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500GB Hard Drive Round-Up
Drive Operation
All three drives are essentially the same size and weight. The higher density of these drives did definitely cause them to heat up though. I measured surface temperatures of all drives at about 43 deg C. Although this is far hotter than many older PATA drives, it appears to be on par for drives of this density. The hard drives located in my ReadyNAS X6 all operate between 42-44 deg C and they are all identical and I have had no ill effects from operating at that temperature. Even though these high temperatures are not unexpected, it is definitely something to keep in mind if you are considering a drive of this capacity. This could be particularly problematic if the intended use is for a small computer or HTPC with just so-so airflow. In terms of noise, all three drives appeared to be quiet. I was not able to hear any of them over the otherwise loud fans located within my test system. I think any of these drives would be at home in a quiet system as long as it had good airflow (see comment previous). Conclusion I will admit, the thought of testing hard drives didn't quite get me excited. Really, how can you compare hard drives, aren't they all the same? Well, that's what we wanted to find out, obviously. The answer to that question is no, as has been proven by the Western digital drive results. The question now is which drive is best. From a pure numbers game, I would have to say that the Western Digital WD500KS drive is an awesome drive and deserves your attention. The extremely fast read speed puts this drive way ahead in this comparison. With that being said, everything really depends on what you want to do with your 500GB of hard disk space. I found that the Hitachi performed better in some benchmarks than the Western Digital. I would go for the Hitachi drive for an OS drive over the WD. If your goal is archival storage, such as video, then the fast read times of the WD are definitely where you need to be. Now, my previous comments have shown praise for both the WD and Hitachi, but what about the Seagate. This drive performed poorly in many of the tests, yet I would still consider this drive for one simple reason, the warranty. Both the Western Digital and the Hitachi have standard 3-year warranties, while the Seagate carries a 5-year warranty. If the warranty period is of great concern, then you have no further to look than the Seagate. I would have liked to have seen better numbers from the Seagate drive, and if the other manufacturers lengthened their warranties equally, Seagate's entry would then lose its only advantage. Personally, I am into hardware for the long haul, especially for hard drives. If I am throwing down my own hard earned money, I would go for the Seagate. If performance is your top concern and you will retire the machine long before the 3-year warranty is up, then by all means go with the Western Digital.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Initial Comparison & Testing Methodologies Page 3: Testing: HDTach, IOMeter, and DiskBench Page 4: Drive Operation & Conclusion 
Related Reviews Internal Hard Drives December 4, 2008
Internal Hard Drives March 27, 2008
Add Comment
5 User Comments 1 - Posted by
BCSchnei
on September 27, 2006 - 12:09 pm Nice review Rich. I was wondering if you noticed any significant difference in the noise level between the drives. Did one or the other strike you as particularly loud? I really want the quietest computer possible and waiting a few extra seconds is not something I'm too worried about if I don't have to listen to the heads trash around all the time. I'm really hoping that Samsung gets their new solid state HD's available in larger sizes. http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/20/conventiona... Ben 2 - Posted by
Nick
on September 27, 2006 - 1:18 pm If yer not worried about a few seconds, get a 2.5" drive. I was ghosting to one sitting open on my desk 4 feet from me and I couldn't hear it above the normal office din.
3 - Posted by
Rich
on September 27, 2006 - 3:06 pm These 500GB drives are far quieter than my older PATA drives were, unfortunately, I have a lot of noisy fans, so I am not able to truely figure out which is the least noisy. That and I don't have a db meter.
4 - Posted by
Darthb0b0
on September 28, 2006 - 11:25 am I'm disappointed you tested the Seagate 7200.9 series when the 7200.10 drives have been out for awhile. The new perpendicular recording has significantly changed their performance characteristics. I'd like to see those numbers against the WD and Hitachi drives.
5 - Posted by
Rich
on September 28, 2006 - 12:13 pm That is what Seagate chose to send us at the time of this writing. Although perpendicular recording technology is where the industry is headed, that is a whole new review. It will probably happen with 750GB drives when is does happen anyway. I would agree though I am very interested to see just what type of difference in speed perpendicular recording does make.
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