Seagate 7200.10 500GB: Hitting the Sweet Spot
by Gary Key and Dave Robinet on July 6, 2007 11:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Drive Specifications: Seagate 7200.10 ST3500630AS
When compared directly to its closest price competitor within the 500GB category, the Hitachi T7K500, we find nearly identical specs on both drives. The only major differences are the read seek time advantage and lower power consumption at idle for the Hitachi drive, and Seagate counters this with an additional two years of warranty coverage.
Seagate has approximately 14 variations of the 7200.10 product series released at this time in both internal and external configurations with PATA or SATA interfaces. The entire lineup features perpendicular recording technology with our review unit being the 500GB SATA 3Gbps version. This capacity is made possible by three 167GB platters spinning at 7200rpm with a 16MB cache. The current street price for this unit is around $119.
Capacities for the 7200.10 series range from 200GB to 750GB with PATA, SATA 1.5Gb/s, and SATA 3.0Gb/s interfaces being offered. The 200GB and base 250GB models feature an 8MB buffer while the 250GB, 320GB, 400GB, 500GB, and 750GB models have 16MB buffers. Seagate has dropped the MTBF (mean time between failures) measurement and switched to a percentage based Annualized Failure Rate (AFR) measurement which is estimated to be 0.34%.
Seagate has introduced two new technologies in the 7200.10 product line. The first is Adaptive Fly Height that maximizes the consistency of read/write performance across the entire disc by adjusting the fly height (distance between the disc head and platter) according to changes in environmental operating conditions. The second is Clean Sweep that assists in maintaining media integrity and drive reliability by passing the drive head over the entire platter during power-on to smooth out any irregularities in the disc surface.
| Drive Specifications | ||
| Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB HDT725050VLA360 |
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB ST3500630AS |
|
| Manufacturer's Stated Capacity- | 500GB | 500GB |
| Operating System Stated Capacity- | 465.8 GB | 465.8 GB |
| Interface- | SATA 3Gb/s | SATA 3Gb/s |
| Rotational Speed- | 7,200 RPM | 7,200 RPM |
| Cache Size- | 16MB | 16MB |
| Average Latency- | 4.17 ms (nominal) | 4.16 ms (nominal) |
| Read Seek Time- | 8.5 ms | 11 ms |
| Number of Heads- | 6 | 6 |
| Number of Platters- | 3 | 3 |
| Power Draw Idle / Load- | 6.9W / 12.5W | 8.6W / 12.6W |
| Command Queuing- | Native Command Queuing | Native Command Queuing |
| Warranty- | 3 Year - Retail or OEM | 5 Year - Retail or OEM |
When compared directly to its closest price competitor within the 500GB category, the Hitachi T7K500, we find nearly identical specs on both drives. The only major differences are the read seek time advantage and lower power consumption at idle for the Hitachi drive, and Seagate counters this with an additional two years of warranty coverage.
Seagate has approximately 14 variations of the 7200.10 product series released at this time in both internal and external configurations with PATA or SATA interfaces. The entire lineup features perpendicular recording technology with our review unit being the 500GB SATA 3Gbps version. This capacity is made possible by three 167GB platters spinning at 7200rpm with a 16MB cache. The current street price for this unit is around $119.
Capacities for the 7200.10 series range from 200GB to 750GB with PATA, SATA 1.5Gb/s, and SATA 3.0Gb/s interfaces being offered. The 200GB and base 250GB models feature an 8MB buffer while the 250GB, 320GB, 400GB, 500GB, and 750GB models have 16MB buffers. Seagate has dropped the MTBF (mean time between failures) measurement and switched to a percentage based Annualized Failure Rate (AFR) measurement which is estimated to be 0.34%.
Seagate has introduced two new technologies in the 7200.10 product line. The first is Adaptive Fly Height that maximizes the consistency of read/write performance across the entire disc by adjusting the fly height (distance between the disc head and platter) according to changes in environmental operating conditions. The second is Clean Sweep that assists in maintaining media integrity and drive reliability by passing the drive head over the entire platter during power-on to smooth out any irregularities in the disc surface.
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VooDooAddict - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link
Transfer performance differences of most drives seems negligible for single drive end users. Actual formated size, heat, warranty, noise, and the ever important price are the keys for end users.That isn't to say your performance numbers are useful. I'd almost bet that engineers from SAN manufactures like EqualLogic check out these reviews. When you have those performance differences amplified by running 14+ spindles it's a little more noticeable.
Kaleid - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link
with platter density at record high 334GB.PenGun - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link
You know some of us need to know how fast a drive writes. Any reason that information is not available? All these stupid unzip the file are just braindead.lopri - Saturday, July 7, 2007 - link
What is the theoretical advantage of 'perpendicular' design? Out of curiosity.TA152H - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link
Better density.psychobriggsy - Saturday, July 7, 2007 - link
5 year warranty.'nuff said.
Although a 3 year warranty isn't so bad, but that last 10% of performance really doesn't excite me when it's regarding hard drives.
Yeah, yeah, I'm justifying my 320GB 7200.10 :p
JakeBlade - Saturday, July 7, 2007 - link
Sorry, that should be 1 out of 10. (Drank too much wine with my steak tonight).LoneWolf15 - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link
Got any stats to back that up? If so, I'd love to see them. 10% within 10 months seems like an awfully high failure rate to me (unless you're talking about long-defunct brands like JTS and Kalok).JakeBlade - Saturday, July 7, 2007 - link
5 year, 10 year, 15 year warranty. When the drive is made dirt cheap from the disenfranchised workforce in China, any hard drive company can easily slap a warranty on anything that needs 1 out of every 25 replaced within 10 months, while still making a huge profit from cheap manufacturing costs. My source: Newegg -- 266 reviews, first ~25 from lowest rating report DOA/Failure.Golgatha - Monday, July 9, 2007 - link
sarcasmYes, I can't imagine that those who received a DOA hard drive or one that failed within a short period of time being a little miffed and taking their frustration out on the Newegg.com ratings boards.
/sarcasm