Hitachi 500GB 2.5" 5400rpm

it came out finally.

 

Wow, Its really cheaper at only 90.99 at newegg.

 

Wow, took them long enough. Wonder when's the 7200rpm version coming

 

The drive was on sale on NCIX.com about 2 weeks ago for $100 CAD or about $80 USD.

Right now, it's $107CAD
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=37410&vpn=0A57915&manufacture=Hitachi&promoid=1029

 

Wow this is pretty cool, and at a good price.

 

Check out my thread here, for benchmarks:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=364014&highlight=5k500.b

Kaltmond has supplied us with 5K500, and 5K500.B benchmarks

It looks like the 5K500.B is now a leader among performance and power efficiency of the 500gb 5400rpm drives.

K-TRON

 

Yeah so it seems, I guess I'll put my trust in them when it comes to buying one of those 500 GB HDDs..

 

I'm also interested in this drive due to the energy profile. How cool does it run? I bought an SSD because of the advertisement that it runs cool... but it after an hour of usage, it got pretty hot. I'm for efficiency and low temperature, even if the drive runs a little bit slower.

Cheers,
Gnimble

 

I bought one, and I'm filling it up with info as I post this. It's surprisingly quiet (not like my hitachi 100gb 7200rpm) and runs cool so far after coping for 20min.

I'll not be able to post real performance characteristics on this one as it runs in my USB enclousure. That one has eSATA port too but I dont have that port on my laptop. Maybe I should buy one of these express esata cards

 

Is this hitachi better than scorpio WD 500GB ?

 

From all the materials I read so far, it runs cooler and use less energy for operation. For speech, the Scorpio might have a slight edge.

Cheers,
Gnimble

 

this scorpio is too loud and am doing nothing even laptop is idle

 

Does anyone know how long the warranty is on this drive? I am about to buy it (newegg has it on sale good price) but I can't find warranty data ANYWHERE

 

Most hitachi hdd have 1 year manufacture warranty.

 

Thank you, thats a bit disappointing considering the WD has 3 years on the drive. I know most failures occur within the first year but eh... $90-10mir isn't bad but tax kills it for me

 

No,
all new hitachi travelstar drives come with a 3 year warranty.
You only get a 1 year warranty if the drive is refurbished or if it comes in an external enclosure
Their Ultrastar drives come with a 5 year warranty

K-TRON

 

I read the warranty information on several sites that sell this drive. They note down 3 years manufacturer's warranty. I wonder if this is documented with the drive when you receive it? I'll find out when I get mine.

Cheers,
Gnimble

 

If you can find the serial number for one drive you can just check it on the site, I can't seem to find a serial anywhere... sometimes I can just try the one from the egg or something in the pictures but I can't find anything to confirm for sure.
One ebay listing stated it had a 1 year warranty though but I don't know about them.

 

I think the three years warranty sounds right. That's the normal warranty most manufacturer gives on their new drives.

Cheers,
Gnimble

 

Hm... all of the hitachi drives I have comes with 1 year warranty. Though all of mine are OEM drives.. so the warranty period might be different.

E.g. http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=37410&vpn=0A57915&manufacture=Hitachi&promoid=1060

Same drive, but with 1 year of warranty

Hitachi drives with 3 year warranty are labled differently.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35729&promoid=1060

It has *3 year MFR Wrty* after its product name

 

It's what, $5 or $10 difference between a 5400 rpm and a 7200 rpm drive. Why wouldn't you grab the (potentially) faster drive.

 

Because that faster drive is a desktop harddrive.
Desktop harddrives are about 4x bigger in physical size than a laptop harddrive, so it is not going to work.

Hitachi's warranty works through the serial number on the drive.
There is a utility on hitachi's sitw which tells you the warranty.
Simply type it in and you find out how much warranty is left.

Send ncix an email about the warranty, maybe its a misprint. It should read 3 years

K-TRON

 

The 7200rpm drive isn't that much more actually its $140 vs the $90 (assuming for rebate adding tax). It IS $50 but for something I use daily its not that bad. I just think it would be good in terms of power and I don't completely trust the idea of having something spin at 7200rpm on a mobile platform. I will ponder my options.

 

Don't forget that the 7200rpm drive will draw more power to spin at that speed and also will run slightly hotter too. It's a trade off between performance and battery savings. I've problems with heat on every single laptop I own when I put it on my lap; so anything to reduce the heat is a big plus.

Cheers,
Gnimble

 

The newest 7200 RPM drives don't require much more power consumption (maybe get 5 min less battery life, depending on the machine) which translates to not much more heat or noise produced than a 5400 RPM drive. So don't worry about that, unless your system is not well designed for shock.

 

You guys were right about the 3 year, hitachi replied to the email I sent them.
But I am now thinking about the 7200! haha

 

well I filled it up ... with 420GB on it already I just left it coping stuff couple times for couple hours, and the drive did not heat up the enclusure as my other 2 7200rpm HDDs do while in it (one Seageate 160gb, one Hitachi 100GB).

I can probably say that the access time over the USB enclousure shows an average of ~19 mS, thought on SATA port it may be slightly faster.

However, the datasheet says track to track access time is 1mS vs. 2mS for other 5400rpm drives, which is more important for me since I have only big (~5GB on average) installation files on the HDD so it doesnt do random access most of the time. The full stroke from first to last track is 20mS. It's the most power efficient HDD so far in its class. Its density is slightly less than other 500gb drives (375 GB/in vs. 396 or so for the Seagate)

if I buy an express eSata card I'll post transfer speeds as well

 

Thanks for the update Miro. It's great to know that it does not heat up too much; that's one of the biggest problems with laptops overheating. I have the drive right in front of me but my laptop is a week from arriving... how I wished I have the laptop to play with the drive.

Cheers,
Gnimble