Hard Drive: Hitachi 7K500 or WD Scorpio Black WD5000BEKT

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying one of these HDD.
Noise, vibration and speed are very important for me.

I'm looking for opinion of people who used or uses one (or both) of this drive.

Best regards.

 

I've used both in my laptop, I don't think you'll notice any speed or noise difference.

In synthetic benchmarks the WD will be faster, in real life the difference will be hard (impossible) to notice.

 

Phil +1 Thx.

I know you test HDD. Where can I read your reviews?
I've found only one (scorpio black v. 7k500).

 

You're welcome. There will probably be a review here on NBR in about two weeks. Scorpio Black 500GB and Seagate Momentus XT and a couple of SSDs are included. 7K500 isn't.

If you want the most quiet 7200rpm drive the Scorpio Black might be a good choice. I didn't really hear the difference but my friend who had it in his Macbook Pro said it was even quieter than his 500GB Scorpio Blue.

 

I had the 640GB WD. It was amongst the noisiest drives I've used. I sent it back twice, but the replacements were the same.

 

i would say 7K500.... because of reliability , being cheaper etc and only slightly inferior...

 

Have you tried the Seagate 5400.7 640GB Zaz? Supposedly it's one of the most quiet drives around.

 

No I've not. However quiet it is, I doubt it'll beat my SSD in noise levels.

 

What is the make/model of hard drive you are using now?

I can vouch for the 7K500, I am very pleased with mine. It has very little vibration, produces a normal amount of heat, and is barely audible in reading/writing; I basically have to put my ear close to the drive to hear it.
And on top of that, it has excellent performance; if you are upgrading from a 5400RPM drive, the difference will be noticeable. Faster access time, better transfer rates, etc. Statup time on my notebook is less than 30 seconds.

 

On my X200 there's not much between you and the drive, which makes any platter drive noisy. I had the 7k500. It was a capable drive, but like I said, they all seem about the same to me.

 

2xToshiba 1652 160gb 5400.

 

just ordered 7k500 500gb.

I need 2 partitions. One for data and one for OS.
How to divide the hdd to reach the best performance for os?

 

Depends on how applications you use but I set my first partition at 100GB.

If you're only going to use 50GB, your first partition would be fine at 70GB (or 65GB).

Basically the smaller the better AND it should not get more than 75%-80% full.

 

Supposedly the new Hitachi Z7k320 is coming out some time this month. It's supposed to be a very quiet drive from what I have read about it. That is the drive I am impatiently waiting for. The Z5k320 is the 5400rpm version and I believe it is available.

 

The first partition I make will be the fastest?

 

Yes. Choose 'custom install' when setting up Windows 7. Then choose 'drive options' to make partitions.

The first partition will be placed on the outside of the platters. It will have highest throughput and lowest access times.

 

I have been obsessively researching for the perfect laptop for myself for a long time, that will last me 5 years or so. This is a huge decision. After a lot of thought I finally am picking the Toshiba M645-S4055.

Now, the weak link of the Toshiba from the reviews is the slow 500GB 5400rpm hard drive.

So, now I am obsessing over which hard drive lol and I know your the expert on this.

I don't do heavy intense anything with my laptop. So, even though I read that the WD is slightly faster than the 7k500. That doesn't bother me.

What I am concerned with is:

1) Heat (Small 14" laptop)
2) Effect of Battery Life
3) Vibration
4) Noise from Hard Drive
5) Reliability (big one)



I know in the below article at the end of the day you picked the Hitachi 7K500, which was back in Febuary 2010. Since you now have a lot of experience in your own laptop day in and day out with the Hitachi 7K500.

Can you give me your long-term review on the Hitachi 7K500 in regard to the above questions and any other knowlegable insight you can give me? As again I know your an expert on this subject. I would really appreciate it.

I did notice that the Hitachi 7K500 only comes with a 3 year warranty, while the WD Scorpio Black WD5000BEKT comes with a 5 year warranty. Should that play at all in my decision? Would it play in your decision with the extra 2 years that WD provides with this new 500gb Scorpio Black?

http://www.storagereview.com/ultimat...avelstar_7k500



Any and all help will be very much appreciated.

I thank you so much,

Nicolas

 

Nicolas,

I too had the 7K500 as soon as it was available, but am now running a 500GB Seagate Momentus XT that I'm much happier with (speed-wise).

Between the models you're considering, I would lean towards the Hitachi - but that's just me.

The heat/vibration/noise is not something that jumps out at you between the XT and the models you are considering. Nor is the effect on battery life a deal-breaker either.

The XT may cost more than the drives you're considering, but the performance jump is noticeable and over the life (5yrs) of the system, you will be glad you made the jump. This will really let the other components in the system fly.

One other note - if you do get the XT make sure you update the firmware on it to the latest version (if it doesn't have it already).

Good luck and enjoy your new system.

 

I've had both 7K500 and WD5000BEKT in my notebook. I didn't notice any difference in heat, noise or vibration. I didn't get a chance to compare battery life but I don't think you'll notice a difference there either.

Hitachi 7K500 has been around for a while and I think it's a very reliable drive.

Not really. I might pick the Hitachi because I wasn't that impressed with the real world performance of the WD.

But these drives are so comparable, it doesn't matter much which one you choose.

PS. mjnoles1, I've merged your thread with someone elses thread who asked the exact same question. You may want to read the beginning of the thread too.

 

I'm thinking about getting the Momentus XT as well ... but I've heard a lot of bad things regarding harddrive spindown (not sure what this really means, but people are complaining about it) as well as a large decrease in battery life. Could you speak to those issues?

 

My experience is the opposite. The Momentus XT was quite power efficient in my testing. Techreport.com has also measured power consumption of the XT, it turned out to be quite low.

I never noticed the spin down problem, this may be because I was running the latest firmware.

The only 'problem' the XT had is that it vibrates a little more than the other 7200rpm hard drives.

 

badtzwang,

I'm using the XT in a VAIO and I updated the firmware (which solves the spindown problem apparently, but I did not have any problem before with it anyway, before I updated the firmware).

I have not seen any difference in battery life on my VAIO - it may fluctuate 5 or 10 minutes depending on what I actually used it for while on battery life, but generally, battery life is the same. Keep in mind that this is an 18.4" model so for my VAIO, 'battery life' is less than 90 minutes anyway.

I think that if you tried an XT for yourself (with updated firmware) you could verify easily (within the return period) whether the drive is worth keeping or not.

For myself, I upgraded from the 7K500 and the benefits of the XT hybrid are obvious within a few days of normal (not benchmarking) use.

Good luck.

 

Is this the Hitachi 7k500 that everyone talks highly about:

Newegg.com - HITACHI Travelstar 7K500 HD20500 IDK/7K 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive

?

Reason why I ask is that it lists Hitachi TravelStar 7K500 but then has a model# HD20500 IDK/7K

Isn't the correct model number supposed to be this: HTS725050A9A364 ?

 

I believe that is the RETAIL version...............

 

I don't know why Newegg has two listings for the the same Hitachi 500GB/7200rpm notebook drive with different packaging. You can save $3 shipping by purchasing Newegg.com - HITACHI Travelstar H2IK5001672SP (0S02858) 500GB 7200 RPM 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive.

 

Meaning this is actually the Hitachi TravelStar 7K500 model #HTS725050A9A364

This one from NewEgg: Newegg.com - HITACHI Travelstar 7K500 HD20500 IDK/7K 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive

The only difference is this is the so-called retail version which is the same as the the regular Hitachi 7K500 Model #HTS725050A9A364 but the one I posted the link of from NewEgg comes in the original factory sealed box from Hitachi? Thats why you said that this is the "Retail version?"

 

It's all the same drive.

This one is $65 now including shipping. Good deal.
Newegg.com - HITACHI Travelstar H2IK5001672SP (0S02858) 500GB 7200 RPM 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive

 

Exactly how I have it. Mine's at 79% (and a smidge'), so I guess I made it in just under the wire.

 

I've bought 7k500.
I've used old disk and new one for a while.
Using the Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.0.0.1 I made partitions and formated 7k500. I installed also win7 on 7k500. So I have 2 disks. Both have win7 installed. Everything was fine.
One drive goes on sale (the original from hdx), so it was formated (using the Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.0.0.1). So after that I had 7k500 with win7 and an old drive which was clean. I run the computer again and saw a message that there is no system disk (or something like that). I tried to change disks in laptop but got the same effect. In the boot options I have only the choice of cd or usb. I ran the installer win7 with usb, that I used so far and I have the message "Unable to install Windows on that drive. Computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Make sure that the disk controller is integrated into the computer's BIOS menu" . The BIOS does not see any options on the HDD, only the boot options.

How to solve the problem?

 

solved my problem
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6613780-post11465.html

 

Does anybody else have an opinion on the WD Scorpio Black with regards to noise and vibrations? The 7K500 has been around for a while and is known to be relatively quiet with minimal vibrations. Since the 500gb Scorpio Black has only been around a few months, I will like to see more user feedback on it with regards to these 2 factors.

 

I have the 7K500 and the WD5000BEKT.

The WD5000BEKT is turning out to be a great drive thus far. I can't hear any clicking noises while reading/writing. I can hear the platters spinning quite audibly, though; it might have something to do with the fact that my notebook has a metal chassis and acts as sort of a resonance chamber. I can detect essentially no vibration.
The performance is very good. I can't tell a difference between it and the Hitachi in everyday use (they are within 10%). In synthetic benchmarks the WD5000BEKT is shown to be faster.

Right now I don't have a preference -- 7K500 or WD5000BEKT. If I had to recommend one, I'd say the 7K500 only because I have been using it since the spring and it has been reliable; I only got the WD a few days ago.

 

Thanks for the feedback Charles.

Given the WD has faster seek times, i assume booting and program loads will be slightly faster with the WD?

 

I received a new WD5000bekt here, it's quite audible and tends to vibrate, similar to the XT. The 7K500 is quieter. Performance wise I can't tell a difference without using a stopwatch.

 

I have a WD3200BEKT and it's barely audible? It was an OEM drive, though I don't think it should make a difference..

 

That's well possible. Each drive can be different. And the notebook used has a big influence.

 

I have it inside a Dell Inspiron E1405 GM945 with the Dell standard Intel chipset drivers (I haven't bothered to update it)

Perhaps your drive is defective if it is really audible? I mean if I'm running something on the optical drive it will be louder than the HDD, and again the HDD is barely noticeable.

 

Hmmm, maybe there's more consistency in build quality among the Hitachi units.

 

What one calls audible might be called barely audible by someone else. I also use a very different notebook. (Acer 1830T 11.6" with ULV CPU, no optical drive)

It's not defective. The sound is like a soft fan. I'm testing 4 HDDs and 3 SSDs at the moment. The XT and WD5000bekt are the loudest of the bunch.

It wouldn't stop me from buying one but if you're sensitive to noise you might want to get something else.

 

I suppose you could put up a decibel count if you could, as you are right being audible is subjective. Personally this drive replaced a failing 80GB Fujitsu 5400 rpm drive and a huge difference to the Scorpio Black 320 GB. Besides my desktop is in the room and the GTX460 fan is like 70% so I can't really hear the drive anyways lol

 

Hello guys, I have the same dilemma with choosing a 7200rpm 500GB drive. Currently I'm using Acer 4810T with WD5000BEVT (Scorpio Blue 500GB). I've using this for more than one year and I found it slow sometimes especially when I multitask(opening lots of browser, copying files etc).

I have a OCZ Vertex 60GB in my desktop and planning to get Intel Gen3 160GB SSD end of this year to replace it. I plan to use the Vertex in my notebook but SATA is only limited to Gen1 150MBps. I think this will be a bottleneck so I might not get a new SSD and instead get a 500GB 7200rpm drive. Space is quite important for me so SSD is still far behind in terms of GB/$.

I have Hitachi 7K500/Momentus 7200.4 and WD Black WD5000BEKT in mind at the moment. I have heard many bad comments about momentus so I have narrow down between Hitachi and WD. WD is around $15~20 more expensive in my place(Jpn) so I'm leaning towards Hitachi at the moment.

I wonder upgrading to a 7200rpm drive would make my notebook much snappier? I know the CULV CPU is a big bottleneck but I do feel the system is a bit slow during high disk usage. I don't really like the noise from my WD Blue too even though it's a 5400rpm. Will 7200rpm drives cause more noise?

 

I recently experienced the same decision dilemma over the past 3-4 weeks when my PC's original Seagate Momentus HD failed. Both the Hitachi 7K500 and WD5000BEKT were strongly recommended to me. I initially ordered the &k500 (I bought the 0S02858 version; the 7K500 has been repackaged as several models by Hitachi), but I then read a very enthusiastic review by StorageReview.com and afterwards noticed that the buyer reviews on Amazon and Newegg for the WD 5000BEKT had notably fewer negative comments than the 7K500 and Seagate drives. When I discovered the WD5000BEKT, like all Western Digital internal drives, has a 5-year warranty, I ultimately opted for the WD5000BEKT and had it installed 6 days ago. I am quite satisfied with the WD5000BEKT, it's quiet, at least to my ears, and has the expected performance of a 7200RPM 500GB HD. As Phil, Charles Jefferies and others on this board have indicated, the 7K500 and WD5000BEKT are very close in real-world performance. The latter seems to be more reliable; a small but notable contingent of buyer reviews mentioned DOA and early failure with the 7K500 and almost none with the WD5000BEKT. The 7K500 (and its remodel/repackage iterations) seems to be discounted more often and more deeply than the WD5000BEKT--in fact, New Egg is currently offering a $15 rebate on the Hitachi 0S02858 (again, the 7K500 in different clothing) in the form of a prepaid Visa card if bought before or on Nov 14, 2010; this brings its real price to $59.99 plus the $0.99 Newegg charges for shipping. On two occasions recently, Newegg offered an instant discount of $10 along with the rebate plus free shipping to bring the price of the 7K500 to $49.99. At these price points, the 7K500 is well worth considering. On a personal choice level, I just felt more comfortable spending the extra $10-20 (depending on which specials are being compared) for the WD5000BEKT.

I share your reservation about the Seagate Momentus HDs, including the hybrid Momentus XT. The buyer reviews discussing DOAs and early HD failures seemed to be higher with the Seagate drives, including the XT, than the Hitachi and other drives. Several forum members have expressed similar reservations about Seagate HDs. Regarding the XT hybrid, I agree it offers performance well above conventional HDs, but I think the technology is still callow and this results in a higher-than-normal failure and DOA rate--basically when it works, it's great. I just didn't want to risk a sequence of buying a defective HD, have to contact the dealer or manufacturer for RMA, remove the drive, send it back, and wait for a new replacement to arrive, and possibly go through the same sequence again or even a few times. Again, these are just my views and I don't claim to represent the view of the majority or even a strong minority.

Good luck!

 

Keep in mind though that as thorough as the reviews from Storagereview are, they do not reflect normal usage in a notebook.

Storagereviews' way of testing makes multi task performance very important. This is the area where the WD5000bekt does quite well.

During single tasks operations I haven't found it to be faster than the 7K500. The Seagate Momentus XT manages to outperform both, even when tasks are not cached.

 

I beg to differ here. All modern OS has some form of multitasking like background search indexing etc.

For me, a responsive system is more important that higher throughput system.

The Momentus XT sounds like a very good option but the unanswered issue on their support forum make me hesitate to go for it at this moment.

 

Of course. We're not disagreeing on that. What I referred to is Storagereview's 'real world' tests.

Storagereview's testing does not reflect real world usage because their real world tests consist of running a scenario at maximum speed. Because this isn't real world speed but a much higher speed, it creates high stress on the controller. The result is the one with the best controller (WD5000bekt) wins.

At the moment I'm testing Seagate 7200.5 750GB, WD5000bekt, Momentus XT and WD64000bevt. I'm running real world tests at normal speed usage. I can say the WD5000bekt is ok, but it's not what Storagereview makes it out to be.

PS. Even in my multi task testing I don't really see the 'superiority' of the WD5000BEKT.

 

Thank you everyone for your feedbacks.

I'm not sure if Momentus XT is worth twice the price of a normal 7200rpm drive. I don't always reboot my system and I use my notebook mainly for internet, some TV shows and file download/transfer. I have read reviews and 4GB of memory is not enough to cache everything and I think multitasking like watching TV shows/browsing and file transfer would not benefit from the adaptive memory.

I can notice that WD Black is slightly faster than Hitachi but I would like to know the difference in real world usage. Is there any difference in terms of vibration, noise and heat? My WD Blue 500GB is pretty noisy(noiser than notebook's fan) so I hope Black is not much worst. I have never used a Hitachi so I would appreciate some comments on noise and vibration.

 

For that kind of usage the XT will not really pay off. Even a 7200rpm would have limited benefit.

If silence is a priority I do not recommend the WD5000BEKT.

 

Is the Black much noisier than 7K500? If the noise and vibration is more or less then same, IMHO, Black is the better drive.

 

In my experience the WD5000bekt is a bit noisier.

 

The XT will have little benefit in a non rebooted machine, as Phil stated almost any 7200 RPM will. What you want is the drive that will alow the most IOPS. I am not familiar with each so I'll have to leave this for you guys to find out.

The reason for the IOPS is it will have the most benefit when you are cruising the net to write all those small files mto the drive as fast as possible. There are other benefits too with higher IOPS such as multitaking etc..........