New HDD talk (SATA I v. SATA II) thread

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:27 pm

[ADMIN NOTE: This thread has been split from the crowded $150 Video Card Market thread which has quite a bit of discussion on the same matter.]

So... the 500GB Seagate 7200.9 is priced at a lovely 299.99 w/ Free shipping at zipzoomfly.com

ST3500641AS

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:50 pm

Saw this in a fry's ad.

[Pic Removed]

It was a SATA 2, 500GB (Western Digital) Harddrive, for $229.

Post by **enderzero** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 11:17 am

Looks like there is a bit different Seagate 7200.9 out now with 8MB Cache instead of 16MB.

8MB ST3300822AS 300GB - $115 Newegg (retail)
16MB ST3300622AS 300GB - $135 Newegg (oem)

I can't find a lot of info on this drive. Is it just a tuned down retail version? Thoughts on the new budget model?

Post by **enderzero** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:04 pm

Lets do some HDD benchin folks. Getcher HD Tach 1.0.3.0 here.

Off the cuff 8MB test on Primary drive (Seagate 7200.9 SATA II ST3300622AS)
Burst Speed: 130.5 MB/s
Random Access: 11.7 ms
CPU Utilization: 2%
Avg Read: 63.6 MB/s

Compare that to a really old Samsung 120GBH ATA/100 hdd from my first external drive (which is temporarily in my system because my Seagate 7200.7 just failed - hmmm, hmm, Seagate... hmmm).

8MB test on Samsung SV1204H
Burst Speed: 57.0 MB/s
Random Access: 19.3 ms
CPU Utilization: 5%
Avg Read: 32.8 MB/s

Across the board the SATA II results are twice as good. I like - but that drive is old as crap. Let's compare to some SATA I scores.

McNevin, J3RK...?

Post by **enderzero** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:32 pm

Wow - I don't know why I have waited so long to do this. I ran HD Tach on my external 300GB Seagate 7200.8 ATA/100 (ST3300831A) drive. I usually run the drive via the IEEE 1394 from my Audigy2. But I ran it against the USB 2.0 on the MB with surprising results (which are color coded).

Burst Speed: 12.1 MB/s - 32.8 MB/s
Random Access: 16 ms - 16 ms
CPU Utilization: 0% - 11%
Avg Read: 11.8 MB/s - 32.7 MB/s

Wow - big speed difference. Guess I will be switching over. What do you make of that CPU utilization tho?

btw - for benchmarking purposes 8MB tests seem to yield very similar results to the 32MB test. Does anyone know if free space makes a dif? My drives are all 85-90% full.

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:43 pm

Here are my quick bench (8MB) results:

Seagate ST3300831AS
Size: 300GB
SATA 150
Cache: 8MB

Burst Speed: 131.4
Random Access: 15.1ms
CPU Utilization: 4% (+/- 2%)
Average Read: 57.5MB/s

-----------------------------

Seagate ST3300631AS
Size: 300GB
SATA 150
Cache: 16MB

Burst Speed: 131.7
Random Access: 14.8ms
CPU Utilization: 5% (+/- 2%)
Average Read: 53.2MB/s

Seems as though 8MB vs. 16MB cache on the SATA150 seagates doesnt have too much affect. So can we get some HD tach scores with someone who actually has a SATA2 controller... j3rk?

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:31 pm

Did you guys hear that Seagate bought Maxtor?!

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:58 pm

That scares me.

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:57 am

I bet they use Maxtor to put out budget drives, and maintain their current product lines.

So, yes, if I think about it when I get home tonight, I will HD Tach both of my drives. I have a .8 on one channel, and a .9 on another, both channels are SATA2, so the only difference will be the drives.

Just from normal daily use I can tell that the .9 is a lot faster. (Game loading, audio editing, etc.)

Interesting that your Seagate died 3nd3r. I suppose that will happen with any brand, but it seems to happen significantly less with SeaCrate. (and they have a better policy for when it does) Actually, it seems to happen a lot with you in particular.

What are you doing to those drives anyway.

I damage file systems all the time, but not usually the physical drive. I think the last time I personally had a bad drive it was a SCSI drive. (though I have replaced tons of IBMs for other people)

The Admiral may be coming over today, so he can remind me to run those benches.

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:28 am

We can benchmark harddrives tonight!

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:25 pm

Woooooooo!!!!

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:19 pm

ST3160812AS 2AAA (8MB Test)

Burst: 233.7 MB/s
Random Access: 12.7
CPU Utilization 3% (+/- 2%)
Average Read: 63.2 MB/s

---------------------------

ST3250823AS 3.01 (8MB Test)

Burst: 129.3 MB/s
Random Access: 15.4
CPU Utilization 3% (+/- 2%)
Average Read: 58.4 MB/s

Post by **enderzero** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:27 pm

Eeenteresting. Fantastic burst but similar average speed. Huh... Analysis?

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 10:37 am

5MB/s is actually a pretty decent sized jump for a sustained speed.

Post by **enderzero** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:24 pm

Yes - but the same as my average speed with a 7200.9 on a SATAI controller.

Post by **enderzero** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:44 pm

The 8MB cache version (see above ST3300822AS) has dropped to $110 and the 16MB has dissappeared from Newegg.

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:42 am

I may need one of those.

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Tue May 09, 2006 5:58 pm

750GB! Wow...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148134

Post by **enderzero** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:00 pm

7200.10! Wow...

That is big news. sweeeet

And it would appear it dropped the 300GB down to $99.99. (One day sale??) w00t!

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Wed May 10, 2006 10:46 am

A pair of those would be nice.

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Wed May 10, 2006 12:03 pm

They are still $99 after the one day sale. The 16meg cache version is $125, doesnt seem worth it. Especially after the fact that it showed no improvement on the 7200.8 drives.

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Wed May 10, 2006 12:49 pm

Yeah, the extra cache is likely not worth it. With the higher burst rate though it's more likely to help than it would on the .8, but it likely wouldn't result in much additional real-world performance.

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Mon May 29, 2006 9:10 pm

The SATA2 300GB 7200.9 is on sale again.

$99, with free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148131

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:21 pm

1 Day sale! 7200.10 320 GB, 16 MB Cache, $94 W/ free shipping.

Get perpendicular baby!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148140

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 1:12 pm

I'm going to stay angular a bit longer. I'll probably get a pair of 90 degree 320s in few months though. I need to run a mirror, and back my important things up onto it.

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 2:47 pm

so... i now have 857.01 gigs of harddrive space, after the recent acquisition of a 320gig 7200.10

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:27 am

Very nice. How's the speed?

McNevin · Post by **McNevin** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:41 pm

FRIG! im getting tired of XP x64, i think im going to re-install 32 bit.

Im also going to install vista.

Ill put up some benchies when i get Xp on again.

R3C · Post by **R3C** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:31 pm

I don't have problems with mine at all. What's happening with your install?

Post by **enderzero** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 1:22 pm

Here it comes...

Now, as we near the fiftieth anniversary of the hard drive, Hitachi is promising the release of the first terabyte hard driveâ€”a 1,000 GB modelâ€”by the end of this year.

(via Ars)

teh Forum

teh Forum

New HDD talk (SATA I v. SATA II) thread

New HDD talk (SATA I v. SATA II) thread