The Terabyte Battle

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Terabyte HDD Comparison

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Manufacturer Hitachi Seagate Western Digital
Model Deskstar 7K1000 Barracuda 7200.11 Caviar GP
Model Number HDS721010KLA330 ST31000340AS WD10EACS
Capacity 1000 GB 1000 GB 1000 GB
Spindle Speed 7,200 RPM 7,200 RPM > 5,400 RPM
Other Capacities 750 GB 500, 750 GB 500, 750 GB
Platters 5 4 4
Cache 32 MB 32 MB 16 MB
NCQ Yes yes yes
Interface SATA/300 SATA/300 SATA/300
Warranty 3 years 5 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 WD1200JB120 GB, 7,200 RPM, 8 MB Cache, UltraATA/100
Mass Storage Controller(s) Intel 82801EB UltraATA/100 Controller (ICH5)Promise SATA 300TX4ICP 5085BL 8-Port SAS/300
Networking Broadcom BCM5721 On-Board Gigabit Ethernet NIC
Graphics Subsystem On-Board GraphicsATI RageXL, 8 MB
System Hardware
Performance Measurements c’t magazine’s h2benchw 3.6
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
Patrick Schmid
Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • andy_newton
    The Barracuda gets bricked after 6 months of use. While Seagate is kind enough to offer a free recovery, I lost 3 weeks of my time waiting. Upon receiving its unbricked with new firmware, the performance has now become terribly slow. It is very much different from the last moments before it got bricked.

    I contacted the customer service again and they give me a B.S. regarding this particular hard drive is not suitable foe use as external Drive.

    I am both terribly surprised and disappointed that tomshardware did not amend any article regarding its performance (post recovery), since those performance charts with its defective firmware should be invalid.

    Instead, Tomshardware continues to praise this hard drive and claims that in toms lab the bricking can not be repeated.

    I am wondering how much money that seagate pays toms to shut up and not to publish any honest review regarding this other affected hard drives.

    Or is it just me (again) waking up in a parallel universe where Seagate has never built any drives with defective firmware.

    -ND
    Reply
  • flagoman
    mmm, you are out of place on your comments, here, couse i dont think that toms would be able to test any hardware for 6 months or until it fails. imagine how late every review would be delayed, its ridiculous,what you are asking what are you six years old??? shezzz... And the company offer you a recovery of the info of your hdd,and actually i found that a great plus, Seagate. but you should had take your info out, and buy a new one.
    Reply