teh Forum

[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

Saw this in a fry's ad.

[Pic Removed]

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

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?

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...?

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.

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?

Did you guys hear that Seagate bought Maxtor?!

That scares me.

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.

We can benchmark harddrives tonight!

Woooooooo!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

I may need one of those.

750GB! Wow...

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

7200.10! Wow...

That is big news. sweeeet

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

A pair of those would be nice.

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.

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.

The SATA2 300GB 7200.9 is on sale again.

$99, with free shipping.

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

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

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.

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

Very nice. How's the speed?

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.

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

Here it comes...

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

(via Ars)