Spindle speed 5400 or 7200. IDE interface - minimum speed and volume

So we start. I bring to your attention the first test of disks intended for use in mobile computers. The testing methodology is given. Please do not judge too harshly - after all, the first experience. Until you look at the test results, it is difficult to say which of them are more revealing. For the first test, disks with a spindle speed of 5400 rpm were selected from three manufacturers - Hitachi, Seagate and Toshiba (a disk from Fujitsu is tested in this moment, the results will be available at a later date). At the moment, these drives are a high-performance solution (as a kind of analogue of desktop drives with a spindle speed of 7200 rpm, then a 7200 rpm drive can be considered an analogue of WD Raptor :). To begin with, let's take a closer look at the official specifications and technologies used (if, of course, the manufacturer considers it necessary to report some of them).

Hitachi Travelstar DK23FB-40

The disk is Hitachi's brainchild, apparently dating back to a time before Hitachi had taken over IBM's hard drive division. It has a high recording density - 68.5 Gbits / sq. inch. Details about any applied technologies are hidden from the masses. Due to the fact that Hitachi Global Storage (this name was given to the division after the merger with IBM's developers) has already released three new series of disks (at 4200, 5400 and 7200 rpm), we can say that this disc belongs to the last generation.

Seagate Momentus ST94811A

After a break, Seagate decided to return to hard 2.5″ form factor drives. At the moment, the Momentus line includes 4 disks with volumes of 20 and 40GB and a buffer capacity of 2 and 8MB. The oldest representative of this line came to us for testing - a 40GB screw with an 8MB buffer. It is interesting to note that all Momentus discs currently produced contain only one pancake. According to Seagate, the Momentus drive is close in power consumption to 4200 rpm drives, and using a 5400 rpm drive results in a 50% increase in system performance compared to them. Well, today we will have the opportunity to compare the results with a low-speed drive from Toshiba. Seagate also believes that the use of an 8MB buffer brings the performance of this disk closer to the level of desktop systems - bringing it closer, most likely, brings it a little closer, but basically this statement is purely marketing in nature. If we talk about technologies, then Momentus "e has a SoftSonic FDB (Fluid Dynamic Bearing) motor and uses QuietStep ramp load technology, designed to reduce disk noise. It also uses the 3D Defense System technology - Drive, Data & Diagnostic Defense.

Toshiba MK4019GAX

The drive, like the Seagate Momentus, uses a Fluid Dynamic Bearing motor drive. To the issue of performance increase compared to 4200 rpm drives, Toshiba engineers approached more cautiously and announced only a 12% increase in performance. True, they quite boldly declared the highest recording density among 5400 rpm drives compared to competitors' products - 34.7 Gbits/sq. inch, however, the Hitachi drive, even from the penultimate line, has a recording density of 68.5 Gbits/sq. inch ( For more details, see the table of characteristics declared by manufacturers). As a feature, we can single out the largest buffer size among the tested disks - 16MB.

Toshiba MK3021GAS

This drive is also claimed to have the highest recording density among competitors' drives - 48.8 Gbits/square inch. It must be assumed that this applies only to 4200 rpm drives, otherwise Toshiba engineers contradict themselves (see the paragraph above). It also uses a Fluid Dynamic Bearing motor drive.

Characteristics of disks are given in the table.

A small comment. Judging by the volume of disks and the number of platters, the recording density per platter for Hitachi Travelstar is 30 GB (trimmed platters are used), for Seagate Momentus - 40 GB, for Toshiba MK4019GAX - 20 GB. Toshiba MK3021GAS with a spindle speed of 4200 rpm allows you to record 30 GB on a platter.

Tests

As test bench using a MaxSelect TravelBook Z4 laptop provided by Atlantic Computers. The test bench configuration is as follows.

• Processor - Intel Pentium-M 1.3GHz;
• Chipset - Intel 855PM (Montara);
• RAM - 512 MB DDR266;
• Video system - integrated
• Hard drive - Toshiba MK4018GAS;
• Operating system - Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP1.

The test suite is the following:

• Ziff-Davis WinBench 99;
• Intel IOMeter;
• Mobile Mark 2002.

A detailed testing methodology can be read. Ziff-Davis WinBench 99

By maximum value Linear read speeds are ahead, as expected, of the Seagate Momentus. The disk from Hitachi is quite a bit inferior to it, but it has the highest read speed at the end of the disk - another confirmation that the platters are not fully used. Toshiba MK4019GAX lags far behind, while MK3021GAS comes close behind.

Hitachi Travelstar DK23FB-40

Seagate Momentus ST94811A

Toshiba MK4019GAX

Toshiba MK3021GAS

Over time, miracles happen. Drives from Hitachi and Seagate showed results about 1 ms better than the declared ones, and Toshiba MK4019GAX - more than 1 ms worse. And only MK3021GAS with a spindle speed of 4200 rpm showed results close to expected in this test. Let's try to measure this parameter using another test - Intel IOMeter.

Well, it didn't get much better. Since this is the first test, it is difficult to say what is the reason here.

In the Ziff-Davis Disk WinMarks tests, the drive from Hitachi took the lead. Seagate Momentus managed to get ahead of it only in Business WinMark when using a file NTFS systems. But Toshiba lags behind - even a 16 MB buffer doesn't help. In general, we can say that both Seagate and Toshiba keep their promises - the results of Momentus in High-End WinMark are indeed almost 1.5 times higher, and Toshiba MK4019GAX - even more than 12% higher than the results of Toshiba MK3021GAS. Intel IOMeter

Since it is unlikely that anyone will risk using a laptop as a server at the present time, we will limit ourselves to considering how disks work in the Workstation pattern. The clear leader here is Seagate Momentus. The Hitachi drive catches up with it only in the area of ​​maximum loads, which, frankly, are hardly decisive when working with a laptop. Unexpectedly, the Toshiba MK4019GAX performed well. Losing to Hitachi at low loads, it is almost as good at medium loads.

In the model random reading the picture is about the same, but with random entry discs are split into pairs. Seagate Momentus and Hitachi showed approximately same results, but Toshiba drives are lagging behind, and a drive with a spindle speed of 5400 rpm has practically no advantages.

When working with disks with different ratios of read/write requests, the disk from Seagate showed itself brilliantly against the background of the rest, does the rich experience in developing desktop disks affect? And here Drive Hitachi shows himself with better side only at maximum loads, in other cases its results are comparable to the results of Toshiba MK4019GAX, which is not very helpful even with a 16-MB buffer.

These graphs show that Toshiba drives don't like to write 2K blocks. Mobile Mark 2002

Now - the most interesting. Everything that was before - for the most part is of theoretical interest. But how will the disks behave in real work(or rather, of course, in her model)? So the computer is on. What happens?

The first conclusion is that IOMeter and MobileMark model the computer in different ways. In this regard, a task for the future arises - to try to describe the operation of the MobileMark test in terms of the parameters of the IOMeter test. Secondly, the winner in this test is the Hitachi drive. Its superiority over the Seagate Momentus - about 5% - is less than in the Ziff-Davis High-End WinMark test (about 7% when using the same file system NTFS). Thirdly, stopping disks during idle time (and there are stops during the test, since pauses up to 20 minutes long are included to simulate the user's work) reduces system performance, although slightly (up to 3%). Now let's see how performance affects time battery life.

I've always been interested in the question - does disabling disks for a period of idle time reduce power consumption? After all, when starting a disk, more current is required, which they do not like. rechargeable batteries, and that can nullify all the savings. The test results show that, according to at least in the model implemented in the MobileMark 2002 test, stopping the disks really does not win. As for the concrete results, when a Seagate Momentus drive was installed in the system, the battery life was really the maximum for the tested drives with a spindle speed of 5400 rpm. True, the difference of 1-2 minutes cannot be called decisive - it is close to the test error. Much more interesting is the fact that the Toshiba MK3021GAS drive with a spindle speed of 4200 rpm outperformed the "senior" drives in terms of battery life by less than 10 minutes (about 4%), while lagging behind in performance by about 12%.

Noisiness

Here, according to subjective feelings, all the drives performed very well, with the exception of Toshiba MK4019GAX. The positioning crackle is very distinct, and in random read/write tests it was just annoying.

conclusions

So, what can be said in essence? The 16 MB buffer did not help the Toshiba MK4019GAX drive - it became an outsider in testing. And considering not the best acoustic characteristics, I would not recommend installing it on your laptop. The other two discs showed good results. Perhaps, in aggregate, given the primacy in tests based on real applications, the first place can be given to Hitachi Travelstar DK23FB-40. In this regard, it will be interesting to test last generation drives from Hitachi. And one more note - as tests have shown, disconnecting disks during idle period in the model used does not lead to any significant increase in battery life, but this reduces performance, and, possibly, the lifetime of disks decreases ("probably" - because which increases the number of starts/stops, but reduces the time of the disk).

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Greetings to all, dear readers and visitors!!! 🙂

Continuing the series of notes on hard drives, and today I would like to pay attention to such an HDD parameter as the speed of rotation of the spindle, on which the actual data plates are mounted. Is this setting important?

Of course…

A hard drive is a complex electromechanical device. It combines mechanical and electronic part. The mechanics ensures the rotation of the disk or disk pack (if HDD built on several plates - as a rule, these are disks large capacity), provides ultra-precise positioning of the head over the plates ... Electronics - reads, writes and changes data on the disk continuously at a very high speed.
These two components must work together and be as reliable as possible. To a greater extent, reliability depends on the mechanical part - about 80-90 percent.

One of the main components of the mechanics of the disk is the engine. He must have mandatory parameter- the ability to maintain a fixed spindle speed for a very long time.

The spindle must rotate at the specified number of revolutions. Today there are several types of discs, if you look at the number of revolutions of the plates:

5400 rpm- Mainly used in laptops, tk. low RPM means higher reliability and lower power consumption. And this is critical for laptops. They are also found in desktop PCs in the so-called "green" (environmentally friendly) hard drives, which are distinguished by record-breaking low energy consumption.

7200 rpm- 90% of all hard drives. They are mainly used in desktop PCs - they are not critical to energy consumption and they need high performance. And the performance is greater, the more revolutions the spindle makes (this is one of the factors). We can say this is the golden mean between speed and reliability.

10 or 15,000 rpm- The most productive drives, but also the most unreliable ... High speed leads to strong heat plates - while the threat of data loss is simply huge! And of course - mechanical wear ... This factor, as they say, has not been canceled. 😉

So, the most acceptable discs for today can be called discs with a plate rotation speed of 7200 rpm. Heat is acceptable and performance is better than 5400 rpm drives. And yes, the price is reasonable. High-speed disks are usually very expensive, and the performance gain does not justify itself at all, due to the low reliability of the media.

And who needs a hard drive on which it is dangerous to store information?

P.S. I remind you that very soon my new project, which will be entirely devoted to such an important issue as Information Security. Details:

When it comes to hard drives, then there is one main question Q: Which disc is the best? I will not answer specifically, since each product has its own buyer. I will just give you the characteristics of hard drive motors. Surprised?

And you should not be surprised, since the hard drive engine is its heart. And this heart is responsible for the speed of rotation of the hard disk platters. And a lot depends on the speed, and most importantly - the process of hard drive wear ( HDD). So, let's move on to the characteristics of HDD speed.

Today, there are three main disk rotation speeds: 5400 rpm, 7200 rpm and 10 or 15.000 rpm. What is the difference, or simply put: which speed is better? We look:

1) speed 5200 rpm- lowest HDD speed. Basically, hard drives with this rotation speed are installed in laptops. This measure reduces the power consumption of the laptop, and consequently - the battery is discharged more slowly. Plus, this speed reduces the risk of a critical load on the system. The only "minus" of such a speed is poor performance(by the way, the same discs can be found on some home computers);

2) 7200 rpm- this rotation speed spindle rigid disk is the most common. This speed combined two pluses at once: firstly, disks with such a speed are not demanding on energy consumption, and secondly, they have high performance. In general, friends, 7200 rpm is like a two-in-one shampoo: both speed and performance are at a decent level;

3) 10 to 15.000 rpm- this is a real "monster". The performance is just great! But there are two huge "minuses": the heating temperature of the hard disk platters and rapid wear. At HDD installation at such a speed, you first need to take care of a decent cooling of this monster, as well as stock up on good flash drives or "blanks": store valuable information I wouldn't risk it on these discs!

Summing up, you can safely point your finger at the 7200 rpm discs and say: “This is what we need!”. except decent performance, these disks still do not heat up to critical indicators. And the question of price and quality is ideal for 7200 rpm, which cannot be said about 5200 rpm and 15,000 rpm.

So, friends, I hope that this article will help you in the future (and maybe even now) to do Right choice regarding speed data hard disks.

Read also

Different market segments today

Market 3.5" hard drives broken down into various segments but it's pretty easy to figure them out. There is hard drives that are aimed at maximum performance with a spindle speed of 7200 rpm, and there are products that are designed to provide maximum capacity with minimum power consumption. Moreover, in both segments there may be models for both consumers and corporate users. Actually, this is what happened in our case: Samsung Spinpoint F3EG is an economical high-capacity hard drive for consumers, and Constellation ES is a productive and capacious hard drive for corporate clients. This time we decided to omit the segmentation of the market, since both drives are potential candidates for NAS storage or file servers both at home and in small and medium businesses.

History of two terabytes

The first 2TB hard drive was introduced western digital- model . This is an economical four platter hard drive, and it took several months for WD and competitors to bring high performance 2TB hard drives to market. Spinpoint F3EG appeared quite recently, before it Samsung simply did not have 2TB models.

All other hard drive manufacturers have already upgraded and modified their 2TB models to increase storage density, performance and efficiency. But the 2TB mark is still the maximum capacity you can get from a single hard drive - and we're guessing it will be until the second half of this year. Therefore, enthusiasts have no alternative - they will have to choose one of the 2TB models for high-capacity storage.

7200 or 5400 rpm?

This question can be answered fairly quickly based on the purpose of the hard drive: do you plan to use it for operating system or applications? If you will install only one OS hard drive in your PC, then it makes sense to take the most fast model, which you can find - so the hard drive must have a spindle speed of 7200 rpm. Everyone else who plans to run the OS and applications with high speed hard drive or even with super-fast solid-state SSD, it is better to look towards more energy-efficient high-capacity hard drives. The same applies to the use of hard drives during external devices or snap-ins: the 5400 RPM model will suffice if you only need to store, backup or archive files.

IN this review we will consider a new hard samsung disk Spinpoint F3EG, which is not designed to win in terms of performance, but is distinguished by high energy efficiency. Second hard Seagate drive Constellation ES- productive model, aimed at corporate customers, and models with SATA 3 Gb / s or SAS 6 Gb / s interfaces appeared on the market. Which hard drive is best for your needs?

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Suffix EG for the name of models of rigid samsung drives stands for EcoGreen, and from it the purpose of the drive becomes immediately clear: it must consume a minimum of energy. But here, as usual, one should separate slow low-power drives and models with the highest efficiency, that is, with better performance per watt To which class does new samsung? You will learn this from our article.

This newcomer to the market did an excellent job of providing high capacity with low power consumption. 2 TB participated in our tests top model, but you can purchase the 1.5TB version. The limited capacity selection emphasizes that this product is aimed at environments with maximum volume data storage. Once again, we note that we have the first 2-TB hard drive from Samsung, as well as the first hard drive from this company that uses four platters. This manufacturer usually supported high capacity with a low number of platters (Samsung was the first to introduce a 1TB hard drive on three platters), but times are changing.

The drive is still using SATA interface 3 Gbps. However, SATA installation 6 Gb / s would hardly change anything, since the hard drive is limited by the physical speed of reading from the plates. We got top speed data transfer (read) 115 MB/s - good result. The average and minimum bandwidth, on the other hand, was somewhat disappointing. The same can be said about access time and I / O performance: this hard drive was clearly aimed at minimal power consumption, but, alas, at the same time it had to get rid of all ambitions for high performance except throughput. Knowing its performance results in the test PC Mark Vantage, we do not recommend using this hard drive as a system drive.

What is the news on energy consumption? We measured idle power consumption at 4.1W, which is not a record compared to others hard drives, but still less than the idle power consumption of the Barracuda LP, also an economical four-platter hard drive. However, the record for minimum power consumption still belongs to the WD RE4 hard drive. Power consumption under fixed loads such as playing a FullHD video stream or I/O activity in a scenario workstation, was also low, but, again, we did not receive new records.

Eventually, this model hard disk gives a pleasant throughput And low power consumption, and the hard drive case heats up minimally. But, alas, the performance in applications is disappointing, the power efficiency is average. The Samsung hard drive is perfect for storage applications such as backup or archiving. But as a system drive or for running applications, we would not recommend it.

Click on the picture to enlarge.