Samsung F1 320GB HDD test!

[Lightman]

My 750Gb Samsung.




+1 for it using 250 platter.

Still it is fastest 750GB drive using 250GB platters on market And comes with 32MB cache which is very useful in most cases

[Devious]

Still it is fastest 750GB drive using 250GB platters on market And comes with 32MB cache which is very useful in most cases

And it was relatively cheap @ £90 for 750Gb , £102 for 2 x 320 (640Gb)

[Biker]

We've been hearing about these F1 320gb & 640gb hdd's for ages. Are either of these drives even available yet anywhere online?

Has anyone been able to get their hands on the new single platter WD3200's yet?

Yes.

Confirmed stock in UK and Germany so far..... no confirmed news on the WD 320's ...yet


Ps. If anyone finds UK stock of the WD 320's (WD3200AAKS-00B3A0) please post link here or pm me so i can get 2 and do a comparison test...

[Devious]

Yes.

Confirmed stock in UK and Germany so far..... no confirmed news on the WD 320's ...yet

you got it

[Biker]

OK.

Confirmed Ebay stock here of the WD 320GB with worldwide shipping

[TEDY]

we want 640 not 320 is too small

[Gogeta]

we want 640 not 320 is too small

320GB@10% is perfect for an OS disk in RAID.

[Biker]

320GB@10% is perfect for an OS disk in RAID.

Exactly

[Biker]

Ok folks.

Got 2 of these puppies in hand now. I can confirm they are pretty quick, and the seek times are not as bad as some have reported....

My single drive results:



This particular drive only dipped below 100mb/s read @ 45% and 60mb/s read @ 98% ....

Raid results to follow....

[Biker]

HD322HJ Raid 0 30GB partition 16kb stripe ICH9R…




That, my friends, is right up there with 2 Raptors

Heres the proof:

2x 150Gb raptor 42GB partition 16k stripe ICH9R:



Conclusion:

Higher transfer rates than the Raptors; slightly worse (but excellent for 7200rpm drives) access time and typical SATA II ICH9R reported burst rates vs. SATA I ...

These drives are also very quiet in operation, even in full seek / virus scan mode....perfect for a HTPC or a recording studio rig....

Observation: RAID 0 transfer rates are well down on single drive performance so this might be another ICH9R capping issue.... i'm going to retest RAID 0 on a Jmicron onboard and a PCIE 4x Adaptec...

[NeedMoMegaHurtZ]

Thx for sharing the results, Biker. Looks pretty sweet. What was the price on these?

I have doubts whether it beats raptor in real world applications. If you spend your time copying files all day, the STR is nice I guess.

[Biker]

Thx for sharing the results, Biker. Looks pretty sweet. What was the price on these?

I have doubts whether it beats raptor in real world applications. If you spend your time copying files all day, the STR is nice I guess.

I got mine for £51 each here

I'm not saying that they will beat the Raptors with outright performance, but, for 7200rpm drives, these are pretty damn good and have exactly the same performance as the 1TB F1's...

I'd say from testing these and the 1TB versions that the 640GB version will have very similar performance as well ......

[30 mins more testing]...


Ok.

I tested RAID 0 with an onboard Jmicron controller and was getting 130mb/s max and then tested with an Adaptec 1430 pcie 4x and was getting 200mb/s max but it would not let me select RAID array size..... it was max size only. I think i smell incompatibility with my Adaptec I swapped out the F1's for a pair of WD 120GB's and could select RAID size straight away so I guess the 320GB F1's have issues with the Adaptec 1430SA...

[Gogeta]

Thanks for the testing, Biker. Now for some more comparison to the WD3200AAKS...

[kiwi]

I tested with an onboard Jmicron controller and was getting 130mb/s and then tested with an Adaptec 1430 pcie 4x and was getting 200mb/s but it would not let me select a smaller size than 2 full drives. I think i smell incompatibility

Well, matrix raid is a feature of Intel That is why you create 2 slices in raid 0 - one for system and 2nd for data. System slice will always be faster because it uses outer edge of your drives.

[Biker]

Well, matrix raid is a feature of Intel That is why you create 2 slices in raid 0 - one for system and 2nd for data. System slice will always be faster because it uses outer edge of your drives.

Yup.

But the Adaptec card would not let me cut up the samsung F1's .. while other drives were ok. The select size area was greyed out...

[Biker]

Thanks for the testing, Biker. Now for some more comparison to the WD3200AAKS...

I wish.

Can't get confirmed stock in the UK atm. Even so, with 320GB vs the 334GB platters on test here i'm certain the results will be very similar to what i've posted for the F1's...

[TEDY]

http://www.hpm-computer.de/product_i...UJ-1000GB.html

new model with 334 platter?

[kiwi]

Yup.

But the Adaptec card would not let me cut up the samsung F1's .. while other drives were ok. The select size area was greyed out...

Strange. Have you tried updating your adapters firmware?

[STaRGaZeR]

http://www.hpm-computer.de/product_i...UJ-1000GB.html

new model with 334 platter?

Yep, the models with 334GB platters are:

1TB --> HD103UJ
320GB --> HD322HJ

[czajunia]

Ps. If anyone finds UK stock of the WD 320's (WD3200AAKS-00B3A0) please post link here or pm me so i can get 2 and do a comparison test...

Novatech stocks new WDs.

I had a chat with them yesterday:
[11:06:24] Monika B
we do have the new version - 00B3A0
[11:07:26] jkc
Is it the only one in stock or should I request it specifically when placing an order?
[11:08:40] Monika B
every single one we do have in stock is the newer version

Very helpful guys, BTW. They never have problems with checking their stock if you ask them.

[roadie]

I got mine for £51 each here

How much was delivery from this shop?

[czajunia]

Therefore, if you know how one of the 334GB/platter drives performs, you know how the whole series using those platters will perform.

It seems logical and that's exactly what I thought... Until... New WD 320 and 640 drives turned up. Why is there such a big difference in access times between the two? I suppose this only confirms that it's best to bench specific drives and do not draw conclusions for the whole family based on a specific drive performance.

[Biker]

Strange. Have you tried updating your adapters firmware?

Indeed I have. Unfortunately the most recent firmware for my card was released way back in june '07 so no Adaptec 200mb/s plus OS partitions for me any time soon

[Biker]

How much was delivery from this shop?

£6.95 for any amount you care to order

[Biker]

Novatech stocks new WDs.

I had a chat with them yesterday:
[11:06:24] Monika B
we do have the new version - 00B3A0
[11:07:26] jkc
Is it the only one in stock or should I request it specifically when placing an order?
[11:08:40] Monika B
every single one we do have in stock is the newer version

Very helpful guys, BTW. They never have problems with checking their stock if you ask them.

Yayy!

Thanks dude!

Yep.... I too like Novatech

*clicks order button*