because their warranty support and RMA procedure are among the best of any technology company.

As said before, though, you won't go wrong with either drive.

 

couple more things to consider

- power consumption
WD5000BEKT: [email protected] is what says on the label; measured idle at 0.8 Watts and average at 3.3 Watts
7k500: [email protected] is what says on the label; measured idle at 1.1 Watts and average at 3.0 Watts

- heat
All Hitachi drives that I've seen tend to run warmer than other drives in the same class

- noise
it's being said that the WD is a bit louder