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Hard Disk Drive Performance Comparison Guide
Hard disk drives, also known as hard drives or simply HDDs, are critical components of every computer. Although flash-based SSDs (solid state drives) are making some inroads, the ubiquitous hard disk drive is still the ultimate storage choice for the rest of us. Hard disk drives provide a large amount of data storage at low cost. Perfect for storing bloated software and all sorts of "interesting stuff" we download from the Internet. 
Of course, the hard disk drive is more than just a repository for our data or a place to store the games we play. It affects the performance of our PCs, especially how long it takes to launch applications or games, or open up files. Its performance is also critical if you are low on RAM because your PC will use more virtual memory. This is where the Hard Disk Drive Performance Comparison Guide comes in.
In this article, we will be comparing the performance of all the hard disk drives we can get our hands on. This would be similar to our Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide. It may start off small, but we intend to keep adding new hard disk drives and even new benchmarks as we go along. Let's take a look at the hard disk drives we have rounded up for this comparison.
Note : For comparison purposes, we added two solid state drives to the guide. While not hard disk drives, they nonetheless serve the same function as primary storage devices for the PC.
The Hard Disk Drives
Model |
Segment |
Capacity |
Spindle Speed |
Buffer |
Interface |
Additional |
Western Digital Caviar Green |
3.5" Desktop |
2 TB |
5400+ RPM |
32 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Samsung Spinpoint F1 |
3.5" Desktop |
1 TB |
7200 RPM |
32 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Western Digital Caviar GP (Green) |
3.5" Desktop |
1 TB |
5400+ RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Western Digital Caviar SE16 (Blue) |
3.5" Desktop |
750 GB |
7200 RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 |
3.5" Desktop |
750 GB |
7200 RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Barracuda ES |
3.5" Enterprise |
750 GB |
7200 RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Western Digital Caviar SE16 (Blue) |
3.5" Desktop |
640 GB |
7200 RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Western Digital Caviar GP (Green) |
3.5" Desktop |
500 GB |
5400+ RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 |
3.5" Desktop |
500 GB |
7200 RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 |
3.5" Desktop |
400 GB |
7200 RPM |
8 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Western Digital Scorpio Black |
2.5" Mobile |
320 GB |
7200 RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Western Digital Scorpio Blue |
2.5" Mobile |
320 GB |
5400 RPM |
8 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Western Digital VelociRaptor |
2.5" Enterprise |
300 GB |
10,000 RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Momentus 5400.5 |
2.5" Mobile |
250 GB |
5400 RPM |
8 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Momentus 5400.4 |
2.5" Mobile |
250 GB |
5400 RPM |
8 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Momentus 7200.2 |
2.5" Mobile |
160 GB |
7200 RPM |
8 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Momentus 5400.3 |
2.5" Mobile |
160 GB |
5400 RPM |
8 MB |
Ultra ATA/100 |
|
Western Digital Raptor X |
3.5" Enterprise |
150 GB |
10,000 RPM |
16 MB |
SATA 1.5 Gb/s |
|
SuperTalent UltraDrive GX |
2.5" Mobile |
128 GB |
MLC SSD |
64 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Seagate Momentus 7200.1 |
2.5" Mobile |
100 GB |
7200 RPM |
8 MB |
Ultra ATA/100 |
|
Intel X25-M (50 nm) |
2.5" Mobile |
80 GB |
MLC SSD |
NA |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 |
2.5" Mobile |
80 GB |
5400 RPM |
8 MB |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
|
Fujitsu MHT2040AT |
2.5" Mobile |
40 GB |
4200 RPM |
2 MB |
Ultra ATA/100 |
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Introduction |
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| Benchmark Details & Settings | ||
Real World Simulations |
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Synthetic Tests |
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• Platter Profile (Desktop HDDs) |
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Conclusion |
