Specifications
For Hitachi, the higher platter density of the 7K250 increases debit rate. The maximum debit rate reached by this media is increased by 8%. Strangely, the sustained debit rate is unchanged on the technical sheet. We will see later that it’s not accurate. So apart from the higher platter density, only the number of switch on/off cycles changes from 40,000 to 50,000. Hitachi has officially increased the engine reliability for the long term.
It’s not possible to compare Maxtor hard drives since none have been released since the DiamondMax Plus 9, and the manufacturer doesn’t inform us on debit rates. One year ago, they announced an access time “inferior to 9 ms”, and now it’s 9.3 ms. Could this figure be due to the 80 GB platter upgrade?
For Seagate, improvements in the Barracuda 7200.7 are on two levels; significantly increased debit rate compared to the Barracuda ATA V, and a reduced access time. There is an increase of 1dBA in noise as a result.
Finally, regarding Western Digital’s WD1200, we can’t show the specification table, because even the tables on the Western Digital’s website are based on the previous versions equipped with 40 GB platters.
