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HGST Travelstar 7K1000 Review: A 1 TB Notebook Drive At 7200 RPM

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HGST's Travelstar 7K1000 is the first 1000 GB notebook drive we've tested with a 7200 RPM spindle speed. Is this hard disk a performance crown winner? We run our standard suite of benchmarks on it and compare the repository to 13 competitors.

Technical Data And Test Configuration

Technical Data

ManufacturerHitachi
ModelTravelstar 7K1000
Model NumberHTS721010A9E630
Form Factor2.5"
Capacity1 TB
Platters2
Rotational Speed7200 RPM
Cache Size16 MB
InterfaceSATA 6 Gb/s
Dimensions (W x L x H)2.75" x 3.93" x 9.5 mm
Weight4 oz.
WarrantyThree Years

Test Configuration

System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i5-2500K (32 nm, Sandy Bridge, D2), 4C/4T, 3.3 GHz, 4 x 256 KB L2 Cache, 6 MB L3 Cache, w/ HD Graphics 3000, 95 W TDP, 3.7 GHz max. Turbo
Motherboard (LGA 1155)Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3, Revision: 0.2, Chipset: Intel Z68 Express, BIOS: F3
RAM2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333, Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D
System SSDIntel X25-M G1, 80 GB, Firmware 0701, SATA 3 Gb/s
ControllerIntel PCH Z68 Express SATA 6Gb/s
Power SupplySeasonic X-760 760 W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3
Benchmarks
Performance Measurementsh2benchw 3.16
PCMark 7 1.0.4
I/O PerformanceIometer 2006.07.27
Fileserver-Benchmark
Webserver-Benchmark
Database-Benchmark
Workstation-Benchmark
Streaming Reads
Streaming Writes
4 KB Random Reads
4 KB Random Writes
System Software & Drivers
DriversDetails
Operating SystemWindows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset Driver9.2.0.1030
Intel Rapid Storage10.​5.​0.​1026
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • stevenrix 30 July 2013 05:34
    I have 5 of these hard-drives, they have been on the market for a while now, at least for the last 7 months, and the lowest price i found in the US was $64 for the 7200 rpm which is ridiculously cheap (p/n 0J22423).
    Reply
  • acktionhank 30 July 2013 06:17
    Great review.

    I can't wait to see a review of one of the newer 5400 RPM Hybrid drives from Seagate as well as the 7200RPM 3.5" Hybrid drives when they arrive.

    I just installed a 1TB 2.5" "Superspeed" SSHD into my fathers HTPC and it seems to work great.

    I'm thinking about buying the 2TB 3.5" SSHD when Seagate releases it.
    Reply
  • TimThrill 30 July 2013 11:22
    I think the cache of this disk is 32MB but not 16MB.
    Reply
  • Traciatim 30 July 2013 12:00
    Please be fair to the Hybrid disks when you test them. They benchmark in synthetics pretty poorly because it's essentially just a spinning disk in that case. Do some tests like boot time, shut down time, launch the 4 most used applications at the exact same time . . . It's hard to capture it, but the main advantage of the Hybrid drives is that the stuff you use day to day just feels snappy. It's the same with Intel SRT, which I use on my main machine. It was really hard to tell if SRT was even working or doing anything, and then one day I had to turn it off as a troubleshooting step for an issue I was having and holy crap I hated using my computer cause everything takes so long to respond.
    Reply
  • typicalGeek 30 July 2013 15:02
    In the last paragraph, I'm quite sure that the cache size of the Seagate 1TB SSHD is NOT 64 GB. Without looking up the specifications myself, I'd assume that the cache size is much more likely 64 MB. (Only off by a factor of 1000. But who needs accuracy on a technology forum anyway?)
    Reply
  • master9716 30 July 2013 15:56
    The Momentus XT has been replaced with the Much faster Momentus SSHD wich are 2x faster in some cases
    Reply
  • danwat1234 30 July 2013 16:26
    @master9716, the Momentus XT is a 7200RPM laptop hybrid drive, the SSHD is 5400RPM. Slower mechanicals, faster flash.

    Typos in article: last page, not 64GB cache but probably 64MB.

    Reply
  • 30 July 2013 16:31
    @stevenrix where did you find it for 64, the lowest I bought mine for, and Ive been waiting for months looking slickdeals.net, newegg, shopper etcc.. was 69.99 at B & h Audio and Video, currently 74.99, and yea this is the best 1tb notebook drive you can buy
    Reply
  • 30 July 2013 16:32
    also this drive has 32MB cache, not 16...
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty 30 July 2013 17:27
    11254377 said:
    @master9716, the Momentus XT is a 7200RPM laptop hybrid drive, the SSHD is 5400RPM. Slower mechanicals, faster flash.

    Typos in article: last page, not 64GB cache but probably 64MB.

    He is right though as it is replacing the Momentus XT and thus makes this comparison a bit old.

    If I remember correctly, Seagate is replacing almost all of their HDDs with the SSHD tech, even desktop variants.

    11254408 said:
    @stevenrix where did you find it for 64, the lowest I bought mine for, and Ive been waiting for months looking slickdeals.net, newegg, shopper etcc.. was 69.99 at B & h Audio and Video, currently 74.99, and yea this is the best 1tb notebook drive you can buy

    I would be able to agree with it being the best. I have had a lot of systems coming in with the newer Hitatchi AF laptop HDDs at work and almost every one of them are bad. I haven't seen that many bad from one brand/model for a long time. Might just be the 7mm versions of the drive but its still odd.

    I guess I will have to wait and see if a lot of these die off too early before I can decide if they are good or bad drives to have. I know I wont suggest the 7mm Hitatchi laptop HDDs for now.
    Reply