Analysis: Which Enterprise Capacity Point Performs Best?

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SSDs are best for performance. SATA hard drives provide maximum capacity. Enterprise-class SAS disks are the workhorses positioned between them. But which enterprise hard drive capacity makes sense when there are several from which to choose?

Test Setup And Comparison Table

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System Hardware
Hardware Details
CPU Intel Core i7-920 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 8MB Shared L3 Cache)
Motherboard (Socket 1366) Supermicro X8SAX Revision: 1.1, Chipset: Intel X58 + ICH10R, BIOS: 1.0B
RAM 3GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDD Seagate NL35 400GB, ST3400832NS, 7,200 RPM, SATA/150, 8MB Cache
Power Supply OCZ EliteXstream 800W, OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmarks
Performance Measurements h2benchw 3.12PCMark Vantage 1.0
I/O Performance IOMeter 2006.07.27Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-BenchmarkStreaming ReadsStreaming Writes
System Software And Drivers
Driver Details
Operating System Windows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset Chipset Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007
AMD Graphics Radeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage 8.7.0.1007

Comparison Table

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Manufacturer Toshiba Toshiba Toshiba
Model MBF2600RC Series MBF2600RC Series MBF2600RC Series
Model number MBF2300RC MBF2450RC MBF2600RC
Form Factor 2.5" 2.5" 2.5"
Capacity 300GB 450GB 600GB
Spindle Speed 10,000 RPM 10,000 RPM 10,000 RPM
Other Capacities 450GB, 600GB 300GB, 600GB 300GB, 450GB
Platters 2 3 3
Cache 16MB 16MB 16MB
TCQ/NCQ Yes Yes Yes
Interface SAS 6Gb/s SAS 6Gb/s SAS 6Gb/s
Surface Temperature 54°C 58°C 58°C
Specified Operating Temperature 0-55°C 0-55°C 0-55°C
Specified Idle Power 4.5W 4.5W 4.5W
Measured idle Power 3.0W 3.5W 3.5W
Operating Shock (2 ms, read) 100 G (1ms) 100 G (1ms) 100 G (1ms)
Warranty 5 years 5 years 5 years