Hitachi 7K500 Travelstar 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" drive 9.5mm height

HDD temp is a bit shaky issue since it depends on the design of the laptop very much. The exact same hdd can run at 40C in one laptop and at 50C in another laptop depending on the heat dissipation.


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I'm all for an active cooler. I just don't want to have to pack up my Zalman whenever I go to a LAN party. At most I want to only bring my Xpad for cooling. Hence why I'm wondering about cooling.

And how another brand of 7200RPM HDD would compare.


In any case, I'm testing out a different configuration. My OS/program HDD is put in the slot next to my northbridge, while my other HDD, the gaming one, is in the other slot. I did a quick test with Orthos--to heat up the northbridge--and HDD Tune error check--to heat up the HDD--and my OS disk hit 49C at one point.

After two or so hours of Left 4 Dead, my OS HDD's current temperature was about 46 while the gaming HDD was 38C. OS HDD is a 320GB @ 7200RPM Seagate and the gaming HDD is a WD, same size/speed.

 

Aren't Seagate disks usually running hot? I know all the ones I have used like to run in the 40-50 range independently of the laptop brand...

 

Seagate blows. Homeboy is recommending Hitachi.

 

My own Seagate runs very cool. I have no issue with it. We'll see if the Hitachi is any better when it gets here later today.

 

The Seagate is my stock drive. Unlike me WD3200BEKT, it's given me absolutely no problems so far.

 

Comparing results between different systems is usually not accurate.

 

Phil

I agree 100%, not claiming these are in any way accurate or scientific - but with such a huge difference, there is obviously an increase with the Hitachi, right? Which is what we expect.

A more accurate comparison would be multiple different sized files of different types (mp3's, jpgs, .doc's, psd's, iso's, etc.), instead of one single large file of (unknown) type simply duplicated.

 

The difference is too big in my opinion to have any relevant info. Other factors might be at play such as OS install and the interface performance of the laptop.

I have no doubt though the 7K500 is the fastest laptop HDD at the moment.

I'm just waiting for some to post real life benchmarks comparing it to WD5000BEVT or Seagate 7200.4 500GB.

 

Phil,

I tried really hard to make the file size the same as ramgen's but in the end you are correct. Much too many variables involved.

Sorry, guess I'm just too excited about this new Hitachi!

 

Mine showed up on my porch a couple of minutes ago. Reformatting my old drive in preparation for RMA, and then I'm putting this new sucker in.

 

I just got mine yesterday too so I'm planning to test it out next week when my T5010 arrives

 

I got mine today too. The drive does seem a bit quicker here and there, like opening Photoshop or iTunes, which are a couple slower opening apps, but most stuff like FF or Windows Explorer seems about the same. The real world performance is not markedly better than my Seagate drive in my opinion. If you're copy and pasting files all day, then maybe the upgrade is worth it. The drive I got has a persistent low hum to it. It's not super noticeable, but it's there. My Seagate drive is dead silent. That's my thoughts after a few hours anyway.

 

Noticing in disk manager that I have 1MB unallocated, and I cannot extend my main partition to absorb that last 1MB. Reformatting, but it's still there. Hmm.

 

Mine came in today too, haven't installed it, but I was hoping it would be quieter than my Seagate drive.

Will have to try today and see!

 

I knew I should have jumped on this deal when it was up. Hesitated too long. Went through the thread and didn't notice anyone mentioning the same catastrophic failures that were fairly common among the Seagate 7200.4s. Due in part to the fact that the Hitachis are also much newer I'm sure. But the performance data is looking mighty good.

Anyone got a spare for sale?

 

Still ava but seems like markedup.
http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_itemdetail.asp?rid=fd_10&itemid=1444992393

 

Quite the markup.

 

Not really, it is simply the original suggested retail price.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/hitachi-ships-500gb-travelstar-7k500-7200rpms-in-2-5-inch-form/

Actually, the original deal was 'quite the discount'.

 

Update - they're baacckkkk!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145275

 

Heh, I knew I should have hopped on this when it came up. Oh well, c'est la vie.

 

Will this drive's price go down after Christmas?

 

Who knows?

But, it may be a Boxing Day Sale item?

 

Glad I pounced on this when I did, hah.

What are user benchmarks like?

 

I got it yesterday. For 80 bucks shipped you can't go wrong.

HDTach shows:

Ave read: 82.4
Burst 120
Random access: 16.5
CPU 10% (seems high)

This all on a fresh win 7 install, on a couple year old Inspiron 9400 laptop.

It about 2x the ave read of my old wd scorpio 250gb 5400, so I'm happy with it. Quiet too.

 

Damn right, that's 2x of my current Hitachi HD too...I'll keep an eye on it.

 

Mine came in earlier in the week. I've not installed anything on it yet, but I have tested the noise and vibration. On the former, it is a *lot* louder than my old 7200 RPM Seagate (a 100GB 7200.2) -- it has a "whooshing" sound, and the old Seagate is dead silent. On the latter, it does not have much (if any) vibration, and the old Seagate vibrates enough that I can feel it in the palm rests on a Lenovo X61T.

 

whoosh as in vacumm cleaner loud?

 

Oh good heavens no. But I could hear it over the noise my server makes (named "hoover" for its noise), though I was sitting a lot closer to the laptop.

 

Okay, UPS is %%&*^ (they left mine outside overnight in -20 Celsius!), but, I have a new 7K500 waiting for Win 7 x64!!!

Probably this weekend, if I'm lucky with work, I'll be setting it up - can't wait.

Defrosting it now - don't worry, its just sitting in the kitchen.

 

Wow, dethawing a drive. You must live in a small town. Where I am, UPS wont leave it outside. Would be done in 60 seconds maybe.

 

Wow UPS was pretty harsh on your Hitachi lol I probably live in a smaller town than you(one high school for the whole town woohoo...and the high school has 1500 students total ) and mine just got sent directly to my house(but then again I live in Canada so they went through the postal service).

I'm waiting for my Windows 7 Ultimate from expertzone before trying this baby out

 

After I replaced old 160GB 5400rpm seagate drive with this one in my x61t, I got the same persistent hum, and the whole laptop starts to vibrate. The vibration is not that bad, but I can definitely feel it when my hands are on palm rest. Everytime I am typing or using the trackpoint, the whole palm rest acts like a vibrating palm massager! It is so annoying that I switched back my old seagate hard drive which does not vibrate at all. I don't know whether my hitachi is just a bad apple or the drive does vibrate like that. I'm going to put it in my 4-year-old dell inspiron which I mostly use as a "desktop" nowadays.

 

Is the drive secured down?

 

Has anyone had freezing issues with this? Windows is freezing occasionally and would unfreeze after a minute or two. This only started after I replaced the hard drive

 

Which Windows version? Bad install I would think (drivers).

If you cloned it - good luck trying to fix it.

 

I'm on a Dell Studio XPS 13, with Windows 7. It was a clean install.

Also, drivers couldn't have been a problem since these issues were present even on a clean install of Windows 7.

Did I get a bad drive? Or could something else be causing this?

 

Are you using Dell drivers or default Windows drivers?

And, yes, drivers could be the problem (even the order of installing the drivers makes a difference).

 

hmm.. well I was using the ones from Nvidia, and I just switched to the Dell ones, seems like it may actually be the drivers *crosses fingers*.

Thanks for the help!

 

I have been using this for a week or so and have never had any issues with it. Running pretty fast, cool and silent... Looks like way better than my old Seagate 500GB 7200.4 drive.


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Hope that was it and you're welcome.

Yeah, until the computer is fully functional with a clean install and all drivers working 100% properly - I will hold off for a day or two (even a week if I'm not 100% sure) before I install all my programs and finish customizing my install.

Keep in mind that some/most notebook manufacturers have custom firmware 'tweaks' for seemingly standard hardware and the only drivers that will work 100% stable is their own. Just wish they would update them to keep up with the officially released ones for the Retail hardware they seemingly sell us.

 

can anyone confirm that this drive is silent? i leave my laptop on overnight and the 7200rpm 250gb seagate it shipped with was so darn noisy i had to swap it for an equivalent samsung spinpoint, which is completely silent.

i've been contemplating getting the 7k500 as an interim while waiting for SSD prices to come down

 

Yes, 7K500 is dead silent. I feel like I have an SSD.


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Hmm, seems like noise and vibration is dependent on the casing of the NB rather than the drive. Might be a little from the Hitachi but more or less descernable depending on the notebook?

 

There are no screws to fix the hard disk to the computer. Thinkpad x61t has two rubber cushion strips on two sides of the hard disk. The hard disk is suspended and attached to computer only through the sata port. I suppose the design is to protect the hard disk from shocks. Not sure if this contributes to the vibration issue.

 

I actually turned things off in the house tonight and listened to this Hitachi 7k500, vs my old scorpio 5400 and an old Seagate 7200 drive that I have, and the Hitachi seems just as quiet as those two, if not a little quieter. I'm not a noise nut, but this seems like a pretty quiet drive to me....

 

I definitely want it for Christmas then.

 

That way you can hear Santa while your computer is on.

 

I installed the 7K500 in a 15" unibody macbook pro. While not loud, the drive is definitely louder than the stock HD, which was a hitachi 5K250.

I am also hearing a constant white-noise whoosh--not loud but clearly present. Since I'm an audio engineer, this does disappoint me a bit.

Also, I'm hearing a lot of subtle clicking every few seconds. Looking at the SMART attributes, it appears the drive is accumulating a large number of "load cycle counts." I get nearly 4,000 new load cycle counts per day! That strikes me as a lot, as the drive is rated for 600,000 load cycle counts. I'm wondering if my drive is a lemon. Any thoughts/advice?

 

Maybe change your power options to put the HD to 'sleep' after 1 hr instead of whatever it is now?