Enterprise Storage: Two 2.5" 600 GB Hard Drives Tested

Features
By Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos
published

The latest 2.5” hard drive generation ships with SAS 6Gb/s and delivers up to 600 GB of storage space, narrowing the gap with much larger 3.5" disks. Today we're comparing the latest 2.5" drives from Seagate and Toshiba to see if they're faster, too.

Test Setup, Comparison Table, And Throughput Diagrams

Swipe to scroll horizontally
System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i7-920 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 8 MB Shared L3 cache)
Motherboard (Socket 1366)Supermicro X8SAX, Revision: 1.0, Chipset: Intel X58 + ICH10R, BIOS: 1.0B
RAM3 x 1 GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDDSeagate NL35, 400 GB, ST3400832NS, 7 200 RPM, SATA 1.5Gb/s, 8 MB cache
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800W, OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmark
Performance Measurementsh2benchw 3.12PCMark Vantage 1.0
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2006.07.27Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-BenchmarkStreaming ReadsStreaming Writes
System Software & Drivers
DriverDetails
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset DriversChipset Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007
AMD GraphicsRadeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage8.7.0.1007

Comparison Table

Swipe to scroll horizontally
ManufacturerSeagateToshiba
ModelSavvio 10K.4MBF2600RC Series
Model numberST9600204SSMBF2600RC
Form Factor2.5"2.5"
Capacity600 GB600 GB
Spindle Speed10 000 RPM10 000 RPM
Other Capacities450 GB300 GB, 450 GB
Platters33
Cache16 MB16 MB
TCQ/NCQYesYes
InterfaceSAS 6Gb/sSAS 6Gb/s
Surface Temperature6054
Specified Operating Temperature5-55°C0-55°C
Specified Idle Power4.6 W4.5 W
Measured Idle Power4.9 W3.5 W
Operating Shock (2 ms, read)40 G100 G
Warranty5 years5 years

Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos