Seagate Momentus 7200.4 thread

Well for those of you that are interested, mwave (USA) has them in stock - bought one yesterday and it was shipped last night with a valid tracking number. Haven't found it anywhere else.

 

I dont know why you guys think that this program is more accurate for benchmarks. All of those results were done by repeadingly start the test, then copy the screenshot into paint and save, then test again. The test were done when the HDD light would stop blinking for long period of time (or in other words, windows did not have what to do other than the test). Still with all my 55 processes running though.

as you can see, there are differences of 7 MB/s

 

Run PCMARK, or Vantage to get more accurate scores
I thought Crystalmark was a real life benchark but apparently it is synthetic.

K-TRON

 

I think ATTO is fine, as well as HDTune.

as for real time results (for real), I said that my boot time decreased from ~2min to ~1:15 from the old HDD (Seagete 7200 160GB) - this is with all my stuff loaded (55 processes), with antivirus checking for updates on the internet, and the time stops when the HDD light stop blinking. That should speak the truth

 

interesting. according to those readings, it's only a couple of MB faster than the 5K500B in some measures...and consistently slower in others.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ratsey/CrystalDiskMark_5K500B_WD5000BEVT_5400-6.jpg

hmph.

 

I don't really like such benchmarks. Any SSD looks great on such a benchmark, but most of them have serious problems.
A HDD manufacturer can also optimize the firmware for such benchmarks, sadly this represents little to nothing regarding real life usage.
So as K-Tron already said, maybe PCMARK or Vantage represent better how good or bad the drives really are.

It would be sad if the 7200.4 isn't faster than a 5400 RPM drive.
So we only can hope that a few users have both the 7200.4 and a second 5400RPM 500GB HDD and could compare them regarding file transfer, boot times, program start times, ...

 

Not attempting to be pedantic,

but,

have you guys considered testing in safe mode?

 

Hmph indeed. Consider this review of the 7200.4, comparing against the 5k500.b http://www.i4u.com/full-review-529.html . In synthetic tests the 7200.4 beats the 5k500.b, but in the final read/write real-world tests it's almost a dead heat, with the 5k500.b beating the seagate in a write test! This is mighty strange, given that both are 250GB-per-platter drives, with the 7200.4 spinning 33% faster than the 5k500.b I've copied and pasted the relevant sections in italics to compare both below. Notice the buffered read statistic on the 5k500.b trounces the 7200.4.

Sandra XII
The first test up was Sandra XII's physical disks benchmark. The higher the number for the drive index, the better the performance of the drive making the 7200 rpm Seagate much better in this benchmark. For a bit of comparison I ran the same benchmark on the drive inside my desktop computer with 1TB of storage and spinning at 7200 rpm. The desktop hard drive had a drive index of 74.68 MB/sec and a random access time of 12ms.

7200.4: The drive index for the Seagate drive was 73.81 MB/s and the random access time was 14ms.
5k500.b The Hitachi 500GB 5400 rpm HDD had a drive index of 57.48 MB/s and a random access time of 15ms.

Everest Ultimate
The next test was the Everest Ultimate disk benchmark. Again the 7200 rpm Seagate trounced the 5400 RPM Hitachi HDD, which had a beginning read time of 81.1MB/s, the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB HDD had on average about a 20MB/s speed advantage over the Hitachi drive.

7200.4
* Linear Read Beginning: 101.7MB/s
* Linear Read Middle: 84.9MB/s
* Linear Read End: 51.4MB/s
* Random Read: 86.8MB/s
* Buffered Read: 165.4MB/s
* Average Access Time: 16.23ms

5k500.b
* Beginning Read: 81.1MB/sec
* Middle Read Time: 65MB/sec
* Ending Read Time: 38.7MB/sec
* Random Read: 65MB/sec
* Buffered Read: 223.6MB/sec

File Copy
The final test was the file copy test where I copied a folder containing 5.46GB of data to and from the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB HDD and timed the operation with a stopwatch. It took 1 minute and 27 seconds to write the folder from the system drive in my computer to the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB HDD. To write the same folder from the Seagate 500GB drive to the system drive took 1 minute and 29 seconds. Comparing that performance to the Hitachi 5400 rpm hard drive shows a virtual dead heat with the Seagate taking 3 seconds longer to write the data to the disk. The performance on other file types and large data sets could be much more in favor of the Seagate.

 

You should really quote the source ( " " ), because you posted like you wrote that comparison. Unless you did, that is called plagiarism.

K-TRON

 

I'll have my 5K500.B's (2 of them) tomorrow. I'lll have my 7200.4's...whenever Dell gets them in and ships them. I ordered them last month. who knows. I'll be keeping one pair, based on their performance individually, then in raid 0.

the pair will be replacing my "balls slow" 4200rpm raid 0 solution that came in the laptop. and by "balls slow", I mean the 4200's combined = the approximate speed of a 5400rpm with a higher access time.

 

I have the Hitachi 500GB as well, but it's in USB enclousure and is full already so can not put it as system drive. If I buy an eSATA express card, I'll test it over that one since my enclousure have eSATA port as well.

all I can say about the Hitachi drive is that it's average access time is ~19mS, where as the Seagate has ~16 - 17 mS (in HDTune).

 

Agree with the first part, but even PCMark and Vantage can be manipulated. An example is the 7200.3 beating the 3200BEKT in most PC Mark benchmarks but the 3200BEKT is faster in real application benchmarks.

That's what I would like to see too.

 

I have an app that runs underneath DOS (and directly talks to the HDD itself) that I'll be using for benchmarking.

it's that's not a the best test, nothing will be.

will post results, screenshots, blah blah.

 

Porksoda gave a good example of how to benchmark hard drives:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=360527

Laptopmag does it even nicer:

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/storage/intel-x25-m.aspx?page=4

 

then I'll use a variant of both.

 

and we'll waiting the result, ajreynol

 

Best to see my original post here which explains those results.

You might also want to use the disk benchmarks in SiSoftware Sandra, the latest version of which includes an online ranking engine. However, the physical disk write test can only be carried out on an empty HDD.

John

 

^ I didn't see any extra explanation...and I knew the Hitachi was on the left. Probably could have noted that for others, though.

...and I'll be sure to DL sandra and run the tests via enclosure first.

 

I am in the same boat, trying to decide if the 7200.4 is worth it against a the the 250GB-per-platter 5400rpm drives.

* Fujitsu MJA2-BH
* Hitachi 5k500.b
* WD5000EBVT / WD4000EBVT
* Seagate Momentus 5400.6

In addition to the benchmarks posted here on the last 3, with middle two's power consumption compared here. The only chart that gives any comparison point including the Fujitsu is this. My interest is with power consumption as well, so am drawn to Fujitsu's claims 0.6W standby and 1.3/1.4W read/write, as low or lower than the Hitachi 5k500.b. Though trawling through the web has given no benchmarks on it.

Has anyone considered purchasing a Fujitsu MJA2-BH instead? In my locale it's actually the cheapest from the 5400rpm lot.

 

Just finished my preliminary testing of one of the 5K500.B drives. I have benchmarks from Scisoft Sandra Pro, HDTune, my Dos-based app, and Crystal Mark. All tests done via eSATA as an empty drive.

Results are...well...you'll see. I only wish I had my 7200.4 drives for the comparison. Alas, the ship date was the 20th...but no ship...and I have no drives.

Restoring my drive C image now. That'll take awhile because sadly, my image restoring program doesn't see my eSATA expresscard. I have to use USB which is making it take 2x as long.

as soon as I get my post-image-drop benchmarks in, I'll post the results and pics and stuff.

 

thanks ajreynol

 

here in the UK there's none of these drives, zip bugger all. ive ordered one though and im waiting for them company to get stock. im currently running an Hitachi 7K200 200gb, and after reading some of the reviews im begining to wonder if this drive is any good. how comes the 7200.3 seems to beat everything in tests ive seen on tomshardware, but the new 7200.4 seems crap.

 

Every single test Tom's Hardware runs is synthetic. If Tom's Hardware would be running real life benchmarks or application benchmarks the results would look completely different.

 

ahh. ok whats the fastest currently available laptop harddrive? that actaully is the fastest.

 

Probably WD3200BEKT (or WD3200BJKT with freefall sensor).

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15079/7

 

Any word on when the WD/Hitachi versions of the 500GB 7200.4 drive will come out?

 

wd and hitachi are the same company, but seagate is a different company altogether. or did you mean when will wd and hitachi going to release a drive with similar specs?

 

Phil, thanks for the link, are there any other reviews where there comparing the 7200.4 in real world test's? also are the wd's getting old technologically? e.g. if i buy one of those will it be superceded in about two weeks?

 

There's a real world test in this review comparing the Seagate 7200.4 with Hitachi 5K500.b. Read test is identical and Hitachi writes quicker.

 

okay, I have the 5k500.b stuff ready to go. should I post it in here, or is there a more appropriate thread? do we have/need a 5k500 thread?

up to you guys.

 

No I meant when WD and Hitachi will release a 500GB 7200RPM HDD?

 

There's a 5K500.b thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=364014

 

cheers. sorry i had already read it. so it seems the wd then? or are wd about to shock us with a new drive anytime soon?

 

Are the Dell Momentus 7200.4 with free-fall sensor and the Seagage Momentus 7200.4 the exact same thing Because Dell seems to be the only place were I can find the 7200.4...

 

This is starting to get frustrating. Should I get the Hitachi or the Seagate? Does the Seagate's lack of speed have anything to do with drivers? Or is it purely mechanical?

 

Not yet.

WD and Hitachi is a different company.

It's the same. Only the warranty period differs.

I think it's the firmware problem which also has plagued recent model of Seagate 3.5" HDD.

 

I don't know if anyone missed it, the review http://www.i4u.com/full-review-529.html may perhaps explain why the 250GB-per-platter 7200.4 is underperforming against equivalent density 5400rpms drives. Consider the poor *buffered* read data performance of the 7200.4 from Everest:

7200.4:
Buffered Read: 165.4MB/s

5k500.b
Buffered Read: 223.6MB/sec

Is the firmware constricting the 7200.4 cache read, is the interface limiting the speed (perhaps SATA-I?) or is the cache just plain slow? I too am frustrated in my purchase decision as the 7200.4 should be at least 20% faster than the 5400rpm units, whilst still offering quite low power consumption. Also found this on a forum, which is pretty useful to compare power consumption:

 

It's probably the I/O that is slow. Just like with the 7200.3 that seemed really fast in synthetic benchmarks. I/O has been a problem for Seagate longer.

The 7200.4 might still be faster than the 5K500.b in heavy multitasking situations. Unfortunately we don't know for sure.

The slow I/O is probably not going to be fixed by frimware or drivers.

 

In the test in http://www.i4u.com/full-review-529.html i'd still like to know if he was copying to the same region of the drive of both the 5K500.B. and 7200.4, and hence also reading from there. In the case that the ratios of r/w speeds depend of position that could be a problem. Maybe.
Also, it would be nice with a graph showing the transfer rate through the whole period - i.e. it would be nice to notice the nature of this transfer. If it dips to a very low speed for a short time, or if it is very consistent.

 

just got mine from www.mwave.com for $138 shipped

 

What's the difference between ST9500420AS and and ST9500420ASG?

 

G-Fall Sensor...

 

okay boys, my 5K500.B benchmarking post is up:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=364014&page=4

I'll be running the numbers against my 7200.4's whenever I receive them. Audizz, I admit to being jealous as hell, considering I ordered mine nearly a month ago from Dell and have yet to receive them. The price for trying to save that extra $20/drive.

 

That's what I thought. The G at the end denotes that it has the sensor, right?

 

yup........

 

thanks ajreynol

 

is it 1 year warranty or 3 year warranty?

 

np. i try.

 

In anticipation of college I had bought a 7200.4 off of Dell. Then I found this thread. Nuts.

Should I return my 7200.4 and get a 5K500.B or a WD5000BEVT? I'm planning on using this laptop for the typical college activities, plus some gaming, photoshop, and movies. I would appreciate the (theoretical) performance boost, but I don't know if the 7200.4 runs significantly louder and hotter than the hitachi / WD 5400s (the noise is important to me).

Also, something I found on newegg's reviews for the 7200.4:

Performance does not achieve the potential. They are SLOW. I returned both drives to Seagate. I had to take a refund because I was told that production has been delayed for an "engineering update".

Has this been verified? Do you think that the next batch of these will have these problems corrected, or should I just return the drive and get a hitachi 5k500.B? Thanks for the help!

 

captaincanuck, based on the information sofar, 7200.4 isn't any faster than Hitachi 5K500.b. Since Hitachi is cheaper, you might as well go for it.

Or wait for ajreynol to do his real world tests.