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We're all looking for a kick-butt hard drive to put into
our PCs these days - be in a workstation, a data warehouse, or a gaming
rig. In any of these cases, the newer motherboards all support SATA (SerialATA)
technology which allows a robust 150Mbps transfer rate, opposed to standard
ATA rates of 100 and 133. In addition, we're seeing the motherboards also
support these SATA drives to be the master of the computer, and not just
on the RAID like we saw when the technology first arrived.
Enter the Hitachi Deskstar 7K499 SATA hard disk drive, a
400GB monster that runs at an amazing 8.5ms access time, 7200PRM rotation
speed, and an 8MB cache size. This drive truly is one of the "beasts"
when it comes to large, fast, and performing disk drives.
Reputation
We've actually tested out a Hitachi hard drive in the past,
and to this date (after about 6 months of continuous operation) we have
yet to have a single problem with the drive. Hitachi has been around the
hard drive business for a long time (see acquisitions) and has a channel
reputation for being a solid, effective, and good choice for hard drive
solutions.
What’s new?
We got the Deskstar 7K400 and immediately went over the
technical aspects of the drive:
| Description: |
Deskstar 7K400 400GB Hard Drive (Serial ATA-150, 7200
RPM, 8MB) |
| Capacity: |
400GB |
| Access Time: |
8.5 ms |
| Included Components: |
Cabling (Interface), Installation Software, Screws |
| Interface: |
SATA (Serial ATA) |
| Rotational Speed: |
7200 RPM |
| Transfer Rate: |
150 Mbps |
| Cache Size: |
8 MB |
dang – it's QUIET!
This reviewer is also involved in another significant project
– the evaluation of “quiet” computing. Basically, many
computers (from gamers to videophiles to everyday home desktops) sound
like a jet engine taking off in your bedroom. “Noise” is regarded
in electrical engineering as a form of electrical interference introduced
into the power quality… however, “noise” to me is the
dang thing makes so much background noise that I can’t enjoy listening
to music, playing video games, or even just writing an email on my computer.
While there are several sources within the computer (CPU
fan, Chassis fans, CD/DVD drives, and hard drives) which create the background
sound, one source – the hard drives – can be particularly
annoying because they “spin up” and “spin down”
as they access data. Hitachi has done an excellent job quieting down the
drives to the point where the sound in the system we tested it on was
quite a difference from various drives we've used through time.
More About The Drive
 Although
the drive is brand new, and the 400GB seems like a new leap in technology,
in truth, there's not much new about the 7K400 that enables it to reach
such a high disk space capacity. In order to accomplish this goal, Hitachi
has simply increased the number of platters in the drive, continuing to
use the 80GB platters (total of 5). Does this really affect you? Maybe
... as there's a very slight different in access time performance, AND
if you don't like your hard-drives to weight a lot.
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.
Drive 1; 72GB SATA Drive
Read Test:
Random Access Time 15.1ms
Read Speed: Max 63.8MB/s , Min 24.2MB/s , Average 45.7MB/s
CPU Utilization: 23.6%
Hitachi Deskstar 7k400 SATA Drive
Random Access Time 13.1ms
Read Speed: Max 62.2MB/s , Min 31.5MB/s , Average 46.6MB/s
CPU Utilization: 26.0%
As you can see, the drive runs with a shorter millisecond
access time (that's what you want) and offers up a better average MB/s
during the test.
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. After about three weeks of testing,
we were able to really put this thing through the ringer ... and the result
was absolutely 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
Simply put, there haven't been to many 400GB hard drives
on the market, and Hitachi has done a nice job jumping ahead of the competition
with this 7K400 drive. To say that you've got the biggest, baddest, and
one of the better performing hard drive running your new rig definitely
makes it "cool" and the envy of even the geekiest of friends.
Usefulness and Longevity
Since many people are upgrading to either an nForce3 or
Intel 915/925 motherboard solution, or even the VIA chipset boards (I
have one actually), many of these utilize the SATA standard as the master
for the PC which allows MUCH better performance. Taking this a step further,
you're not going to want to put in 4 72GB drives in your system now, are
you? Of course not! It makes all the sense in the world to put your money
into one drive and save on system resources and power.
Summary
Hitachi's Deskstar 7K400 400GB SATA Drive is a great solution
and viable alterative if you're looking for a lot of space and good performance.
The drive is heavier than others in its class, but if that's not a big
deal to you (it's not to me) then it's not that big an issue, although
there is evidence of a slightest-of-differences in performance. Either
way, the drive works great, tests great, and worked very well under the
stress tests we put it through.
This is a rock solid drive to act as a secondary hard
drive or even a master hard drive for your newest PC.
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9 / 10 |
OVERALL SCORE
94%
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9 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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9.4 / 10 |
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