Samsung intros new Spinpoint F4 HDD

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Samsung has introduced a new desktop hard disk drive to its Spinpoint F series, which boasts "superior performance and high-reliability" for high-end consumer machines and servers alike. The 320GB Spinpoint F4 uses a one-head platform design with reduces the number of moving parts, thus decreasing noise and boosting reliability.

According to Samsung, the F4 offers a 10% increase in read/write over the Spinpoint F1, while lowering power consumption by 7%. The 3.5-inch drive also has a 7200RPM rotation speed, uses SATA 3.0Gb/s, and has 8MB or 16MB of cache. The company is currently shipping the F4 to unnamed OEM partners for an undisclosed price........

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http://www.techspot.com/news/39296-s...al-drives.html

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Updated: Samsung Spinpoint F4 Review (HD322GJ)

The Spinpoint F4 features a single 320GB capacity model, but that's 320GB on a single drive platter. That platter spins at 7200 RPM and feeds 16MB of drive cache. By using a single platter and a single drive head, the SpinPoint F4 benefits from both a greater platter density and a reduced number of moving parts. That means a reduced risk of drive failure. While it's hard to define a category that the F4 fits neatly into, there is something to be said for a blend of low-cost and performance.

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http://www.storagereview.com/samsung...review_hd322gj

Interesting, but I thought they would have improved upon the platter size. What with drives surpassing 2tb, I would prefer to start seeing 500gb platters

320GB one-head would imply 640GB platter with a head on each side.

yep, its a nice evolution and improvement over the F3s but nothing mind blowing.

I've heard almost nothing but praise for the Samsung Spinpoint F series. I'd honestly pick one up, as all the Seagate drives I've gotten have died, and the WD Greens I've gotten have died too, but I don't buy hard drives in small sizes like 320GB...

Ironically enough, my 5-year old, 250GB Hitachi Deskstar is still going strong. I thought these things were Hitachi "Deathstars!"

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Originally Posted by AliG

Interesting, but I thought they would have improved upon the platter size. What with drives surpassing 2tb, I would prefer to start seeing 500gb platters

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500gb platter size HDDs have been on the market for over an year already. :shrug:

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Originally Posted by Caparroz

500gb platter size HDDs have been on the market for over an year already. :shrug:

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right, I meant from Samsung

F3 and F2 are 500GB.... WD already has was it 640? So this better be that. Dunno about F4 but F3 and F2 series are really great HDDs, probably the ones with least failures atm among "desktop" HDDs.

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Originally Posted by AliG

right, I meant from Samsung

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What RPGWiZaRD said, Samsung's F2 and F3 have 500gb platters. I have a few of them and the F3s in a proper RAID config are freaking fast and extremely reliable. Not SSD fast but you get tons os space for peanuts... :p:

640GB platters are pretty much right on with how hard drive densities have been increasing for years so this is no big shocker (sadly). With WD having full 2-head drives coming out I hope Samsung has plans to release a similar offering very soon, both for our sake and theirs. At least they have a proof of concept drive out, it's surely not a large step from here to a full 4 platter / 8 head drive. 5/10 would be better, but with their increased error rates it seems like no-one has made any in quite awhile now.

I was hoping to hear something like, "First 750gb single platter drive" or "first 2.5 and 3 TB drives".

This is alright, but most people want storage size.

Sounds great for the server market as less chances of heads crashing, but nothing super impressive yet. I want to see benchmarks, etc....

F3s are already 500 Gb platters, I upgraded my F1s to them because they are a lot better.

The F4 is a 10% increase over the F1 ... thats hardly going to be much over the F3.

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Originally Posted by bhavv

F3s are already 500 Gb latters, I upgraded my F1s to them because they are a lot better.

The F4 is a 10% increase over the F1 ... thats hardly going to be much over the F3.

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That's what I was thinking about. F3s already are ~10% faster overall than F1s. Maybe it's a replacement for the F2 line.

I fell in love with their F3 1TB cant wait to play with the F4

I got my F1-750GB a loooooong time ago just after the release, and it is still going strong. Got a F3-1TB newly, and I'm happy with this one too.

This F4 should jump on 2TB+, and for consumer marked.

can't wait until they release a 2TB 3-Platter drive :)

im also waiting on Samsung to release their 3 platter drive,320gigs is just too little imo.
btw im wondering how much gigs will be usable after formatting...around 290...:shrug:

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Originally Posted by AAbenson

im also waiting on Samsung to release their 3 platter drive,320gigs is just too little imo.
btw im wondering how much gigs will be usable after formatting...around 290...:shrug:

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My 320Gb Seagate formatted to around 297Gb, I would expect the same for the Samsung

high-reliability my as.... nearly all f series died on me in fact every samsung hard drive that had capacity of 500 gb or more died on me

I've had my best luck with Western Digital. Especially the Caviar Black series.

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Originally Posted by eric66

high-reliability my as.... nearly all f series died on me in fact every samsung hard drive that had capacity of 500 gb or more died on me

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Well, actually yea, I had one 500 Gb T166, and one F1 1Tb die, thats why I keep two :).

I dont think it would be any different with other brands tbh.

Other drives are much more expensive though.

I had tons of Sammy HDDs and not even one died on me. As a matter of fact, I had only 2 old WD drives that died not because of my fault. Guess I'm lucky. :p:

10% increase in performance, and 7% decrease in power. nothing too great here.

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Originally Posted by WhiteFireDragon

10% increase in performance, and 7% decrease in power. nothing too great here.

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Sounds good to me. :shrug:

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Originally Posted by ExodusC

I've heard almost nothing but praise for the Samsung Spinpoint F series. I'd honestly pick one up, as all the Seagate drives I've gotten have died, and the WD Greens I've gotten have died too, but I don't buy hard drives in small sizes like 320GB...

Ironically enough, my 5-year old, 250GB Hitachi Deskstar is still going strong. I thought these things were Hitachi "Deathstars!"

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I can concur with all of your suspicions. At work and home the Samsungs of the last 4 years have proven the quickest and most indestructible, wereas Western Digital and Seagates are slower and more prone to death. I'm not talking about experience with a couple from each vendor, but dozens and dozens.

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

Sounds good to me. :shrug:

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I doesn't to me. They're comparing F4 to F1. Last time i checked, F3 were the recent models. Imagine BMW saying: "We improved acceleration by 10% compared to our model from 1975." Well no :banana::banana::banana::banana: sherlock, it's a model from years back. Of cours it's better. But if they'd compare it to F3, the difference would be non existent. So, yes, i'm not impressed at all, especially because i know F3 drives are really (really) fast.

Btw, my Spinpoint F1 750 GB died after 2 years. Or shall i say started dying slowly...

F4s are a replacement for the F2s (which are the green eco drives), We won't see a true successor to the F3s until the F5s are out.

Well what makes the F4 "Eco" is it's up to 7.2KRPM?

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Originally Posted by RejZoR

I doesn't to me. They're comparing F4 to F1. Last time i checked, F3 were the recent models. Imagine BMW saying: "We improved acceleration by 10% compared to our model from 1975." Well no :banana::banana::banana::banana: sherlock, it's a model from years back. Of cours it's better. But if they'd compare it to F3, the difference would be non existent. So, yes, i'm not impressed at all, especially because i know F3 drives are really (really) fast.

Btw, my Spinpoint F1 750 GB died after 2 years. Or shall i say started dying slowly...

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Oh, I didn't catch that I had just assumed that they would be comparing it to the F3 spinpoint.

just got 3x1gb f3's for rm519.. around usd 150 total

if you want to compare the speed of the new F4 how do you compare it when no other drive uses only one head/one platter side.:shrug:
if i remember correctly the Samsung drives in the past that had the lowest capacity were also the slowest ones.

Well that makes sense if F4 is the F2 successor, ie 5400rpm, so it should be roughly as fast as F3 7200rpm series (probably like 5MB/s slower) due to the bigger platter size and slightly more silent. My F2 1.5TB has been a fantastic HDD as storage especially for the low price.

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Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD

Well that makes sense if F4 is the F2 successor, ie 5400rpm, so it should be roughly as fast as F3 7200rpm series (probably like 5MB/s slower) due to the bigger platter size and slightly more silent. My F2 1.5TB has been a fantastic HDD as storage especially for the low price.

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The article says it's 7200rpm. Cache size is pretty small, though (8mb and 16mb).

They don't mention the F3 and there's "only" 10% speed improvement over the F1 which puts it around the same speed as the F3. Maybe Samsung is going to launch 3 different series of HDDs. This F4 will be the middle ground, one 5400rpm "Eco" drive and a speedy true sucessor to F3... :shrug:

Well it's something that doesn't make sense here. Either it's typo or marketing fail that it's not 7200rpm but like WD Green's much fuss about "variable speed" back in the days or it's actually 10% faster than F3 or it uses old 320GB platters which would be a totally failmove for a F4 branded series.

To me my logic says it's the F2 successor that's 640GB platter 5400rpm and should have like 105-110MB/s write speeds compared to F3 115-120MB/s (or 85~90MB/s F2). Both WD and Samsung sport to bring out the 5400rpm variants first in order to be able to sell the 7200rpm variants later as it's like a cheap easy performance upgrade. F1 = 7200rpm, F2 = 5400rpm, F3 = 7200rpm, F4 = 7200? Same thing like WD relying on their Green series before bringing out a Black and possibly a Blue series variant on same platter size.

whats with the baby sized cache on these? 8 and 16?

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Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD

Well it's something that doesn't make sense here. Either it's typo or marketing fail that it's not 7200rpm but like WD Green's much fuss about "variable speed" back in the days or it's actually 10% faster than F3 or it uses old 320GB platters which would be a totally failmove for a F4 branded series.

To me my logic says it's the F2 successor that's 640GB platter 5400rpm and should have like 105-110MB/s write speeds compared to F3 115-120MB/s (or 85~90MB/s F2). Both WD and Samsung sport to bring out the 5400rpm variants first in order to be able to sell the 7200rpm variants later as it's like a cheap easy performance upgrade. F1 = 7200rpm, F2 = 5400rpm, F3 = 7200rpm, F4 = 7200? Same thing like WD relying on their Green series before bringing out a Black and possibly a Blue series variant on same platter size.

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Yup, there's def something odd with this F4 HDDs information. I thought about variable spindle speed myself but I would think they would mention that.

I though about Samsung releasing three different series this time based on the very same WD line you just mentioned. WD Green/Samsunsung F?=variable spindle speed; WD Blue/Samsung F4=mainstream 7200rpm and WD Black/Samsung F?=top-end based on enterprise level HDD.

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Samsung Spinpoint F4 Review (HD322GJ)

The Spinpoint F4 features a single 320GB capacity model, but that's 320GB on a single drive platter. That platter spins at 7200 RPM and feeds 16MB of drive cache. By using a single platter and a single drive head, the SpinPoint F4 benefits from both a greater platter density and a reduced number of moving parts. That means a reduced risk of drive failure. While it's hard to define a category that the F4 fits neatly into, there is something to be said for a blend of low-cost and performance.

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http://www.storagereview.com/samsung...review_hd322gj