40GB 5K80 vs 60GB 7K60 vs 100GB 7K100 - I've had all three!

[tripper]

All times in mins:secs on Windows XP after a full defrag.
40GB 5K80 60GB 7K60 100GB 7K100

Poweroff -> XP Login
5K80: 1:00 7K60: 0:48 7K100: 0:41

XP Login -> Desktop fully loaded, no more activity:
5K80: 2:42 7K60: 2:05 7K100: 1:40

Shutdown -> Poweroff
5K80: 0:13 7K60: 0:10 7K100: 0:09


Observations:
1) 7K100 noisier than 7K60 (after ATI Tool)
2) 7K60 warmer than 7K100

Bonuses:
Operating shock Gs much better on 7K100 hence now I've uninstalled the HD active protection. Don't try this at home now

[christopher_wolf]

Uninstalled the APS? Wow....

[cerebral_mamba]

Why does a 100GB outperform a 60GB 7.2KRMP drive? Is it not supposed to be the other way round?

[Tan Mann]

Why does a 100GB outperform a 60GB 7.2KRMP drive? Is it not supposed to be the other way round?

The 100G IS a 7200rpm hdd...being newer and with possibly more efficient drive reads/writes, I can see it being a wee bit better than the older 60K 7.2K unit.

FWIW.

Tan Mann

[ricerocket]

Doesn't it have more to do w/ data density? With every revolution, the 100 GB reads more data than its 60 GB counterpart since its more dense.

[StarTraveller]

Great post, tripper.

I've been contemplating if it was worth moving from the 7K60 to a 7K100 and it's good to see some real life performance numbers.

BTW, what is the ATI Tool?

[tripper]

ATI tool lets you fiddle with the acoustic management, ie slow it down a tinsy bit for quieter operation. HGST also has a program on their download site. Both 7K drives are way too noisy without it IMHO. The end result isn't Seagate, but it's a good compromise.

[Metalloy]

Tripper :

Great post, really useful information, as well as being as direct as a bullet.
For my info : where did u put your hands on this 7K100 beautiful beast ? how much did it cost ? I am already itching for one assuming that it'd work on my T42p. Appreciate if you can expedite your response.
P.S. The figures you posted cleared it up to me as to why my machine is bogged down by the 5K80.

Thanks again.

[tripper]

[tripper]

Bought it on ebay.de from hwsl.de (a trader on ebay) for 210 Euros. The Germans are very precise with their packaging and it came so well packaged you think you just bought something from a watchmaker. Buy something from the UK and they'll just shove it in a jiffy bag and that's the end of it. I can thoroughly recommend mail ordering something from Germany for a touch of that "build quality" if you can translate that into "packing quality". Also I had no qualms mail ordering it due to the higher inoperating shock value it withstands compared with other drives. In fact I removed my active protection system as mentioned because operating shock is now 300 G / 2ms which is +50% over 5K80/7K60. I'll take a risk on that and snip another process out of my task manager thanks very much.

[RonS]

I just ordered two 7K100's yesterday from ZipZoomFly.com

[RS_003]

APS is a nice option... but why are you ppl shocked that he uninstalled it?

Normal (not so good ) non IBM laptops don't have it either.

So....

(I always set ASP to minimal anyway... )

[StarTraveller]

Does APS have an impact on performance?

Besides taking up 4 MB of memory and pausing the disk when you bump the table, I mean. It seems like pretty cheap data insurance to me.

[christopher_wolf]

It is still a good idea to have APS (read, Strongly Recommended); and it isn't fully replaced by a higher G-tolerance rating on a HDD. It doesn't simply stop the disk, but it ramps the heads; a very important feature. If you consider how far off the disk the head flies (yes, it literally flies on a cushion of air that has to go through a little filter in the casing of the HDD to get rid of particulate matter of a pre-determined sized), this distance is around 14nm, and you have to have a laminar airflow. No matter what the G-tolerance of the HDD is; if the head touches the platter, you are in for some serious trouble. It is *always* preferable to ramp the heads rather than to rely on the G-Shock tolerance of the drive in question. You can only go so far by making the arms stiffer; since making it stiffer makes it more prone to higher frequency vibrations that could, potentially, reach resonance and crash the heads for you that way, there are automatic control systems that are designed to reduce this high frequency build-up by minimizing the amount of motion introduced to the heads during a seek operation. One impulse motion to get it to a pre-determined track, perform read/write ops, then another impulse to another track, etc. Any vibration, turbulence in the air flow, resonance can lead up to some very serious problems. The best solution is still an Active Protection/Control System that ramps the heads off of the platters when a shock is deemed imminent.



For such a small impact on resources, I would take the APS system as fully operational and keep it that way; it is better to be prepared and invest in prevention rather than rely on a, somewhat incidental number giving the shock tolerance of the drive or a component therein, and see what happens. Remember, a HDD is a mechanical, almost MEMs-like, device that still obeys Newton's Laws. If it, the APS, is there, why not use it? Apple laptops have the same system in place for the exact same reason, HDD Protection; besides, it is a Thinkpad, do you *really* want to be like all the "other" laptops out there?

[RS_003]

He he he ...


Oke ... Ill let it on the nexttime
(But my X31 doesnt have this option... that sucks because I bumped it like 4 times against a wall and the E7K60 isn't the best harddisk to do this with.)

[danda821]

what is ATI tool? Thank you.