Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB: Cool, Quiet, and Quick
by Gary Key on July 9, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
HD Tune / HD Tach
In previous HD Tune 2.53 testing the Hitachi T7K500 came in at 65.3 MB/s, Seagate's 7200.10 500GB drive at 63.1 MB/s, Western Digital's YS 500GB at 62.4 MB/s, and falling way behind at 51.5 MB/s was the Seagate 7200.9 500GB drive. The Samsung's 64.9 MB/s puts it near the Hitachi's class leading performance and slightly ahead of the Seagate drive.
With a reported read access time of 14.0ms, the Samsung drive finishes at the bottom of the pack of our 500GB drives with the Hitachi T7K500 having a 13.0ms score and the Seagate 7200.10 finishing at 13.2ms. Considering the rotational latency of a 7200 RPM spindle is generally 4.2ms, this leaves the SpinPoint T166 with a measured seek time of 9.8ms which is higher than Samsung's reported 8.9ms results.
In the HD Tach tests the sequential read speed at the 250GB level for the 500GB 7200.10, Hitachi 500GB, and WD 500GB averaged around 70 MB/s while the 7200.9 500GB was near 53 MB/s. The Samsung drive is once again very competitive with a reading right over 72 MB/s at the 250GB mark while finishing around the 40 MB/s mark at the end of the drive. As in the HD Tune tests, we a slight dip at the 25GB mark before the drive recovers back to the 80 MB/s range in the sequential read speed test.
It is important to note that access times, average read rates, and burst rate measurements are basically synthetic measurements, and while important these are not "true" application measurements. There is a great deal of potential bottlenecks elsewhere in the system that can and will affect the true performance of a drive. Although these "benchmarks" are a good indicator of a drive's performance, it is the total make-up of components in the PC that will determine the drive's actual performance.
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In previous HD Tune 2.53 testing the Hitachi T7K500 came in at 65.3 MB/s, Seagate's 7200.10 500GB drive at 63.1 MB/s, Western Digital's YS 500GB at 62.4 MB/s, and falling way behind at 51.5 MB/s was the Seagate 7200.9 500GB drive. The Samsung's 64.9 MB/s puts it near the Hitachi's class leading performance and slightly ahead of the Seagate drive.
With a reported read access time of 14.0ms, the Samsung drive finishes at the bottom of the pack of our 500GB drives with the Hitachi T7K500 having a 13.0ms score and the Seagate 7200.10 finishing at 13.2ms. Considering the rotational latency of a 7200 RPM spindle is generally 4.2ms, this leaves the SpinPoint T166 with a measured seek time of 9.8ms which is higher than Samsung's reported 8.9ms results.
In the HD Tach tests the sequential read speed at the 250GB level for the 500GB 7200.10, Hitachi 500GB, and WD 500GB averaged around 70 MB/s while the 7200.9 500GB was near 53 MB/s. The Samsung drive is once again very competitive with a reading right over 72 MB/s at the 250GB mark while finishing around the 40 MB/s mark at the end of the drive. As in the HD Tune tests, we a slight dip at the 25GB mark before the drive recovers back to the 80 MB/s range in the sequential read speed test.
It is important to note that access times, average read rates, and burst rate measurements are basically synthetic measurements, and while important these are not "true" application measurements. There is a great deal of potential bottlenecks elsewhere in the system that can and will affect the true performance of a drive. Although these "benchmarks" are a good indicator of a drive's performance, it is the total make-up of components in the PC that will determine the drive's actual performance.
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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.