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1TB SATA HDDs!
Conclusion
Clearly, each of the 1TB hard drives reviewed
have their specific purposes in life. The
comparison here is not apples-to-apples, and was
never intended to be. But we shall tabulate
pertinent details below:
| |
Hitachi 7K1000 |
Hitachi A7K1000 |
Barracuda ES.2 |
Caviar SE16 |
|
Interface |
SATA 3.0 Gb/s |
SATA 3.0 Gb/s |
SATA 3.0 Gb/s |
SATA 3.0 Gb/s |
|
Rotational Speed |
7200 RPM |
7200 RPM |
7200 RPM |
5400-7200 RPM |
|
Buffer Size |
32 MB |
32 MB |
32 MB |
16
MB |
|
Platters |
5 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
|
Warranty |
3
years |
5 years |
5 years |
3
years |
|
Average Power Usage,
R/W |
10.8-13.6 W |
13.6 W |
11.6 W |
7.4 W |
|
Idle Power Usage |
4.5-9.0 W |
9.0 W |
8.0 W |
0.97 4.0 W |
|
Notes |
Three low-power idle modes |
1.2M hours MTBF
24x7 operation |
1.2M hours MTBF
24x7 operation |
IntelliSeek, IntelliPower, IntelliPark |
HD Tach 3.0.1.0,
8MB
Zones |
Burst Speed |
206.8 MB/s |
206.1 MB/s |
129.8 MB/s |
211.7 MB/s |
|
Random Access |
12.6 ms |
12.8 ms |
12.7 ms |
15.0 ms |
|
CPU Utilization |
4% |
4% |
4% |
4% |
|
Average Read |
72.6 MB/s |
72.4 MB/s |
84.8 MB/s |
63.0 MB/s |
|
Average Write |
63.2 MB/s |
63.0 MB/s |
58.6 MB/s |
46.1 MB/s |
|
HD Tach 3.0.1.0,
32MB Zones |
Burst Speed |
206.4 MB/s |
206.6 MB/s |
129.7 MB/s |
211.3 MB/s |
|
Random Access |
12.6 ms |
12.7 ms |
12.8 ms |
15.0 ms |
|
CPU Utilization |
4% |
4% |
4% |
5% |
|
Average Read |
72.7 MB/s |
72.7 MB/s |
84.5 MB/s |
62.8 MB/s |
|
Average Write |
69.9 MB/s |
70.0 MB/s |
75.5 MB/s |
57.8 MB/s |
And so we realize that
in this day and age of cutthroat competition in the
razor-thin margins of the technology sector, each
manufacturer has seemed to carve out its own little
niche and advantage in designing and marketing their
wares. Here is our final assessment of the 1TB
drives reviewed:
Hitachi
7K1000
Good performance, best
for desktop applications. Only 3-year
warranty.
Hitachi
A7K1000
Good performance,
ideal for server and workstation use. Least
power-efficient of all, but tremendous warranty and
MTBF rating.
Seagate
Barracuda ES.2 1000GB
Impressive
performance, solid company support, tremendous MTBF
and 5-year warranty all come at a cost - a higher
price.
Western
Digital Caviar SE16 1TB "Green Power"
A half-sized cache
buffer and variable spindle speed results in
mediocre performance, but gives way to
ultra-efficient power consumption, low heat
production, and nearly noiseless operation.
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