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WD SCORPIO BLUE 500GB
Last month, we looked at
5x
2.5" HDDs with the usual suspects winning out in
performance. As for the capacity kings at
500GB, the Samsung HM500LI edged the Hitachi 5K500
not only in speed but also in a smaller size, 9.5mm
vs 12.5mm for the Hitachi, allowing it to be the
only 500GB drive usable in most laptops. Here,
we look at WD's 500GB Scorpio Blue model. This
too sports the slender 9.5mm profile, great for
laptop and external HDD upgrades. But will it
outshine the Samsung?
First, let's look at the manufacturers'
specifications:
| |
WD Scorpio Blue
WD5000BEVT |
|
Capacity |
500GB |
|
Spindle Speed |
5400 RPM |
|
Buffer Size |
8
MB |
|
Drive Height |
9.5
mm |
|
Interface |
SATA
3 Gb/s |
|
Media Transfer Rate |
933 Mbits/sec |
|
Average Latency |
5.5
ms |
|
Average Seek Time |
12
ms |
Power Consumption,
Read/Write |
2.5 W |
Power Consumption,
Idle |
0.85 W |
Power Consumption,
Idle |
1.0
W |
|
Load / Unload Cycles |
600,000 |
|
Warranty |
3
years |
Here's the drive itself:
The test platform is listed below:
Here are the all-important test results!
So how does the Scorpio Blue compare to the
Samsung Spinpoint in the HD Tach tests?
Here goes:
|
HDTach 8MB
Zones Summary |
| |
Random Access, ms |
Burst Speed, MB/s |
Ave. Read, MB/s |
Ave. Write MB/s |
|
Samsung HM500LI |
18.5 |
139.3 |
60.8 |
51.7 |
|
WD
Scorpio Blue 500GB |
15.7 |
227.1 |
66.8 |
55.0 |
|
HDTach 32MB
Zones Summary |
| |
Random Access, ms |
Burst Speed, MB/s |
Ave. Read, MB/s |
Ave. Write MB/s |
|
Samsung HM500LI |
18.2 |
140.0 |
60.8 |
57.9 |
|
WD
Scorpio Blue 500GB |
16.3 |
230.8 |
67.3 |
63.1 |
Comparison of ATTO Disk Benchmark
results - Scorpio Blue on top,
Samsung at the bottom
Click here for last month's test
data
Well it looks like the numbers
speak for themselves! WD
once again has amazed us with
stellar performance without
sacrificing size, or power
consumption. The Scorpio
Blue 500GB (5400RPM) is even
faster than the 7K320 (7200RPM)!
Man, only if they had put a 5
year warranty on it too!
But that's a minor quirk
considering you'd probably eBay
the drive in 18 months anyway
for an upgrade to an even
crazier WD unit.
WD is starting to corner the
non-enterprise HDD market with
superlative technology.
They're like the US Olympic
Swimming Team, simply
outclassing all their opponents.
If you want speed in your
laptop, get a Scorpio Black.
But if you want capacity, the
Scorpio Blue 500GB is your only
choice. There simply is no
comparison.
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