Which 320GB 7200rpm Hard Drive?

I've had my Dell Latitude E6400 that I bought for a steal from Dell SMB Outlet. IT had all the specs I wanted, except it only has an 80GB hard drive (at least it's 7200rpm, though). Needless to say, it's gotta go!

Initially I was planning to upgrade to 250GB, but it's only $10 more for 320GB @ 7200rpm, even better! Newegg has three with very similar specifications, any reason I should choose one over the others-

HITACHI Travelstar
Western Digital Scorpio Black
Seagate Momentus

-They're all $89.99, FREE Shipping, 320GB, 7200rpm, 16mb cache, 12ms Seek Time.
-Warranty: the Western Digital has a 5-year warranty, the other two have a 3-year. Does the 5-year warranty suggest superior quality?
-Average Latency (not sure what this is): Seagate and HITACHI are almost identical at 4.17/4.2ms; Western Digital is 5.5ms...I'm assuming lower is better here? Insubstantial?

Advice is much appreciated!

 

There is actually a better option than those: Seagate 500GB 7200rpm hard drive which seems to be faster than all the previous 320GB drives. Would you think of that as another option?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374

 

I'm rather biased towards Western Digital, but I've been using a Scorpio Black 320GB as my main drive for about a month now, and it's blazing fast. It even beats my desktop in start up time. It is loud though, and sometimes you can hear clicking noises from the head moving around the platter or something. It also vibrates like no tomorrow when you are doing intense work (or gaming). You can feel the vibration if you hold your hand on the laptop. None of this bothers me one bit, as my headphones drown out any noise (fans, the hard drives, etc), and the hard drive is away from my left hand. If you are a silent pc enthusiast, the clicking may annoy you.

 

The 80GB 7200rpm in it now is a Seagate, not that it matters. I am partial to Seagate external hard drive, but didn't know if that would translate over to internal drives?

I just know that I HATE Fujitsu drives....or they have me, rather.

 

It's said that:

The WD is the fastest IRL, it has the best seek times, best allround tranferrates and so.

The Seagate looks best on "paper" with it's high transferspeeds, but in fact it's not faster than the WD.

The Hitachi is said to be the most quiet one of all 3.


But imho, any of these drives are as fast as the other. They all have the same datadensity and rpm's.

The WD offers the most though as it gives 5years warranty and has the best access times (on all tests i've seen).

Just a sidenote:
If K-TRON comes in and throws a comment, he will say that the Hitachi is the fastest, best and most quiet because he's a Hitachi fanboy and throws on the other makes some of the time but in most cases he can recommend WD and seagate, but with Hitachi as first choice I just wanna point out Hitachi fanboy. So you have that in mind
But his opinions are as worthy as anyone elses, so listen to him too

 

Yes it is. We've done and posted benchmarks on here. Search the forum.

 

You may also consider a single platter 250 GB 7200.4 or single platter 160 WD which are more quiet, produce less heat without a loss in performance, if you don't need the space.

 

I feel like a doofus asking some of these questions, but it's the only way to learn things, I suppose....

Are you implying that the 7200.3 (320GB) isn't a single platter? And that multiple platters generate more heat? If the 7200.3 generates more heat than the 7200.4 (250GB), I'd probably be willing to sacrifice 70GB and go with the 250GB model to keep things cooler overall....

 

Western Digital Scorpio Black of coruse, I have it defnetly right choise...

 

I just installed the WD3200BEKT (Scorpio Black 320GB) in my Thinkpad T61. It was the quietest of the 320GB drives that I tested (Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung) but ultimately still enough hum to distract me. The noise level was about 80% of the laptop fan drone level, which means the drive could not be heard over the fan but sounded like a soft fan when the actual fan was off. It can be heard in a silent room but is drowned out when there is traffic, tv or music. Still this was the best of the lot.

I have a sensitive ear, so I am returning this for a hopefully quieter 5400 RPM drive.

I bought the WD3200BEKT for USD 80 before taxes at Now Direct.

 

Aw, dude! You just missed the $20 rebate on the Hitachi (it ended on 1/31), sorry!

I bought a 320Gb 7200rpm Hitachi for my DV and it's great; no noise (except a slight hum when the drive is really active) and virtually no difference heat-wise from the 250 Gb 5400 rpm it replaced. There is a definite difference (positive) in the speed at which game levels load and programs open. I think I might be a Hitachi fanboy, too.

 

That's what i mean, it shows to have the best sequential throughput of them all on "paper"/benchmarks, but it's not faster because of that

 

To those of you who have the Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200 RPM drives, does your HDD constantly vibrate even when not being accessed? I just installed the 250GB model, while it is nice, I get a constant vibration compared to the 5400 RPM drive. I don't know if this is normal or not.

 

I have owned both the WD black and the Seagate and I can tell you not only is WD faster in write performance, it's also loads quieter and less hot so WD is your only choice.

 

I have small rubber gromets between the hdd and the chassis of my notebook, so i can't feel any vibrations at all.
It's easy to install and do your own gromets to put in between to make such things go away and to get the harddrive even more quiet.

LONG BENCH in HD Tach:


Short Bench in HD Tach:


Random Access test in HD Tune:


File Benchmark in HD Tune:


Another Short HD Tach Benchmark:



Some benchmarks of my WD 3200 BEKT. This is with a one month old Win Se7en installation


EDIT: Added even more benchmarks

 

My Thinkpad came with Rubber paneling to put on the sides of the hard drive. That is what is making me concerned. Power useage is about the same, just have this constant vibration.

 

I see. Hmm.
Have you mounted them correctly? If yes, then it's very strange, maybe you got a "sunday-build" as we call it over here in sweden, something that is built with low quality on a bad day

I don't have any vibrations what-so-ever with them. Without them i had some annoying vibrations, the reasons i discovered this is because i forgot to re-apply the rubber gromets after i had my notebook into a hundred parts

 

No vibrations (like when a CD is running for example) but there is a constant hum that is similar to the fan noise but at 70%-80% of the fan volume.

I have a Thinkpad T61. The oem drive was shielded by a cage and had rubber "shoes" on the sides to damp potential vibrations.

 

Think I may have the return the drive. I transferred the shield cage and rubber sides to the new drive. Ah well.

 

I just pulled a 5400rpm out of my thinkpad put in an SSD... sorry WD and Seagate you lost a costumer... until you releases SSD's that is.

 

Another vote for WD3200BEKT (Scorpio Black 320GB) here. Darn near perfect drive. FAST and QUIET. No issues whatsoever. Of course, like above, when a DECENT SSD comes out, I will be all over it. The ground is changing too fast for me to make an SSD purchase now.

 

Also, I have predicted that WD will announce an SSD before Valentines day!

 

Bye bye money, for you then
I can't find any SSD that's around 300GB for ~100bucks yet. For 200bucks you get about 32GB, otherwise you find crappy SSD's that's worse than standard HDD's.

But ofcourse, people will buy the good SSD's when the price and size is right. It's still not really worth it yet for most people And you can do as much with a HDD as with a SSD, so you get the most out off your money if you buy a mechanical HDD to be honest

 

Are 7200rpm drives really that much hotter - if so, wich are the ones with lowest temp. out of all the 7200rpm's?
I just bought a Sony VAIO FW and it has a 300GB 4200rpm drive and I can already feel the warmth on the right side of the touchpad, where the HDD is located. Is there a big performance dif. between 4200rpm and 5400rpm or 5400rpm and 7200rpm?
I'm not looking for top-notch lightning fast speeds bu I've heard that 4200rpm isn't really cutting it these days...

 

it is faster !!!
Back up your statement, don't just plainly say it.

 

Actually I am pretty sure the seagate has the highest data transfer and iops, but the hitachi takes the win for windows startup. The WD wins in application loading, only a hair.
They are all roughly the same speed, so its not like a huge difference worth fighting over

K-TRON

 

Newegg made the decision for me. The Seagate is currently on sale (using coupon code- EMCLNLP39) for $79.99, so it's $10 cheaper than the other two. I just placed the order....<fingers crossed>!

 

Just to update everyone, I received my replacement HDD from WD today and it is much better. No constant vibrations, nice and fast. Definitely think it is better. Also, Kudos for WD support, I filed my claim on Tuesday and received the new unit today.

 

Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 7200RPM on newegg for $79.98 + $20 MIR = $59.98.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145228&Tpk=hitachi 7k320

 

What advantages or disadvantages would I have getting this Hitachi over the Toshiba 5,400 rpm 320 GB I have now in my Sony FW? And thanks in advance for help.

Gary

 

So backup your statement too then? You're then one who plainly say's it.
I've already given you screens dude.

Do a random access benchmark in the latest HD Tune and give me a screen.

Of those reviews i've seen the WD has been the fastest because of the lower latency it can do more in less time meaning 2-3MB/s higher throughput for seagate doesn't mean it's faster transfering 200files that's 5MB each for example.


One of the times the seagate is faster is on sequential transferrates and not when it comes to comparing all advantages.

You forgot to mention that the Hitachi wins with "only a hair" compared to the WD also when it comes to windows startup

As for IOPS the WD should be clearly faster thanks to the low access times. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/notebook-hard-drive,2006-13.html

 

Hi Guys Is this fujitsu good HDD? is very quiet ?
http://www.micomonline.co.uk/products.asp?partno=MHZ2320BJ
thnx

 

Not sure whether it will affect its product or not, last year there was a news that Fujitsu was going to sell their storage business unit to Western Digital. But later on this year the buyer is said to be Toshiba. Though also said that Fujitsu will still retain 20% of the shares.

 

From what I've read, Hitachi is really reliable, along with Fujitsu...
I've heard too many positives about Hitachi, it would be hard to not get one of those...

 

Western Digital Black is the fastest in real life: http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15079

Seagate is the fastest only in synthetic benchmarks.

I think Hitachi holds the middle ground, but I'm not sure of it.

 

WD Black if the way to go!!

 

they are too noisy ..doh

 

I experience the contrary.

I've just replaced my 320GB 5400RPM WD Blue (WD3200BEVT) with 7200RPM WD Black (WD3200BJKT). Guess what? The noise I usually got from Blue is gone with Black. This Black is dead silent! And don't know whether the sensors are reporting correctly or not but HD Tune shows lower temp from the 7200RPM one.

Here are the screenshots from both, all taken in the same way as 1st HDD in my Studio 17, cloned with Acronis:


Scorpio Blue WD3200BEVT



Scorpio Black WD3200BJKT w/ free-fall sensor

 

hmm aah I have 3 WD hard drives at home omg
should i go in to this WD black? dead silent -this make me to buy it ..
i saw there are two versions :
what does it mean FREE FALL SENSOR ? one have it

 

Avoid Hitachi at all costs. These get pretty hot!!!

 

Honestly, I was surprised this drive is silent, cause the Blue was very noisy despite I have set the drive acoustic to silent in the Dell Studio 17 BIOS. Then I return the acoustic setting back to By-pass (default).

I installed the Black with this acoustic setting (by-pass) and it is silent.

Yeah, there are 2 versions. I got the one with free-fall sensor. It's a bit costly though (don't remember exactly, but here in Tokyo the difference is around ¥1,000).

Free-fall sensor is used as an active protection built inside the drive. It can detect if the drive/notebook is dropped/falling while in use, then in less than 200 milliseconds it will move the heads to the safe/parking position to reduce possible damage of the heads crashing the plate(s).

You don't have to choose this one if you think it's not necessary, or for instance like in my Fujitsu notebook, it has already this kind of sensor inside the notebook but outside the drive.

 

yeah hitachi are maybe best but they are expensive ...
so am not keen for this brand ...

 

aidil
and what about this fujitsu ..
http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?prodID=B121089

 

To be honest, I don't know about that exact Fujitsu MHZ2320BJ hard drive. AFAIK Fujitsu makes good hard drives. Currently I still use 3 of them: MHW2160BH inside my Fujitsu notebook and two of MHV2080AH inside an external case and in my old Toshiba laptop back in my own country. So far they've never failed me, although I could say that they are not as fast as nor as quiet as my latest Scorpio Black.

But funny thing is... Ever since I moved here in Japan last year, I've never seen any Fujitsu Hard Drives available in shops until just recently you ask, I browsed online and see only 1 shop has it on stock. And the price here is more expensive (now ¥9,480 is around £66,417 using Yahoo Finance currency converter) than the online shop that you got (£52.20).

And more about Fujitsu, I don't know whether it will affect its product or not, news has said that Fujitsu has just relief its hard drive business unit. At first it was going to Western Digital but later on the deal was made with Toshiba. Still Fujitsu get to keep 20% of the shares.

 

Allright Thanks so much
oh dear..
I think am gonna buy that WD black ..

 

Hitachi is typically the cheapest out of the 320GB 7200RPM, being as low as $50... then again the Seagate and WD, I've seen to be as low as $60.

 

definetly not cheapest hitachi is most expensive look here : its 93.15 pounds
http://www.lambda-tek.com/component...=320&pFilter4=7200&itemsperpage=100&Filter=GO

 

Here among 320GB 7200RPM 16MB cache 2.5" hard drives, Hitachi 7K320 is indeed the cheapest.

 

You probably mean this one:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=967894&source=froogle
but this seems to bee a basic 320 7200 hard drive ..
Free-Fall Sensor: No
NCQ: No
this one is probably advanced one :
http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?prodID=B145080

 

Yes, I mean the basic one (HTS723232L9A360), not the EA one (HTE723232L9A300).

From what I've read, Hitachi EA models are more to blade server or other round the clock applications with the consequence of no capability of active idle and low power idle, which might be more needed in terms of notebook environment.