Hitachi E7K100 vs the 7K100

ok so i just realized/found two different versions of the 7200RPM Travelstar series the newer E7k100 I believe and the older 7k100 does anyone know the actual difference between the models and which would probably be better? from hitachi's website they said its just the second generation of the 7k100 but i didnt see a difference in specs

 

E is for servers and has some power management features disabled, the regular is for laptops.

 

what do you mean regular is for laptops? they are both 2.5" notebook drives.

The Travelstar E7K100 expands Hitachi’s secondgeneration 7200 RPM 2.5-inch hard drive series with further design enhancements for data intensive applications requiring round-the-clock operation. The E7K100 provides leading-edge capacity, performance, durability and power utilization on a proven platform for quality and reliability.

 

They are physically the exact same drive. The difference is in the firmware settings. For all practical purposes, they are the drive.

 

ok so i guess whichever is cheaper go for ?

 

The non-E-series firmware is configured for laptops, plus it's usually cheaper. The E series will get you better performance at the expense of higher overall power consumption. It probably doesn't make all that much difference. Either will certainly work.

 

Actually, no. You can change the some of the firmware settings in the non-e version to increase performance (theoretically, although in practice there is not real performance increase).

 

I'm in the market to get a new HDD... deciding whether to get the E7K100 or the 7K100. Does the E7K100 actually run cooler than the 7K100 at the expense of power consumption? If I get the 7K100 and change the firmware, will it run cooler?

 

I just bought the E version on eBay and it really does run fast but I'm disappointed I didn't check this out first.

If the E version uses more battery power, which it seems like it pretty obviously does, then it runs hotter. The only place that that electricity, besides a minuscule amount of power in the signals that leave the drive and noise that escapes the case of the computer (all of which is presumably the same for the non-E version), goes is into heat.

So it really looks like the E version is meant for applications where there's at least a little airflow around the drive. Because it runs hotter, and it's rated at a (lot!) lower max. enviro. temp.

Although I don't believe the heat spec. What, do they use cheaper bearings, a cheaper circuit board substrate, cheaper components, etc. in the E version? I rather doubt it.

Unless maybe the E version has a tiny little fan inside it. Or a refrigeration compressor.

 

E hard drives are meant to be run in servers where reliability is important. These drives are much less likely to fail. However, they don't have power management options. I don't think they will ever spin down unless you turn power to the hard drive off. These are not meant for laptops. It will draw much more power.