Analysis: The Impact Of Shifting From 512 Byte To 4 KB Sectors
Slowly but surely, hard drives with 4 KB sectors are replacing the "legacy" 512 byte sector size. By January 2011, all drive vendors will have made this transition. Buyers of new PCs are safe, but there are still a few performance pitfalls to note.
Benchmark Results: Power Consumption And Efficiency
Idle power is similar on both drives; the newer drive actually requires slightly more power in idle.
The power requirement at maximum streaming reads is identical at 2.6 W.
The power requirement during video playback could be reduced by 0.1 W.
Last but not least, the power required to deliver maximum I/O operations per second using our workstation test pattern is also 0.1 W lower on the new 750 GB MK7559GSXP with its 4 KB sectors.
Efficiency Results: Performance per Watt
Performance increased quite a bit while power consumption is identically or slightly lower. As a result, the efficiency, expressed in performance per watt, is increased on the new 750 GB drive.
The same applies to the workstation efficiency results. With aligned sectors, the new 750 GB drive delivers almost the same I/O performance as the older 640 GB model. As power consumption decreased a bit again, the performance per watt result is better.
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