Main HDD Thread - (Discussion, Benchmarks, Brands, News and Advice)

Because generally, a WD3200BEKT is better than a Seagate 7200.4 in most tasks.

 

@Lousy, and please note that I'm using short-stroke in HDtune v4, which is not available in prior versions.. it boosts up 3 ms out of my normal access time,
and higher transfer rate result

 

I see. Thanks for the heads up Mod.

LOL! I was thinking the other way around Thanks!

I was trying to figure that out too but couldn't find any option when doing the test.
boosts up to 3ms, hmm.. I need to learn more about HDTune then Thanks too!

 

Performance?? It's WD 7200rpm vs Hitachi 7k500.. unless someone proves me wrong

it's only a synthetic benchmark,, not real life result

 

Might I pose a related question?

I'm in the market for an upgrade to my current system (see sig) and have been looking at the WD3200BEKT 7200 RPM simply because of the extended warranty and the massive number of positive reviews I've read on Newegg and Amazon (I also own 4 external WD HDs; I've never had a WD fail nor have I heard about one failing from any one of my friends). So the question I wish to pose is how do the WD and Hitachi drives compare as far as reliability is concerned? I've heard that some of the 500 GB drives are still having trouble lasting which is what originally drove me to limit my search to only 320 GB drives.

As a side note, is there anything different that should be done in configuring Windows 7 to fully utilize these drives (I'm not quite in the market for a SSD yet).

The two drives I'm looking at now:
WD3200BEKT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280
Hitachi 7K 500 GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145275

My current drive is a Seagate, so I'm feeling rather paranoid right now.

 

Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM on sale for $75.00 makes a good fit for this thread.

My new laptop comes with two 7200rpm 500gb drives, so no point for me, otherwise I would snatch these up quick.

 

lol that is a rip off price for a 7K500... i would get it if it shipped to UK

 

I decided to write a short review here about my own impressions from both drives.

I have been using the Seagate for a month but now switched to the Hitachi.

Seagate ST9500420AS:

+ Very fast drive! Can't deny what's true. Unfortunately I forgot to take a screenshot from the HDTune graph, but I was able to achieve Read speed from over 85 MB/s! The system became noticeably faster (compared to the original Toshiba 5400 RPM HDD)


- The HDD is vibrating A LOT!!!!!!!!! And when I say A LOT, I really mean A LOT!!! At a certain point I was afraid to put my notebook near to the edge of the desk - I was afraid it might move towards the edge and fall!! I am not kidding - the whole Notebook was vibrating like a washing machine!! The screws became loose! I thought I will get used to that but it was really hard!!

- Mainly because of the vibrations, there was a constant "Woooooooo" sound accompanying the nice vibrations. Every time I put the notebook on a hollow table for example, people around me were turning around to see what's going on!!

P.s. The S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive was showing OK from top to bottom, so I don't think I had a bad drive - I also read other people complain about it too.


Hitachi HTS725050A9A364:

+ Absolutely calm! No vibrations, working exactly like my 5400 RPM drive did! No difference in terms of vibrations!!

+ Absolutely silent! Haven't heard anything from the drive yet! No spinning, nothing!

- Slightly slower then the Seagate, at least according to HDTune! Here's one of the best graphs I could get with the Hitachi:



I was able to achieve approximately 80-85 MB/s with the Seagate, whereas I am only able to achieve 75-80 MB/s with the Hitachi! Nevertheless the Burst Rate is bigger and I am not able to feel any lack of speed compared to the Seagate - even the opposite - could be my mind but somehow the Hitachi seems faster every now and then. But that's subjective of course.



To sum up:

The Seagate ST9500420AS is without a doubt a fast HDD! The price for the slightly better results (if at all) compared to the Hitachi HTS725050A9A364 is IMO too high though!! I can't believe how calm my Notebook (and my hands while typing on it...) is since I got rid of the Seagate! All vibrations are gone, no "woooooooo wooooooo wooooooo" sounds anymore...

So - I would only recommend the Seagate if used where sound and vibrations won't matter. Not for internal laptop HDD though! Take the Hitachi instead - they both have the same prices here in EU (1-2 Euros difference).

Greets

 

To me the 7K500 is much better than the 7200.4

 

I can't confirm that if you mean speed...

Even if we compare your 7K500 results to my 7200.4 - the Seagate is still slightly faster, at least according to HDTune.

But as I said - even if - the price is way too high!

 

I've used both in my U81-a and can confirm the 7K500 will boot the OS 5 seconds faster. Over all the system is much snappier too. Real world for me the 7K500 is much better.

Phil did a review of these and the 320 Black. Overall the 7K500 wins but the 320 Black is a bit faster in a few area's. It trounces the 7200.4 though......

 

All of this wouldn't matter that much (very small theoretical differences, mostly unnoticeable in real life) if the Seagate was to work as a HDD and not as a washing machine! I was pretty happy with the speed, couldn't live with the vibrations though! That's the real deal-breaker to me.

P.s. How do you run your HDTune tests? Normal Windows startup and no/as less as possible other programs running?

 

for speed comparisons of boot time I was using boottimer.exe. You could see it using a stop watch as well but that eliminated user eror and gave actual numbers.

As far as HDTune I run it well after the system has settled to try and get the best numbers. Read numbers are not the only hold back of the drives though, it is write performance too.

When Phil tested the drives the 320GB black tested lowest in write latency then came the 7K500 and then the 7200.4. This is also one of the areas SSD's tend to trounce HDD's big time and why SSD's are the real future.

Although I got a bad one, I am really excited about the momentus XT. The benches all show write performance has gone up significantly over the 7200.4's performance. With the Hybrid it should be a nice stop gap between the time where SSD's become truely competative in the price per GB.

My 7200.4 had no real vibration issues. Seems to be alot of people with one though so there may be an uses with the platters used. If the individual platers are slightly off ballance when they are bound together you would then end up with some platter sets counter ballancing themselves and others way off ballance. The XT I had vibrated way more than the 7200.4 I have. I tried the XT in an enclosure and with it sitting on wood you could hear a slight buzz where the 7200.4 is also in an enclosure now too and is as smooth as any other drive.

 

I am about to purchase a new laptop and most likely a Asus. Unfortunately the computer is pre-configured with a 640gb (5400rpm) but it did have the option for the 500gb 7200rpm version. But, the retailer I am purchasing it from put in the 640gb 5400rpm harddrive instead.

I am not a gamer or a video editor. How much of a performance loss will I see in getting the 5400rpm 640gb hardrive instead of the 7200rpm 500gb hardrive?

 

Both are good. Do you need the storage? The 7200 is faster but not much both are two platter? Neither is "better".

 

There's quite a performance different, and the small amount of extra storage isn't worth it at all. You'll probably find yourself still looking for more at that level, so go for the performance edge. If you want something that is even more noticeable get one of Seagate's new Hybrid SSD/hard drive, the Momentus XT 500GB which has 32MB cache and 4GB SLC NAND SSD. Data transfer and whatnot isn't hugely faster, but latency and desktop Performance by estimates are improved by 4-10 times. It's VERY NOTICEABLE.

 

There is not a huge difference in performance. the 7200rpm drive will have better access times and slightly faster speeds.

This is offset some by the higher data density of the 640gb drive.

The best way to go is just get the larger one if you need/want the extra storage capacity, if you do not need it then go with the faster smaller drive.

 

the performance difference is definitely there and 140GB of extra space in contrast to 500GB isn't much. you'll notice the performance difference in load times and system responsiveness, and if that drive is a Momentus XT you won't have problem seeing it.

 

I beg to differ I have laptop with dual 500gb 7200rpm drives in it right now and my last laptop had dual 5200rpm drives in it. It does not feel much faster.

140GB is a LOT of space over 25% more, you have people settling for 80GB SSD drives and 140gb is over 50% more than that.

I just had to delete several games I had archived for my laptop reviews to make room for the movies I am encoding right now. If I had a 640gb drive I would have enough space - fact.

All the work I am doing right now, like encoding would be going exactly the same speed with a 5400rpm drive. - fact

You can always wait a few seconds longer for something to load, however if you do not have enough space for something thats a problem you cant just wait out.

Bottom line if you think you will need the space get the larger drive.

 

The Hitachi 7K500 is a lot faster than the WD 640GB drives.


Seagate 5400.7 640GB comes a bit closer.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/25inch-500-640-750gb-hdd-roundup_15.html#sect0

 

In real world performance Hitachi 7K500 is quite a lot faster than Seagate 7200.4.



Roundup: 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drives with 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB Storage Capacities (page 15) - X-bit labs

 

Here's MY real-life....

 

The Seagate 7200.4 is notorious for vibration. I switched mine out months ago for a Hitachi 7K500; it is quieter, has a minuscule amount of vibration by comparison, and is noticeably faster. The 7200.4 performs well in synthetic benchmarks but is slower in real life benchmarks (file transfers, etc).

 

The problem is that I really like this laptop but the negative side is it is pre-configured. If I had my pick, I would pick the 7200rpm over the 640gb as I rather have the speed, even though I am not quite sure if what I do will need or even use that extra speed as I do not do hardcore computing.

Here is the the Asus with 640gb, but 5400rpm: Asus - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i5 Processor / 14" Display / 4GB Memory / 640GB Hard Drive - Dark Bamboo - U43JC-BBA7

Do note, that a lot of information on the bestbuy site is wrong. I confirmed with Best Buy and Asus that quite a few specs there is wrong in a negative way. Also, do note my anger that two days ago the laptop was $899 but yesterday morning for some reason it jumped a $100 to $999. I am however thanks to my frustration getting a gift card from Best Buy with a lot of talking over the phone that makes up a little of the $100 difference from one day to the next.

Here is the Toshiba laptop that I would be considering with the 500gb 7200rpm hard drive: Toshiba - Satellite Laptop / Intel® Core™ i5 Processor / 14" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - Slate - M645-S4050

Lastly, I am not making any final decision until what I see HP has to offer with their Envy 14 line (though I am concerned with HP's reliability per some reports I read) which is supposed to come out June 27th.

 

Thing is, some 500GB/7200rpm drives are hardly faster than some 640GB/5400rpm drives. Without knowing the specific brands of the hard drive used it's impossible to say much about the performance.

I would advise you to make your decision on other grounds. Replacing a hard drive later is very easy.

 

Now mine does not vibrate abnormally, my XT using the same platters did. But I think I know why, Seagate must have bad QC on these platters. This will cause some drives to vibrate more than others.

If all platters are slightly off ballance then randomly, by assembly as they are combined, they will cause vibrations. The off ballance point of the platters can be on the same side making it way off ballance or opposite sides causing a counter ballance. Since it is not by design it can vary the amount off ballance as well. too much vibration I am sure too can cause irratic head to platter problems too all the way up to DOA's or soon too be DOA's.

Vibration can cause a host of other issues too;
1.) increase power draw.
2.) missed reads, slowing data transfer and increasing latency.
3.) missed writes slowing data transfer and increasing latency.
4.) lower platter rotation below 7200 RPM slowing overall data transfer.
5.) increase head wear.
6.) increase Heat output.
7.) slow down spin up speed
8.) randomly freeze the drive as the platter reports not fully spun up from being too far under rotational speed tolerance.


I am sure the list can go on...............

 

I don't really care about the reasons.... That's not my field of study.
People I pay for this products should though, but apparently they do not.

The 7200.4 shouldn't have been released to the market like that.

 

I'd have to agree there. Since it has been around so long any issues should have been addressed way before now too................

 

Thanks for the review, Gracy. I'm close to getting a 13" MBP and would upgrade the HD myself to save a few bucks (and get the 7,200 RPM; Apple upgrades to a 500GB 5,400 drive). Been looking into both these HDs and it sounds like Hitachi is the way to go. I checked it out on NewEgg and the majority of the reviews are very positive, but a decent amount (~15%) are 3 stars and below; a lot of people are saying that it is pretty noisy, hot, and it dies after anywhere from 1-6 months. A lot of people said the same about the Seagate.

I've never upgraded a HD before, so I've never been through the process of picking one out. What's the deal? Why does there seem to be a decent amount of failure with these drives? Is the QC at these manufacturers that bad? Or are people somehow using or installing them incorrectly?

Thanks.

 

For what it's worth, I can't hear my Hitachi 7K500. If I move really close I hear a soft breeze but I'm uncertain if it's the fan or the HDD.

 

There is nothing perfect or eternal You think the MBP is 100% quality? it might be one of the best, but certainly not perfect

So it is with the HDDs as well - a good percentage of all show defect after certain time. But you are doing it right by researching before buying - that's what I always do as well

I initially wanted to buy the Hitachi, but as I was in a hurry I bought what I could find in the stores around - the Seagate. You read my impressions - I am so happy now that I swapped the drive and bought the Hitachi couple of days ago.

I don't know about speed - no matter what numbers different tests show - the Seagate and the Hitachi seem to work just as fast to me. There is a huge difference between the original Toshiba 5400RPM I had and any of both, but no noticeable one between the two.

I would certainly have stuck with the Seagate if it wasn't for the vibrations! I really thought I will get used to them, but believe me, now that I can see how the Hitachi works - nothing is worth that, even if it had the speed of a SSD

Go with the Hitachi - it isn't perfect but it seems to be the best 7200 RPM you can buy nowadays.

About noise - I too can't confirm this! It is absolutely silent, even though my Sony is also very silent compared to other notebooks. I hear absolutely no sound - definitely more silent then the Seagate.

Heat - normal temperature! 37 °C right now (25 °C room temp.).

 

I thought it would be a good idea to have a main hard drive thread because often new threads are started with similar questions and similar posts. Anyone who wants advice on what hard drive to choose or other hard drive related questions can be posted here.

The fastest hard drives at the moment:

(Seagate Momentus XT was not included, it would be no.1)
Source: Roundup: 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drives with 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB Storage Capacities (page 15) - X-bit labs

PC Mark Vantage HDD scores on Tomshardware:

Charts, benchmarks 2009 2.5? Mobile Hard Drive Charts, PCMark Vantage

Seagate Momentus XT scored 5008 on PC Mark Vantage non cached.

Other charts:
Tom's Hardware 2.5" Mobile Hard Drive Charts

 

Thanks for the post Gracy, I've been trying to decide between these for an upgrade to a 2nd HDD. My research has been leaning me towards the Hitachi.

Ironically it seems my current HDD the notebook came with is the Seagate. I've not noticed any crazy vibrations, but maybe because my 17-incher is a pretty hefty machine.

 

i think the weight also plays in vibrations for sure... so i would say that's a reason why its not vibrating that much...

 

Basically i would get 500GB 7200rpm drive anytime.. trust me 5400rpm drives are slow... and i feel it now..... if u really want more space , i would get an external 7200rpm 3.5 inch drive.. although not portable , it doesn't lack speed.. especially e-SATA or USB drives.

 

Do you mean THE Seagate... or another Seagate?

I definitely don't think all Seagate HDDs are that crappy! That was in fact my first Seagate HDD, so I have no experience, but they have a good name. This specific product though (the ST9500420AS) is nothing they should be proud of.

Regarding other manufacturers - I also own/use:

1. 1TB WD 5400 RPM - 6 months old - works perfectly (it's an external 3,5). SMART from top to bottom OK. I use it mainly for back up though so not used daily.

2. 40GB Samsung 5400 RPM - used to be in my previous notebook, it is 4 years old, I use it as external and has fallen on the floor while spinning numerous times, I have pressed its cover (not on purpose) till it starts growling... and yet it still works perfectly! It has 2 SMART Warnings though - no failures, just warnings.

3. 80GB Hitachi 7200 RPM - after 2 years and 11 months of usage (just one month before the Warranty was to end) it started showing a SMART failure every time I boot. I even contacted Hitachi and initiated service. 1 day before I was going to send it to Hitachi, the SMART failure disappeared and hasn't come back ever since It somehow fixed itself! Still using this drive on another notebook. It is quite noisy indeed and not really fast but... well... that's a 3,5 years old drive now. Has 2 SMART warnings as well.

4. 250GB Samsung 5400RPM - started showing defects just a month after it was bought - I received a new one from Samsung. The new one which is only a month old now already has a warning in SMART, but no failure.

5. 500GB Toshiba 5400RPM - 3 months old now. Working ok, very silent, but also has 2 SMART Warnings (again - no failures, just warnings).

I also used to have a 80GB Fujitsu 5400RPM drive which I used for 4 years, but it became quite noisy, some strange clicking started and I sold it a few months ago.

 

Yep, THE Seagate. It's a 7200rpm 500GB and according to System Information for Windows (SIW - great little app btw) is the ST9500420AS. Nothing in the DELL system spec or website tells you what it is though...

 

Just for fun, looking @ neweggs user reviews & both are virtually the same price contrary to what the OP said:

- Hitachi 7K500 HD20500: 174 reviews, 4 eggs product rating average

- Seagate ST9500420AS: 409 reviews, 4 eggs product rating average

Maybe I'm just lucky but my two ST9500420AS don't vibrate nor make noise.

*****

 

I was just about to buy the ST9500420AS - I'm glad I found this thread!

 

Could be I'm lucky too. I double checked SIW and it says my HDD is Manufacture = Seagate, Model = ST9500420AS. So far no crazy vibes, though I haven't run any benchmark tests or anything. I've moved some pretty big files around though (~40GB files to/from my WD Book 1.5TB external HDD) without noticing anything untoward.

Having said that don't want to tempt fate. I'm planning on getting the Hitatchi for my 2nd HDD. Waiting for the caddy to arrive from newmodeus before pulling the trigger though

Hard drive caddy for DELL Studio 1745, 1747, 1749 (2nd HDD bay) [DELL-S1747] - $26.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

 

On closer inspection there are pretty big differences...

Hitachi 7K500
5 star ratings 74%
3 star ratings and less 15%
1 star ratings 8%


Seagate 7200.4
5 star ratings 54%
3 star ratings and less 35%
1 star ratings 23% (!)

It's a shame Newegg labels them both as four star products. It's not a very accurate way of describing the customer reviews.

Without having done the math I'm expecting the Hitachi is probably 4.4 stars and the Seagate 3.6.

 

You are also using it with a heavy desktop replacement.... - you should see how my 1,9 kg notebook dances on the table...

 

OK, on closer inspection:

The oldest newegg Hitachi review is dated 11/24/2009 while it's 1/29/2009 for the Seagate & there was some revisions for this drive as well as a firmware change.

Obviously a newegg Hitachi buyer can't say that his drive failed after 10 months... yet.

 

We don't know if that will change it in the future. The fact is that the Hitachi gets a lot more positive reviews, both on Newegg and NBR.

Add to that that the Hitachi is also faster the choice is very easy.

The real competition for the Hitachi 7K500 from Seagate comes from the Momentus XT, not from the Seagate 7200.4.

 

You're not far off there. The Hitachi is 4.40, while the Seagate is 3.67

 

Hitachi users also haven't had to do a firmware update. People shouldn't have to update a hard drive's firmware . . .

I would get a Western Digital Scorpio Blue before I got a Seagate 7200.4; even though they are 5400RPM the performance is comparable.

The bottom line is the Seagate 7200.4 just is not a good drive.

 

The 640GB Seagate 5400.7 is a nice alternative to the 7200.4 It's performance comes very close to the 7200.4 while it uses less power. According to the German Magazine Chip it's the quietest HDD they ever tested.

Roundup: 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drives with 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB Storage Capacities (page 14) - X-bit labs

 

No, people should not have to do a firmware update but some Hitachi drive owners had to in the past & may have to in the future just like for all other brands. People shouldn't have to update the BIOS of their brand new laptops either but some recent models needed some as one can read in some recent threads.

Since Hitachi & other manufacturers don't have a firmware upgrade page & requires the user to check with his serial number for each drive, check this Hard Disk Drive Firmware Base. Interestingly there are 184 firmware files for Seagate & 141 for Hitachi/IBM.

This said, unless you buy very old stock of ST9500420AS, you don't have to upgrade the firmware as there is no newer firmware to upgrade to @ the present nor is there any need to do so.

I'm not denying that Seagate should have a better initial quality @ product launch nor that the Hitachi 7K500 is a better drive overall: speed/power consumption.

Just saying that it's not all black & white & that the 7K500's are not all good & the ST9500420AS are not all bad as the newegg's users comments illustrates.

I live in Costa Rica & 4 months ago a US friend was coming to visit me & offered to bring some stuff that I needed to ship to him. My first choice was a pair of Hitachi 7K500's but for some online ordering/shipping address limitations, I could not ship them to him. Got a pair of ST9500420AS instead and so far so good. That's all I'm sayin'.

An interesting read: Roundup: 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drives with 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB Storage Capacities (2010-06-16). The Hitachi 7K500 won the prize.

 

Cool! Thanks for the link Joe

 

Extracting the power consumption data for the Seagate ST9500420AS and the Hitachi 7K500 from the Roundup: 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drives... linked above:



So which one is more power efficient? While the idle consumption & sequential read difference in favor of the Hitachi is significant, YMMV depending on your usage it seems.

*****