Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB: Cool, Quiet, and Quick
by Gary Key on July 9, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Quick Take
Samsung's SpinPoint T166 delivers excellent performance for the money in our opinion. The overall performance of the drive in the 500GB category remained consistent, and while not always class leading it certainly was not the class dunce. The drive's placement in our actual application tests is always near the top along with very good scores in the iPEAK productivity and general task tests.
While the speed of the drive was at question in our iPEAK game play tests, we really never noticed it during actual game play unless we had just used the Raptor drive as our comparison drive. The true strength of the Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB drive is its incredible showing in the acoustic and thermal tests while having excellent power consumption numbers and competitive performance.
For all intents and purposes, the drive is whisper quiet - maybe not a perfect soft whisper, but quiet enough that we would not hesitate to use this drive or a combination of drives in an HTPC setup. As a matter of fact, you will see this drive featured prominently in an upcoming article centered on HTPC components and it is our drive of choice to compare against the PVR specific DB35.3 series from Seagate and the CinemaStar 7K500 drives from Hitachi.
Our opinion of the SpinPoint T166 is very high right now and unlike previous Samsung offerings we think this latest series delivers a near perfect combination of performance, quiet operation, thermal management, and price. In terms of pure performance, the Hitachi 500GB drive might be slightly faster, but in practical use it is extremely unlikely anyone would notice the difference in performance. Noise levels on the other hand definitely favor the Samsung T166 drives, and we really see no reason to spend $30 more to get the Hitachi drive. If you are looking for a hard drive in this capacity range then the Samsung HD501LJ should be at the top of your list.
Samsung's SpinPoint T166 delivers excellent performance for the money in our opinion. The overall performance of the drive in the 500GB category remained consistent, and while not always class leading it certainly was not the class dunce. The drive's placement in our actual application tests is always near the top along with very good scores in the iPEAK productivity and general task tests.
While the speed of the drive was at question in our iPEAK game play tests, we really never noticed it during actual game play unless we had just used the Raptor drive as our comparison drive. The true strength of the Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB drive is its incredible showing in the acoustic and thermal tests while having excellent power consumption numbers and competitive performance.
For all intents and purposes, the drive is whisper quiet - maybe not a perfect soft whisper, but quiet enough that we would not hesitate to use this drive or a combination of drives in an HTPC setup. As a matter of fact, you will see this drive featured prominently in an upcoming article centered on HTPC components and it is our drive of choice to compare against the PVR specific DB35.3 series from Seagate and the CinemaStar 7K500 drives from Hitachi.
Our opinion of the SpinPoint T166 is very high right now and unlike previous Samsung offerings we think this latest series delivers a near perfect combination of performance, quiet operation, thermal management, and price. In terms of pure performance, the Hitachi 500GB drive might be slightly faster, but in practical use it is extremely unlikely anyone would notice the difference in performance. Noise levels on the other hand definitely favor the Samsung T166 drives, and we really see no reason to spend $30 more to get the Hitachi drive. If you are looking for a hard drive in this capacity range then the Samsung HD501LJ should be at the top of your list.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
42 Comments
View All Comments
phusg - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
LOL. You're funny! Intel doesn't even make motherboards.
Of course build quality/reliability has come down over the years (as it has in almost all manufacturing sectors), but this has been done very consciously to lower cost so please don't pretend the U.S. is special in this regard.
TA152H - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Intel doesn't make motherboards? Is this an episode of the Twilight Zone? How can two people believe this. Well, I must be drugged or something, because I would have sworn I had several Intel motherboards running and about 15 that are part of my collection that are for show.Why do you post nonsense that can be easily disproven? Go to their site, I'll help you since you're obviously not too sharp http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/index.ht...">http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/index.ht... .
Fancy that they are just as delusional as I am. At least if I'm insane, I'm in good company (no pun intended).
amdsupport - Monday, September 17, 2007 - link
I know this is an old comment, but I just had to comment on this one...Intel mainboards are not actually made by Intel...never have been to my knowledge. All Intel mainboards are designed by Intel, however; Intel contracts all manufacturing out to Foxconn.Intel boards are really made overseas. People do not realize Foxconn makes a lot of stuff in the computer industry.
snor - Monday, July 9, 2007 - link
Actually, Foxconn produces Intel's motherboards.TA152H - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
And you are getting this information from where??????lennylim - Monday, July 9, 2007 - link
Pardon my ignorance. Who are these two manufacturers?
TA152H - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
You couldn't get that from the first message?Supermicro and Intel. They are widely regarded as the most reliable in the industry, and my personal experience with them does nothing to disprove it. Strangely, my personal experience with Epox is very good too, and they are Taiwanese, but this is not something I have seen widely accepted. So, I guess it's just a fluke. I also don't know what's happened to them. If I were going to buy an AMD based motherboard, I would pick them, but they don't seem to be selling much anymore. Again, I'm pretty sure I was just lucky with them, since they aren't known for reliability. But, sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be smart.
gigahertz20 - Monday, July 9, 2007 - link
Just read the Newegg reviews. This Samsung drive is the most highly rated 500GB hard drive on Newegg over Seagate and Western Digital. A company is not going to sell hard drives that are unreliable, maybe your luck is just bad or something.TA152H - Monday, July 9, 2007 - link
Newegg reviews generally aren't written by people three years after they buy a hard drive. So, it's not too useful.gigahertz20 - Monday, July 9, 2007 - link
I've had this Samsung hard drive sitting in my Newegg cart for awhile, but frys had an awesome deal for the 4th of July where they were selling Maxtor 500GB SATA3 16MB Cache Retail hard drives for $90...it's suppose to arrive tomorrow but damn, now I wish I would have waited and bought this Samsung instead.BTW, frys still has the deal going on. http://tinyurl.com/2ozqpr">http://tinyurl.com/2ozqpr
I've heard the 500GB Maxtor hard drives are rebadged Seagate 7200.10 drives since Seagate bought Maxtor up while ago. I'll find out tomorrow when UPS delivers it.