New Desktop Hard Drives: Speed Or Capacity?

Features
By published

Comparison Table and Test Setup

Drive Comparison Table

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ManufacturerSamsungSamsungWestern DigitalWestern Digital
ModelEcoGreen F1EcoGreen F2WD Caviar GreenWD Caviar Green
Model NumberHD103UIHD502HIWD10EADSWD20EADS
Form Factor3.5"3.5"3.5"3.5"
Capacity1000 GB500 GB1000 GB2000 GB
Spindle Speed5,400 RPM5,400 RPM5,400 RPM5,400 RPM
Other Capacities250, 320, 500, 640, 750 GB1000, 1500 GB1500, 2000 GB1000, 1500 GB
Platters3134
Cache32 MB16 MB32 MB32 MB
NCQYesYesYesYes
InterfaceSATA/300SATA/300SATA/300SATA/300
Operating Temperature0-60° C0-60° C5-55°C0-60° C
Specified Idle Power5.0 W3.9 W2.8 W3.9 W
Measured Idle Power4.3W3.12.8 W5.2
Operating shock (2 ms, read)70 G70 G65 G65 G
Warranty3 years3 years3 years3 years

Test Setup

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System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i7-920 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 8 MB L2 Cache)
Motherboard (Socket 1366)Supermicro X8SAXRevision: 1.0Chipset: Intel X58 + ICH10RBios: 1.0B
RAM2 GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDDSeagate NL35 400 GBST3400832NS7,200 RPM, SATA150, 8 MB
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800 W OCZ800EXS-EU
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Benchmarks
Performance Measurementsh2benchw 3.12PCMark Vantage 1.0
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2006.07.27Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-BenchmarkStreaming ReadsStreaming Writes
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System Software and Drivers
DriverDetails
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset9.1.0.1007
AMD GraphicsRadeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage8.7.0.1007