320gb 7200rpm Hard Drive

Westyfield2 · 28 Jun 2008 at 14:11

I remember that lots of MacBook Pro users went and got the Hitachi 7K200 drive, but has anyone found reviews/know anything of a 320gb 7200rpm 2.5" drive?

From looking around on the 'net there's a fair amount of choice:

Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM (WD3200BEKT)
Hitachi Travelstar 7K320
Fujitsu MHZ2 BJ 320GB
Seagate Momentus 7200.3 (ST9320421ASG)

And they all seem to be either starting to ship or shipping soon

Westyfield2 · 28 Jun 2008 at 14:16

Doug said:
I'm looking at the WD, just trying to justify it

Yea, name wise I prefer WD....... just wanting to find a review putting the 4 head-to-head.....

Westyfield2 · 28 Jun 2008 at 17:46

Found a review of the WD http://gizmodo.com/5019263/lightnin...tals-320gb-7200rpm-scorpio-black-laptop-drive, and the reviewer is using a MacBook Pro so we know the WD fits.....

Westyfield2 · 3 Jul 2008 at 20:58

dellison said:
These are shown as pre-order on Oc ( http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... 7200RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3200BEKT) ) - I wonder when they'll actually arrive?

1:26pm by Tom said:
Just arrived and available now we have the Western Digital Scorpio Black drives. Running at a blistering 7200RPM these are setting new speed records everywhere. Backed by a superb 5 year warranty there is no better drive to hold your data in your laptop. All pre-orders will be shipping today and there is stock available to cover any extra orders. Great value for money and a epic performer, be sure to get yours now from just £55.99 +VAT!

So the 320gb's in too @ £115.14.

So far of the four drives I've only found 2 reviews:

<Ignore the top half of this one, it's the users original Seagate 5400RPM 120GB>

& the Hitachi (but unfortunately it's in a USB2.0 enclosure so not a like-for-like test):

sososowhat on MacRumours said:
Results 31.41
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.2 (9C7010)
Physical RAM 3072 MB
Model Macmini2,1

Drive Type Hitachi HTS723232L9A360

Disk Test 31.41

Sequential 33.15
Uncached Write 34.59 21.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 36.59 20.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 22.90 6.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 48.21 24.23 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 29.83
Uncached Write 10.46 1.11 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 67.20 21.51 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 85.03 0.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 84.17 15.62 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Westyfield2 · 3 Jul 2008 at 22:20

Slackworth said:
These new WD's are going to be far superior to the Seagate & Hitachi's.

Sauce?

Also the WD's have 5yrs warranty vs the Hitachi's 3.....

Is the version OcUK are stocking (WD3200BEKT it says here) the one with or without the free-fall sensor? As I read somewhere online that it can interfere with the MacBook Pro's built in sensor.....

Westyfield2 · 8 Jul 2008 at 17:33

Found a good review of them, in a MBP 2.6Ghz, 4G Ram, latest 10.5.4. Each test ran 3 times.

Code:

Hitachi 7k320 7200 rpm - 320gb.

Results	49.06	
	
	Drive Type		Hitachi HTS723232L9A360
	Disk Test	49.06	
		Sequential	95.61	
			Uncached Write	109.96	67.52 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	105.82	59.87 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	60.00	17.56 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	150.94	75.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	33.00	
			Uncached Write	10.98	1.16 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	96.11	30.77 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	86.69	0.61 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	122.00	22.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Code:

Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200 rpm - 320gb.

Results	49.13	
	
	Drive Type		WDC WD3200BEKT-22F3T0
	Disk Test	49.13	
		Sequential	85.78	
			Uncached Write	123.17	75.62 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	116.25	65.77 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	44.49	13.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	134.60	67.65 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	34.42	
			Uncached Write	11.18	1.18 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	126.24	40.41 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	84.17	0.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	144.11	26.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=268772

Westyfield2 · 6 Nov 2008 at 09:19

RoleyBirkin said:
Is this free fall sensor imperative? That MBP has one as std presumably?

The MBP has its own, and apparently its better to use a HDD without one as they can interfere.

Westyfield2 · 6 Nov 2008 at 16:30

RoleyBirkin said:
So the laptop itself has the sensor, or its drive does? (I assume the latter)

Surely this is only necessary if you foresee you might drop your MBP!?

MacBook Pro's have a free-fall sensor that is used to 'park the heads' of the hard drive (nomatter what make/model the hard drive is) if it detects that the laptop is falling.

Some hard drives have their own sensor built into them (the one Slackworth mentioned) but it has been reported that the MBP sensor and the HDD sensor interfere with each other. So as a MBP has it's own sensor it is best to use a HDD without an integrated sensor.