MaximumPC 2007 112

reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized

78 MAXIMUMPC december 2007

W

ho doesn’t love a healthy dose of

1,000GB in a single storage medi-

um? We sure do, but even more

than that, we love competition. The first tera-

byte drives from Western Digital and Seagate

arrived in our Lab within days of each other,

and we immediately set out to see if either

one could unseat the current terabyte king:

Hitachi’s 7K1000. Read on to discover what

happens when the cutthroat world of extreme

storage meets the cutthroat testing of the

Maximum PC Lab.

—DAVID MURPHY

WesteRn DIgItAl CAVIAR gP

We’ve been waiting with bated breath for

Western Digital’s entrance into the world of

the almighty terabyte. Its Caviar GP drive

may have lost the right to stand at the top

of the market and yell, “Firsties!” but it is the

only terabyte drive built with energy-savings

in mind.

The four-platter drive features a num-

ber of functions that aim to reduce the

drive’s total power consumption: The drive

modulates its rotational speeds between

5,400rpm and 7,200rpm, unloads the heads

when the drive is idle, and smooths out the

normally jittery motions of the actuator in an

attempt to minimize wasted juice.

It sounded like junk science to us too, until

we compared the power-consumption lev-

els of a Caviar GP–based rig to those of an

identical setup that uses Hitachi’s 7K1000.

A power analyzer confirmed that our Caviar

GP rig drew from 7 to 10 fewer watts on

average. For a computer that runs at idle all

day long, that translates to about 61.32 kilo-

watt-hours per year. Assuming you’re paying

roughly 10 cents per kilowatt hour, a Caviar

GP could save you about $6 a year—just

enough for a feast at Taco Bell.

The Caviar GP holds its own perfor-

mance-wise. As expected, though, the

drive’s emphasis on power-saving costs it a

little bit in the speed department. Although

improved areal density over Hitachi’s

7K1000 helps bridge the gap between the

two drives, the Caviar GP still falls short of

the 7K1000’s impressive read speeds. Of

the three terabyte drives we’ve tested, the

Caviar GP is the slowest by far.

seAgAte BARRACUDA

7200.11

With new teams entering the terabyte

storage market, it was only a matter of time

before one smacked down the great Hitachi

7K1000 1TB drive. That distinction goes to

Seagate’s 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 drive.

The Barracuda and Western Digital’s

Caviar GP are virtually identical in terms

of features: same 32MB cache, same

7,200rpm rotation speed, same 512 bytes

per sector. The Barracuda and Caviar GP

drives also use four platters (250GB apiece)

to hit their 1TB capacities, unlike Hitachi’s

7K1000, which uses five platters. This dif-

ference in areal density proves to be a fatal

flaw for Hitachi’s drive, and the Caviar GP’s

speeds are constrained by its focus on

energy savings.

The result? Seagate’s 7200.11 terabyte

drive is the fastest we’ve yet tested in the

Lab, hands down. It doesn’t come with

any additional features—no encryption, no

power-savings, no backup—just speed.

Although we’d welcome the others, speed is

our primary concern.

Showdown at the

Terabyte Corral

Western Digital and Seagate join the fray, and they’re packin’!

Unconstrained by power-saving tech-

niques, seagate’s Barracuda delivers

speed, speed, and more speed—but no

extra features!

Western Digital hopes DIYers are will-

ing to sacrifice a little speed to save

the environment—and some cash.

$330, http://www.wdc.com

wd digital caviar gp

sAVe tHe WHAles

You save electricity with

this drive, which makes you

feel like an environmentally

conscious all-star.

sHAVe tHe WHAles

7

You really aren’t saving that

much energy, and you’re sacrificing

quite a bit of speed.

$330, http://www.seagate.com

seagate barracuda 7200.11

fRI joles

You’re staring at the fast-

est terabyte drive on the

market.

AY CARAMBA^9

The Barracuda’s burst speeds

aren’t quite on par with Western Digital’s.

That’s a minor detail, but a detail nonetheless.

WD CAVIAR seAgAte HItACHI

gP 7200.11 7k1000

Best scores are bolded. All benchmarks taken using HD Tach 3.0.1.0. Power Consumption

benchMARks

Burst (MB/s) 214.4 131.3 206.9

randoM access (Ms) 14.9 12.7 13.1

average read (MB/s) 66 86.6 72.7

Idle (w) 144 151

Burst (w) 147 152

randoM access (w) 149 160

average read (w) 159 166

WD CAVIAR HItACHI

gP 7k1000

Best scores are bolded. All voltage measurements taken using an Extech Power Analyzer.

power ConsUMPtIon