Written by Marc Prieur
Published on July 9, 2008

URL: http://www.behardware.com/news/lire/09-07-2008/#9817

Hitachi, which was up until now behind the competition in terms of density, has announced a new Deskstar generation, the 7K1000.B, that will enable it to surpass Samsung, Seagate and Western with a density as high as 375 GB per platter! Offered with capacities of 160, 250 (8 MB of cache), 320, 500, 640, 750 GB and 1 TB (16 MB of cache), the 7K1000.B, however, are not entirely equal regarding this new capability.

While the manufacturer does not give official details on the number of platters for each drive, they are divided into three groups for sound and voltage data: 160/250/320 GB (3.6w and 25 dBA at rest), 500/640/750 GB (4.4w and 24 dBA at rest) and 1 TB (5.2w and 27 dBA at rest). We can therefore conclude that they have a respective 1, 2 and 3 platters. The fact that the rotation sound level of the mono is higher than the dual platter can be explained by a simplified casing.

Thus, only the 750 GB drive has two 375 GB platters. And the others? Given the capacities we could think that surface densities are mixed, unless, for example, certain models only partially use their platters. Therefore, is the 1 TB composed of three fully used 333 GB platters or will there be three 375 GB of which only 89% is used? This is something we have seen in the past from Hitachi and only tests will tell.

Hitachi announces that the 7K1000.B as well as the professional version, the E7K1000 (differs by 32 MB of cache, a 5 year warranty and MTB announced at 1,200,000 hours) will be delivered this month to its clients.