Upon connecting the 7K500 to the system, Windows asks that you initialize the drive first.  As shown below, the drive is actually a 477GB drive (where 1GB = 1024MB).  The marketing people of HDD manufacturers like to define their GB as 1 billion bytes, hence the discrepancy. 

The NF4 controller properties show that command queuing is enabled:

Here is the initial read test using the NF4 speed test utility:

Here is the result of the HD Tach test using 8MB zones, click on image for the larger version:

Here is the result of the HD Tach test using 32MB zones, click on image for the larger version:

Here is the result of the HD Tach test using variable zones, click on image for the larger version:

TEST RESULTS SUMMARY:

 

Command Queuing Support	Yes
Maximum Measured Burst Transfer Rate	134.0 MB/S
Maximum Measured Sustained Transfer - Reads	64.4 MB/S
Maximum Measured Sustained Transfer - Writes	55.9 MB/S
Minimum Measured Seek Time	12.5 mS
CPU Utilization (CQ off)	3%

 

Hitachi 7K500 ATTO Test Results

It is interesting to note that the burst read speed of the 7K500 is enough to saturate the ATA133 bus.  Also, the 16MB buffer was expected to bring significant improvements in performance compared to the previous generation, the 7K400.  However, the numbers above show that the differences are minimal, yet still appreciable.

TEST OBSERVATIONS SUMMARY:

 

Audible Noise, Idle	Barely noticeable hum
Audible Noise, Seeking	Not bad; low frequency; seems to resonate through PC case
Heat Dissipation, no cooling	A bit on the warm side
Heat Dissipation, cooled by 50mm 12VDC 15mA fan	Cool