|
If you're a power computer user, you know for a fact that Ultra320 SCSI is the way to go. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any motherboards that wholly support this technology, but interface cards make it all happen smoothly, quickly, and quietly. We've been fortunate to see our share of fast hard drives, but Seagate has released a new edition of their 15k.3 Ultra 320 SCSI hard drives that are blazing fast and offer the reliability and stability that PC professionals simply demand.
This 146GB 15,000RPM Ultra 320 SCSI drive is as fast and as reliable as it gets for hard drives. It boasts
30% more IOPS and more than 20% faster response times than 3.5-inch 10K drives, in addition to the industry's highest reliability, with 1,400,000 hour MTBF.
Reputation
We've tested hard drives from five different manufacturers on a multitude of platforms - ATA, SATA, and Ultra320 SCSI. For the record, in the three years we've had these drives running, a Seagate Ultra 320 SCSI hard drive has never failed or given one problem across the board. We can't say that for three of the other four remaining companies ... a true testament to Seagate's commitment to quality.
What’s new?
The
technical aspects of the drive:
| Features |
Description |
| 15K RPM spindle speed |
Delivers more I/O's per second than 10K, and faster sustained transfer rates, enabling the same high performance to be met with fewer drives. |
| Ultra320 SCSI |
Up to 320 Mbyte-per-second throughput and faster sustained transfer rate |
| Background Media Scan |
Proactively scans the media for potential defects during drive idle time without using system bandwidth. It enables incipient errors to be corrected before data is lost. |
| Enhanced Error Correction Code |
Better maintains performance throughout the life of the drive and reduces the probability of lost data. |
| Fluid Dynamic Bearing Motor |
No ball bearings means reduced acoustics and improved reliability. |
| Full Duty Cycle Reliability |
The Cheetah 15K.4 is designed to have the highest reliability, even when in used in demanding applications around the clock, 365 days per year. |
| Capacity Size: |
146 GB |
| Speed: |
15K rpm |
| Seek Time: |
3.5 ms avg |
| Configuration: |
Discs: 4
Heads: 8
Nonrecoverable Read Errors per Bits Read: 1 sector per 1015
MTBF (hours), AFR: 1,400,000/0.62% |
very QUIET!
When you're talking 15k RPMs, you're not usually talking about the most quiet hard drive on the block. Typically it sounds pretty pronounced, due to the ball bearings and internal parts moving at such amazing speeds. But due to some great engineering, the Cheetah 15k.4 doesn't have ball bearings at all, based off of a fluid dynamic bearing motor. This means it's much more quiet than your standard hard drive, and much more so than other high speed Ultra 320 SCSI drives.
is it that great?
Yes it really is, and yes, you can really tell the difference. If you've got your favorite 73GB 10k RPM Ultra 320 drive and think you're a hot shot, trust us, you aren't even in the same ball park as this drive. It's so much faster, so much quieter, and on paper the most reliable and fast hard drive made to date.
In our "practical world" tests we like to really put a hard drive through hell for about 6 weeks - constant copying and deleting of the entire drive, using it for a multitude of heavy tasks, including network storage under constant use. Not once did this drive blink - it was simply the best and most reliable drive we've used to date. A real winner to say the least.
Test Results
To test the hard drive, we used HDTach version 2.70 which
tests the the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds
of your attached storage device (hard drive, flash drive, removable drive,
etc). All drive technologies such as SCSI, IDE/ATA, 1394, USB, SATA and
RAID are supported.
Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 ST3146854LW Drive
Random Access Time 5.7 ms
Read Speed: Max 53.2MB/s , Min 33.6MB/s , Average 37.7MB/s
CPU Utilization: 3.3%
300GB Ultra320 10k Hard Drive
Random Access Time 13.1ms
Read Speed: Max 21.8MB/s , Min 16.4MB/s , Average 19.2MB/s
CPU Utilization: 2.3%
Obviously, the new hard drive screams past the older, slower drive by almost doubling the average read speed.
Also particular attention should be paid to the Random Access time, with the 15K.4 popping in with a crisp 5.7ms (unreal), and the other hard drive performing a very nice 13.1ms. It should be noted that the master ATA/133 drive on this system had a Random Access time of 18.2ms - far slower than the superior platform.
Performance
The tests we performed aren't just part of the procedure
we go through for testing a drive. We used the drive to back up, copy,
and re-run that process over and over. We also set it up as a data point on our internal network and hammered it just about every day. After about six weeks of testing,
we were able to really put this thing through the ringer ... and the result
were no problems whatsoever.
Installing the drive was very simple ... just plug it in,
give it power, and get into Windows XP's "Disk Management" feature
to activate and install ... and you're done. That's all it takes to run
this puppy.
Coolness Factor
How would it feel to have the fastest and most efficient hard drive of anyone you possibly know? Pretty darn awesome to say the least. this drive screams and is perfect for enterprise or power users. If you are a video editing professional, I can't see how you could resist this drive's obvious uses. Even web developers heavy on Photoshop and other graphic intensive environments would immediately see the benefits of running their programs off this drive. And you gamers out there - oh man - this is the hard drive of your dreams.
Usefulness and Longevity
As long as you have a nice and reliable Ultra 320 SCSI controller card, you will be using these hard drives to your heart's content. Some motherboards will indeed support booting off the controller card hard drives, so it is now possible to see this thing as a master hard drive - which is just unbelievable to think since it's just so fast and Windows XP to be certain would scream.
Also, because Seagate has such a great reputation within the industry as the reliability leader, and with us since none of their drives has ever failed in three years, you can be certain your data is safe - which could be well above the price tag which is outside the lines of most average PC consumers.
Summary
If you're a PC professional looking for the fastest and most reliable hard drives on the market, the Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 146GB ST3146854LW has got to be at the top of your shopping list. Although priced for enterprise and top level consumers, the obvious benefits to all in the form of reliability and speed are very pronounced when running the data crunching numbers during tests. The performance of the drive was top notch and amongst the most impressive products we've seen in our four year history to date. The coolness gets top marks, and the usefulness and longevity scores are perfect as well.
This is a rock solid drive to replace your existing, slower, less impressive Ultra320 SCSI drive and comes highly recommended for purchase and use.
 |
|
10 / 10 |
OVERALL SCORE
96%
|
 |
8 / 10 |
 |
10 / 10 |
 |
10 / 10 |
 |
10 / 10 |
 |
9.6 / 10 |
|
|
|
