A Quartet Of 500 GB HDDs Under $60

Features
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Comparison Table, Test Setup

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Manufacturer Hitachi GST Samsung Seagate Western Digital
Model Deskstar 7K1000.B Spinpoint F1 Barracuda 7200.11 WD Caviar Blue
Model Number HDT721050SLA360 HD502IJ ST3500320AS WD5000AAKS
Form Factor 3.5" 3.5" 3.5" 3.5"
Capacity 500 GB 500 GB 500 GB 500 GB
Spindle Speed 7,200 RPM 7,200 RPM 7,200 RPM 7,200 RPM
Other Capacities 750, 1,000 GB 320, 640, 750, 1,000 GB 750, 1,000, 1,500 GB 640, 750 GB
Platters 2 2 3 2
Cache 16 MB 8 MB 32 MB 16 MB
NCQ Yes Yes Yes Yes
Interface SATA/300 SATA/300 SATA/300 SATA/300
Operating Temperature 0-60°C 0-60°C 0-60°C 0-60°C
Specified Idle Power 4.4W 5.7W 7.96W 8.4W
Measured Idle Power 3.9W 6.4W 5.7W 6.1W
Operating Shock (2 ms, read) 70 G 70 G 65 G 65 G
Warranty 3 Years 3 Years 3 Years 3 Years

Test Setup

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System Hardware
Processor(s) 2x Intel Xeon Processor (Nocona core)3.6 GHz, FSB800, 1 MB L2 Cache
Platform Asus NCL-DS (Socket 604)Intel E7520 Chipset, BIOS 1005
RAM Corsair CM72DD512AR-400 (DDR2-400 ECC, reg.)2x 512 MB, CL3-3-3-10 Timings
system Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB117
Mass Storage Controller(s) Intel 82801EB UltraATA/100 Controller (ICH5)Promise SATA 300TX4Promise FastTrak TX4310 Driver 2.06.1.310
Networking Broadcom BCM5721 On-Board Gigabit Ethernet NIC
Graphics Subsystem On-Board GraphicsATI RageXL, 8 MB
Performance Measurements c't h2benchw 3.6 PCMark05 V1.01
I/O Performance IOMeter 2003.05.10Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-Benchmark
Performance and Power Measurements IOMeter 2006.07.27Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-Benchmark
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System Software&Drivers
OS Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 1
Platform Driver Intel Chipset Installation Utility 7.0.0.1025
Graphics Driver Default Windows Graphics Driver