Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000: Terabyte Storage arrives on the Desktop
by Gary Key on March 19, 2007 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
iPeak Business Application Tests
Our iPeak Winstone benchmarks offer a glimpse into how well our hard disk drives will handle general office applications, media encoding, and graphics manipulation. While the business applications that are being tested tend to be more CPU bound at times, the performance of the hard drive can and will make a difference in the more disk intensive video and graphics applications where large media files are typically being edited.
AAs expected the WD Raptor drives finish at the top in our business application tests as their 10k rpm spindle speed and optimized cache play an important role in their ability to sustain high transfer rates, especially in the Content Creation benchmark where transfer block sizes are significantly larger and more random than in the Business application benchmark. We see our 7K1000 performing very well in these tests and finishing ahead of the other 7200rpm drives and even the older 8 MB cache equipped 74GB Raptor.
In fact, the 7K1000 is about 44% faster in the Business Winstone and 30% quicker in the Content Creation benchmarks than the Seagate 750GB drive. After reviewing the trace analysis files we determined that the 7K1000 handles small block sizes of data in non-sequential order significantly better than the Seagate drive. We did notice the drive slowed down slightly in the Business Winstone when it encountered large block sizes of data in non-sequential order. This surprised us slightly as we expected the increase in drive cache to 32 MB would have buffered this same issue we noticed on the Seagate 750GB drive. Overall, the drive offers a very balanced blend of performance across a wide variety of business and home applications.
iPeak General Task Tests
The iPeak based General Task benchmarks are designed to replicate utility based application tasks that typically are disk intensive and represent common programs utilized on the majority of personal computers. While the WinRAR program is very CPU intensive it will typically stress the storage system in short bursts. Our antivirus benchmark will stress the storage system with continual reads and sporadic write requests while the defragmentation process is split between continual read and write requests.
The 7K1000 performs extremely well in the Anti-Virus and Defragmentation test where its 32 MB cache benefits read operations with results that mirror the PCMark 2005 tests. This is especially true in the WinRAR tests where large cache sizes are very advantageous for improved times and we expected better performance from this drive. It did finish ahead of the other 7200rpm drives but simply could not keep up with the rotational and access speeds of the 16 MB cache equipped Raptors.
Our iPeak Winstone benchmarks offer a glimpse into how well our hard disk drives will handle general office applications, media encoding, and graphics manipulation. While the business applications that are being tested tend to be more CPU bound at times, the performance of the hard drive can and will make a difference in the more disk intensive video and graphics applications where large media files are typically being edited.
AAs expected the WD Raptor drives finish at the top in our business application tests as their 10k rpm spindle speed and optimized cache play an important role in their ability to sustain high transfer rates, especially in the Content Creation benchmark where transfer block sizes are significantly larger and more random than in the Business application benchmark. We see our 7K1000 performing very well in these tests and finishing ahead of the other 7200rpm drives and even the older 8 MB cache equipped 74GB Raptor.
In fact, the 7K1000 is about 44% faster in the Business Winstone and 30% quicker in the Content Creation benchmarks than the Seagate 750GB drive. After reviewing the trace analysis files we determined that the 7K1000 handles small block sizes of data in non-sequential order significantly better than the Seagate drive. We did notice the drive slowed down slightly in the Business Winstone when it encountered large block sizes of data in non-sequential order. This surprised us slightly as we expected the increase in drive cache to 32 MB would have buffered this same issue we noticed on the Seagate 750GB drive. Overall, the drive offers a very balanced blend of performance across a wide variety of business and home applications.
iPeak General Task Tests
The iPeak based General Task benchmarks are designed to replicate utility based application tasks that typically are disk intensive and represent common programs utilized on the majority of personal computers. While the WinRAR program is very CPU intensive it will typically stress the storage system in short bursts. Our antivirus benchmark will stress the storage system with continual reads and sporadic write requests while the defragmentation process is split between continual read and write requests.
The 7K1000 performs extremely well in the Anti-Virus and Defragmentation test where its 32 MB cache benefits read operations with results that mirror the PCMark 2005 tests. This is especially true in the WinRAR tests where large cache sizes are very advantageous for improved times and we expected better performance from this drive. It did finish ahead of the other 7200rpm drives but simply could not keep up with the rotational and access speeds of the 16 MB cache equipped Raptors.
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mino - Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - link
Sorry Jared, didn't saw you comment...Otherwise, thanks for a nice review. Especially that explanation of AAM.
Many guys ask me reguraly why I don't buy non-AAM drives...
yacoub - Monday, March 19, 2007 - link
51C is a bit warm for a HD, no? I wonder how that impacts its life expectancy...yyrkoon - Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - link
To be a bit more specific, I think it was google who did testing of enterprise type drives, and did a bunch of testing, I'm sure google will turn something up ;)yyrkoon - Monday, March 19, 2007 - link
According to multiple studies done, HDD life expectancy is not affected by heat. I'm sure there are situations, where you literally have parts melting, that could be problematic, but there you have it.Justin Case - Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - link
Yes and no. A temperature around 50-60 ºC will not slowly "cook" the drive, but if it rises above a certain level (ex., 120º C), it can kill it instantly. Fast drives with a lot of platters can get hot very quickly, and if they're mounted on plastic rails (poor thermal conductors) with poor air circulation, their life expectancy is probably less than a day. I've seen it happen more than once.yyrkoon - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Boiling point of water is around ~191F-212F, 120C is 248F, a CPU could not handle this temperature, what makes you think a HDD could ? Most consumer grade electronic do not take kindly to anything hottter than ~70C-80C. The only exception I can think of in a computer, might possibly be a graphics card, and even then, I personally would not expect it to last long as these temperatures.Most computers will not / should not exceed ~40C-50C ambient case temperature, and a lot (mine included) run much cooler. It is not uncommon for my CPU to run sub 100F (winter time), and sub 120F (summer time) under a load. Most of the time, the ambient case temperature of my case is easily under 105F.
Anyhow, the whole point here is: practise common sense with your electronics concerning heat. 120C is obviously WAY too hot for a HDD, as well as most consumer grade electronics. This also doesnt negate the fact that several studies have been done in enterprise envoirnments, to prove that heat ( again, within reason ) is not a factor in HDD falure. The whole point of these studies were to prove ( or disprove ) the point of buying enterprise grade hard drives vs. regular HDDs.
I have always wondered why you guys ( who ever claims that HDD fails often ) buy new HDDs with your new system, now I think I know ;)
phusg - Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - link
Please refer us to these multiple studies. AFAIK the only one that corroborates this is the google one, which you mention in a later post. Also I'd question this one study's relevance to home use, as not everyone leaves their drives running 24/7 as google does. My personal feeling is that repeated expansion and contraction damages drives most, and obviously if the drive is running hotter then the expansion will be greater and so will the damage to the longevity of the drive.yyrkoon - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
What you're reffering to is known as 'Hysteresus'. Excuse the bad spelling, if I misspelled that (it is not a word I used often). Anyhow, this is the effect, that rapid cooling / heating has on an object over time, and the object eventually becomming brittle because of this.As for the refferal, use google. Do not expect everyone to do your homework for you ;) However, I can tell you that, I personally have many HDDs, some of which are over 12 years old, have seen a lot of heat in their time, and are fully functional. One of which is a 80MB Maxtor . . .
Spoelie - Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - link
According to my own experience that's not really true. Last summer I had trouble with my main OS drive (a Seagate 7200.8 160GB) where windows would slow to a grind, there were multiple IO errors in the event log, then DMA would switch off and corrupt data showed up on the disc. I thought it died to be honest.However, before throwing it out I tried upping the cooling. I had 3 Seagate HDs in the HD chamber in front without intake fans, and they were incredibly warm to the touch. Directing a 120mm 800rpm fan over them to test immediately solved all issues, and the drive was as reliable again as ever (no permanent damage even). They're now very cool to the touch. Kinda obvious when I think about it, in a normal case the drive makes metal to metal contact and the HD bay itself functions as a large heat sink, while in the Antec there is no contact at all and the drive is "suspended in the air" on rubber grommets.
It was a particular hot summer period but still, heat shouldn't be ignored.
Gary Key - Monday, March 19, 2007 - link
It is well within the drives operating range and remember the temp dropped to 43C once we turned the front fan on in the case. I was expecting it to run warmer actually.