Conclusion

The 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4 (HD204UI) hard disk drive uses Samsung's latest 667 GB platters but spins at a slower spindle speed of 5400 RPM to reduce power consumption and thermal output. It is very similar to Western Digital's Caviar Green range of low-power hard disk drives. Hence, its EcoGreen moniker.

The low spindle speed and reduced number of platters help this particular model achieve lower levels of power consumption and thermal output. Our thermal tests show that at full load, the drive only heats up by 6.4 °C above ambient temperature. When it idles, it does even better - its maximum case temperature was only 2 °C above ambient temperature! If you want a cool-running hard disk drive, then the Samsung EcoGreen F4 (HD204UI) is the right drive for the job.

That said, we have to point out its rather mixed performance characteristics. The Samsung HD204UI's platter profile was very odd, with large and consistent variations in transfer rate across the entire platter. This could explain why the drive was average in some tests, even though it had the highest transfer rate range of any 5400 RPM hard disk drive. Heck, its pure platter-to-buffer transfer rate was close to that of the very fast 2 TB Western Digital Caviar Black, which spins at 7200 RPM.

Of course, the Samsung EcoGreen F4 was not designed with performance in mind. The IOPS scaling tests showed that its dual-ARM controller was not capable of scaling with multiple simultaneous transactions. It also comes with a 32 MB SDRAM buffer, which isn't a lot these days when many hard disk drives come with 64 MB buffers. Again, if you are looking for performance, this isn't the right drive for you.

The 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4's strengths are its large storage capacity, affordable price point and low thermal output (and power consumption). If you are looking for a secondary hard disk drive to store your media files and backups, the 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4 (HD204UI) probably offers the best bang for your buck. At press time, it is the most affordable 2 TB hard disk drive (Check here for the latest price). Perfect if you just looking to store tons of movies and songs.

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