Technical Data
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| Manufacturer | Hitachi |
|---|---|
| Model | Deskstar 7K1000 |
| Model Number | HDS721010KLA330 |
| Capacity | 1,000 GB |
| Spindle Speed | 7,200 RPM |
| Other Capacities | 750 GB |
| Platters | 5 |
| Cache | 32 MB |
| NCQ | Yes |
| Interface | SATA/300 |
| Warranty | 3 years |
One Terabyte Drive Vs. Two 500 GB Drives
We found out that the new Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 is huge and fast, but it is not the fastest drive of its class, and it doesn’t provide the cost per gigabyte ratio that you can get from drives at 400 GB or 500 GB capacities. This leads us to an interesting question : Why not get two 400 or 500 GB drives instead of one 1 TB 7K1000 ?
There are several aspects you should consider before answering this question. We’ve assembled the pros and cons in the following table :
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| %nbsp ; | 1x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000, 1 TB | 2x 500 GB (Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, WD) |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | excellent | |
| Cost | $ 399 | $230-300 |
| Data Safety | All data will be lost if drive fails. | Data on the second drive is maintained if the first drive fails.Running a RAID 0 reduces data safety, because one failed drive will kill the contents of the entire array. |
| Handling | One 1,000 GB partition doesn’t require maintenance. | Two drives means that you could run out of storage on one drive and have to reconsider and reorganize your storage strategy.Running a RAID setup requires a RAID controller.Two drives create more heat, which may result in increased cooling requirements. |
| Installation | Requires a single SATA port and drive bay. | Requires two SATA ports and two drive bays. |
| Other | 3 years warranty. | Seagate offers 5 years warranty.Two separate HDDs allow the user to copy very important data onto both drives. |
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 WD1200JB120 GB, 7,200 RPM, 8 MB Cache, UltraATA/100 |
| Test Hard Drive I | Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000, HDS721010KLA3001,000 GB, 7,200 RPM, 32 MB Cache, SATA/300 |
| Mass Storage Controller(s) | Intel 82801EB UltraATA/100 Controller (ICH5)Silicon Image SATALink SiL3512Driver 1.2.0.57Promise FastTrak TX4310Driver 2.06.1.310Promise SATA 300TX4Driver 1.0.0.33 |
| Networking | Broadcom BCM5721 On-Board Gigabit Ethernet NIC |
| Graphics Card | On-Board GraphicsATI RageXL, 8 MB |
| System Hardware | |
| Performance Measurements | c’t h2benchw 3.6PCMark05 V1.01 |
| I/O Performance | IOMeter 2003.05.10Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-Benchmark |
| 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 |
