|
1TB Hard Drive Roundup
Introduction
Barriers are meant to be broken. This is true for any industry (I think they call it competition), but in the computer industry it is very apparent as each company tries to claw its way to the top. These heated battles are settled in the marketplace arena, decided by consumers. Sometimes the losers come back stronger; other times they are acquired by other companies or just fade into non-existence. Hard drive manufacturers are among this fighting lot. As capacities have increased and prices fallen, each company wants those bragging rights of having the "biggest," or at least the fastest. The capacity war has been raging for a while. Breaking the Gigabyte barrier was an accomplishment. And, as drive capacities grew, the 1 Terabyte barrier was in the crosshairs. Earlier this year that, too, fell, with Hitachi announcing the first 1 TB drive at CES. I must admit, I was surprised that only Hitachi seemed to be present in this new 1 TB club. Surely others wouldn't let them get such a lead, especially in the large storage market? As was expected, Hitachi did not remain alone for long. Consumers now have the choice of several TB drive manufacturers. Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital, and Samsung are all selling 1 TB drives. I would like to tell you that I have a representative sample from each manufacturer, but, alas, I do not. The three drives which I DO have torturing rights to are the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000, the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (ST3100340AS), and the Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (ST31000340NS). Although Samsung and Western Digital are absent, we always welcome late entries (hint, hint...). From the outside, all three of these drives look very similar. The Seagate drives were sent to me in OEM form while the Hitachi arrived in full retail glory. Each uses Perpendicular recording technology, which is currently the de facto standard for drives. The true differences in the drives aren't on the outside, but what is inside. The Hitachi was able to break the 1 TB barrier by adding an additional platter. Therefore, the Hitachi is a 5 platter, 10 head design. Seagate chose to increase the areal density of the drives rather than increase the number of platters, which explains their lag time to market. We will have to see if this choice pays off in the performance realm, or whether they gave Hitachi a free 6-month lead.
Related Reviews Internal Hard Drives December 4, 2008
Internal Hard Drives September 26, 2006
Add Comment
2 User Comments 1 - Posted by
norsken
on March 29, 2008 - 10:29 am It is unfortunate that Samsung F1 1TB wasn't included in this roundup. Then it would really been a roundup and much more interesting to read. Do we see an update?
2 - Posted by
Rich
on April 4, 2008 - 8:49 am I would be happy to add more drives to this.
Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
Recent Articles Editorials August 27, 2009
Editorials August 18, 2009
Editorials March 3, 2009
Editorials February 12, 2009
Recent News VICE Nov. 20, 2009 - 7:17 pm
Wired Nov. 20, 2009 - 7:07 pm
Engadget Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:58 pm
Telegraph.co.uk Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:48 pm
BBC Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:38 pm
Destructoid Nov. 18, 2009 - 11:55 pm
Wired Nov. 16, 2009 - 11:56 pm
Ultimate Typing Championship Nov. 16, 2009 - 11:42 pm
|
|||||||||||||||
