If you’re a hard core gamer or enthusiast, you probably looking for the fastest hard drive you can get right? Well then, I have made a review for the fastest mechanical hard drive available on the market today.
With the release of the new SSD drive recently it clearly dominates the speed of all mechanical drives but, the price for this are insanely high and suffers from a very low disk space. On the other hand, mechanical drives are decreasing its market price rapidly thus making it a wiser choice for a budget minded enthusiast.
1. Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Hybrid Drive Review
If you’re searching for a fast drive with a huge capacity, it’s time for you to learn about the new Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Hybrid drive. After the success of the first generation hybrid drive in the form of XT 500GB, with more than a Million sold around the world. Seagate came out with the second generation hybrid drive but this time it’s faster and bigger.
As you already know that, hybrid drive is the fusion of the SSD’s and HDD. The HDD plays the bigger part of it as it offers a huge storage capacity and the SSD is only partial that promotes a faster data access. The idea behind this is to give you a fast with moderate size drive in a single package, this is something that the SSD is limited to. As a result, the Seagate Momentus XT 750GB you got somewhere in between.
Seagate promises a boost in its performance up to 1.5X with this new drive compare to the previous one. An additional 50 percent in its size is clearly visible, from 500GB and now jump to 750GB. But what else do we expect from this? The Seagate Momentus XT 750GB has so much to offer, such as faster interface, larger SSD and more features, soon you’ll discover as we tackle each one of this.
Seagate manage to stick with this new drive at 7,200rpm platter speed and 32MB cache size. Adding to its new feature is a faster interface with SATA 6GB/s that eliminates the bottle neck in transferring data’s. No need to worry if you only do have a SATA 3GB/s because it’s fully compatible but, we can expect a bit downgrade.
Another good thing here is that, it doubles the SSD size. From a small 4GB previously now you got an 8GB of SLC NAND memory. It doesn’t end up right there, in fact the real goodness here is the new technology Seagate’s has employs in which they called the “FAST Factor”(Flash-Assisted Storage Technology). This feature is almost the same as the previous version which is the Adaptive Memory Technology.
This gives the drives ability to identify the data usage patterns in which the most frequently accessed is moved to NAND memory for faster retrieval. The second generation FAST Factor has the advantage of retaining the boot data on the 8GB NAND thus, further speeds up the booting time. Another thing is that, the Flash memory is used more often in reading data than writing for a longer life span.
Testing the Seagate Momentus XT 750GB
The new Seagate Momentus XT 750GB was tested against some of the best contender to find out how good it will perform. This includes the first generation Momentus XT 500GB, Momentus 750GB, WD Velociraptor 300GB and Kinston HyperX 240GB SSD.
Using a fresh install Windows 7 Pro x64 OS with no other applications running while using AHCI mode which is set on the BIOS to make sure that all results are in their best performance. All components are set to default speed without any overclocking to get the most accurate data’s.
The first test is the copy test. Transferring files is one of the basic PC operations in our day to day usage, copying small files is noticeably fast but when dealing with a large file, this is where we can see how good the hard drive is. This time a huge 5GB of JPEG and MP3’s are going to move from two different partitions which are made on the same drive.
This operations forced the drive to performed both read and write operations at the same time. The first set of files is composed of 5GB of JPEG collections and the second is a set of 5GB MP3 files.
The test results shows that, there’s an improvement over the first generation of Momentus XT but not so impressive. Although it ends up in second place and beating the faster spindle speed of the Velociraptor, the numbers are not so acceptable for some.
I guess you might be asking why, right? The reason behind this is that the magic of the SSD doesn’t work this time, the Momentus XT 750GB works purely as a regular hard drive which is nothing to do with the “FAST Factor” with having the most frequently access data feature. But, considering a 7,200rpm with the XT 750GB and beating the high speed 10,000rpm Velociraptor, this is quite good in most users’ perspective.
The next test is the Windows start up test. This is probably most people has the interest, because most of us don’t have the patience to wait for a longer boot up time. This is what the Momentus XT 750GB is made of, the FAST Factor feature usefulness here is definitely noticeable.
Even during at the first boot it’s surprisingly fast, improvements over the first generation XT 500GB is clearly seen with 4 seconds faster next to HyperX 240GB SSD, way ahead compare to the non hybrid drive Momentus 750GB and the VelociRaptor 300GB.
Conclusion
After we clearly saw the goodness in features of the new Seagate Momentus XT 750GB, test results shows an evident of some of its advantages and weakness. In copying files, it performs merely the same as the normal hard drive, having the hybrid SSD in it is almost useless. However, at 7,200rpm it can beat the fast 10,00rpm VelociRaptor making it the best contender for the fastest hard drive of today.
The applications it excels the most is in loading programs especially Windows OS in which it really hit the nerves of most enthusiast alike. This is ideal in any laptop that doesn’t provide an additional bay for a second drive, also perfect in desktop PC that requires moderate disk space. By doubling it and configured in RAID 0, you got a beast rig at hand.
The retail price for the Momentus XT 750GB is almost equal to 120GB SSD out there in which you got 6X more disk space, this is something that I consider a bargain price level. Overall, this definitely a solid drive with small flaws in copying large files, but absolutely fast in loading programs. Click Here to get it at its Lowest Price!
2. Seagate Momentus XT 500GB ST95005620AS Review
If you’re having a hard time searching for the fastest hard drive, you’ll be happy to discover the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB. Seagate introduce a technology that finally bridges the gap between the fast SSD and the huge space of HDD. This is ideal for those notebook users’ enthusiasts who don’t have an extra drive bay for additional drive.
There are two options to attain the speed limit that you want, first get a super fast and expensive SSD but suffer from low disk space. Second, get a high rotational speed mechanical hard drive but suffers from being noisy, overheat and draw much power.
Seagate solve these problems by creating a hybrid drive by getting the speed of the SSD at the same time having a huge storage. This is good news to anyone who doesn’t like the idea of having two hard drives at the same time. With buying both SSD as your boot drive and mechanical drive as your storage will cost you too much penny.
The Momentus XT is a 2.5 inch drive that uses both the Nand memory from SSD and a mechanical drive. The mechanical drive spins the disk at regular speed of 7200rpm with a capacity of 500GB in a 3GB/s SATA interface. This perfectly fits all notebooks and can also be used for desktop PC.
How it will benefit us?
The Seagate Momentus uses a 4GB SSD that serves as a huge cache memory aside from its 32MB buffer. The 4GB SSD memory are used to store your most frequently accessed programs such as games, Adobe Photoshop and MS office. This also includes the operating system you’re using.
Seagate called this special algorithm technique as the Adaptive Memory Technology. With this kind of technology, this makes it a lot faster to load those programs because it is merely stored on the SSD memory without the needs to pull out from the hard drive disk. As a result, it gains up to 40 to 50 percent in speed, windows loading time will boost twice faster than regular mechanical drive.
The only problem arises here is that, if the user is frequently changes his data access. The 4GB memory acts only as a read only, you can never write on it. In short, there’s no way you can choose what you like to put in it. The drive does only analyze your access pattern and writes it on the SSD for the most frequently used data.
Seagate Momentus XT In Action
In PC mark vantage test, we can expect a performance in between the real SSD and HDD. This means that, the SSD still on leads speed but close enough and by far shows vast improvements compare with the HDD.
Everybody wants a fast windows boot up, admittedly we don’t have the patience to wait for long a time to load the OS so that we can start using it immediately. We can notice it clearly in the windows startup test a tremendous gains of 40 percent. It means that, a typical 60 seconds booting time will take you only 36 minutes.
In a sequential read/write operation, the 4GB NAND memory seems to be useless in this case. This fairly operates only as a regular 7200rpm hard drive. Even though without the NAND memory, the Momentus XT still shows a faster speed compare with other conventional 2.5 inch drive.
Customers Review
To share with you the most helpful customers review, here is what he say about the Seagate Momentus XT,
For certain use scenarios, it’s an unbeatable cost/gig ratio,By Steve S. (Chicago, IL USA)
“Here’s what the drive does well: It’s alignment- and OS-agnostic, so it does not care if you run it unaligned on older XP systems. It will, over about 5 cycles, learn what you do and optimize it. You will notice your system boots much faster. It excels on systems where you boot into your OS and do the same basic tasks, say, open MS office and Firefox and Outlook.
Here’s the KILLER APP reason to buy this drive: I took a 32-bit Vista Home Premium laptop that was so congested and clogged with programs, leftovers of removed programs, fragmentation, you name it, and just cloned it to this drive. The mechanical drive it was on took literally 5 minutes to get to a useful state on the desktop. This drive, after about 5 boots, learned that our family needed Vista OS, Chrome for Farmville, and iTunes. We now have 30 second boots and even though the drive is still loading services and such, we can launch apps immediately at the desktop. Our primary apps either snap open, or in the case of iTunes launch about 3x faster. It’s not subtle, it’s huge.” >>Click here to read more customers review.
Conclusion
The Seagate Momentus XT shows a solid performance and very dependable drive. The hybrid technology it offers results in a vast improvement in speed but, some of its minor disadvantages are also clearly seen. Seagate’s main purpose is to create the fastest drive with large capacity, and I should say that they become successful in this area by beating all traditional hard drive with 500GB of storage capacity.
The inclusion of 4GB SLC NAND memory on the drive is a brilliant idea, although it’s only a small amount this alone makes a huge difference in speed. Compare with the high speed rpm VelociRaptor, the Momentus has taken all the advantage with low power, quieter and cooler.
This drives are for those who wants speed and large disk space combined in a single drive as well as for notebook users. The boot up process and running your daily program applications are absolutely fast, this makes everybody happy.
At this point of time an average 128GB SSD cost is at $200 while the VelociRaptor 450GB sold for $170 and the Seagate Momentus XT is available for less than $100. You can buy two Momentus XT and get a total of 1TB disk space for the price of a single 128GB SSD. This is 8x the disk space with almost the same in speed using a RAID 0 configuration.
This earns the highest value with the lowest cost per GB with only $0.2, VelociRaptor 450GB at $0.377 and the 128GB SSD a whopping $1.56. An additional $40 is worthy compare to the regular 2.5 inch 500GB drive for the technology and speed it offers. Value, speed, performance, quiet, cool, what else can we ask for the best hard drive? Click Here to get it at its Lowest Price!
3. Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB Review
Next in line is the WD VelociRaptor 600GB, if you’re looking for the best performance and reliability you can count on this drive. In order to increase the seeking time speed of hard drive, the revolution per minute (RPM) should also increase. This is what the western Digital did to VelociRaptor, a hard drive that aims to increase its reliability and data security because this belong enterprise environment.
VelociRaptor is packed with 600GB of disk space in a three platter design that spins insanely at 10,000 rpm, this is one of the fastest spindle speed out there aside from Seagate Cheetah 15K.7. This is bounded by a 3.5 inch casing that serves as the heatsink which they called “IcePack”, the drive itself has a physical size of 2.5 inch. The reason why western digital engineers design it that way is that, smaller disk are denser thus making it even faster for the heads in seeking data for less travel time.
Contributing to its high speed performance is the SATA 6GB/s interface with a maximum transfer speed of 600MB/s, in addition to that a 32MB cache that handles the most frequent accessed data without the need to pull it from the disk. A dual processor controller is also provided that creates a high impact to its speed performance. As a result, it has the capability of up to 145MB/s transfer data rate.
Some of the best features are the RAFF, No Touch Ramp and Ultra Cool Operation. The Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward is an anti vibration protection. No touch Ramp load technology finds in all Western Digital drives, the head ensures that it doesn’t touch the disk during read/write operations for faster and less wear to heads. The Ultra Cool Operation introduces a low power consumption during idle.
Specs
2.5-inch bare drive
600 GB Capacity
3.5-inch w/IcePack configurations
10,000 RPM
32 MB buffer
Data Transfer Rate (Buffer to Disk) 145MB/s
15mm z-height
3-platter design with 200 GB/platter
Data path protection
Manufactured to Enterprise Reliability Standards
1.4 million hours MTBF
24×7 Power on (8760 annual POH)
Error Recovery
RAID-specific time-limited error recovery (TLER)
Vibration Tolerance
Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (Enhanced RAFF)
600k Head Load / Unload Cycles
Data LifeGuard 3
5-year Warranty
WD VelociRaptor 600GB In Action
The new WD VelociRaptor read performance shows a 30 percent faster than the older version with 300GB and an increase of 18 percent in high performance capacity. Using the SANDRA’s write performance test, this drive performs about 25 percent faster than its competition. Compare with other 2TB hard drive, the VelociRaptor 600GB is still faster than the rest.
Customers Review
To share with you the most helpful customers review, here is what he say about the WD VelociRaptor 600GB,
Impressive Performance, By D. Roberts
“I bought this to try an idea I had, running a virtual machine from an external esata drive. My lenovo has a 128gb SSD drive, too small for a decent virtual setup, so I needed something external that was powerful and fast. I have been using WD Raptors in an old server for years with excellent results. So when I saw the Velociraptor and the great price on Amazon I bought it to see. A great call, the performance is excellent, and it runs my VMs as if they were internal drives. Highly recommend this drive for whatever your needs are, has excellent speed and is very quiet.” >>Click Here to read more customers review.
Conclusion
The VelociRaptor is a solid performer no doubt about it, its vast improvement over the previous version has clearly seen. Its price since the introduction in April last year has dropped up to 40% making it more affordable to everyone. This would definitely a wise choice compare to a high price equivalent of only 128MB SSD, with this you can have an advantage of 4.7 times the disk space.
Admittedly, it’s a bit on a high price level in cost per Gigabyte it offers for only 600GB compare to commonly available 2TB but the speed it offers is a killer. A must have if you’re constantly seeking for high speed performance enterprise drive. This is definitely the fastest hard drive your money can buy, a worthy additional to your computer rig. Click Here to get it at its Lowest Price!
4. Seagate Barracuda 3TB Review – Faster Improve Version
If you’re craving for huge disk space and the fastest hard drive at the same time the new Seagate Barracuda 3TB perfectly suits your needs. After the success of Barracuda XT 3TB that gives us solid performance, the new improve version offers more superior.
This drive is pack with huge 3TB capacity, disk space in not a problem anymore. Aside from its speed, this is the world’s first 1TB disk per platter drive in the form of ST3000DM001. This is available for only $184, Click Here to get it up to 32% price off.
Denser And Faster
Seagate sticks in a 3TB disk space with this new version but, it has the advantage of a denser platter. Having 1TB in contrast with a 600GB in the older XT drive, the new one is reduced to only 3-platter instead of using a 5-platter drive.
Although, they already launched the 4TB drive if we take a look inside of it, they still contains a 5-disk drive same as the XT but, having an 800GB per platter. With this kind of technology Seagate has to offer, a 5TB drive is expected to be out sooner.
Fewer disk means lighter, less bulky and low power consumption. Likewise, denser drives always have the advantage of quicker seeking time due to lesser distance the read/write heads will travel. As a result, a faster performance can be expected. Beside from a denser platter, it spins at 7,200rpm that runs in a SATA 6GB/s interface. In addition to that is a 64MB cache is included to handle most frequent access data’s.
Better Features
Seagate has introduce several state of the art features such as the SmartAlign that helps older computers compatible with 4K sectors, the OptiCache makes the cache processor more effective. The thing that I like here is the inclusion of the DiscWizard, this makes it possible for a 32-bit OS such as Windows XP to its full usage. Likewise, older computers that don’t support more than 2TB drive will took advantage of it.
Faster Than The Previous Model
Seagate have listed a read speed of 210MB/s, from here on you can notice a vast increase over its predecessor with only 149MB/s in a 5-platter design drive. The 1TB disk model has 61MB/s faster on paper but, is it achievable in its actual performance? Let’s find out.
Using an IOMeter for a 2MB sequential transfer speed to test its performance, the results are far better than the older model but, it doesn’t hit the written specs. It measures 164.96MB/s and 165.17MB/s in read/write while the 5-platter disk recorded at 146.78MB/s and 145.5MB/s respectively.
On the Random Transfer Speed test, keeping a 2MB data transfer in the IOMeter the new version still on the lead with 70.4MB/s for read and 57.4MB/s in write while the previous version has an average of only 54MB/s.
Another aspect to consider that affects the drive performance is the inner and outer part of the platter. We have to take note that the new Barracuda 3TB has a highly dense drive at 1TB per platter, therefore we’re expecting a faster transfer speed here. It reaches a maximum speed close to 200MB/s which is nearly at 210MB/s specified in their specs. This is a very strong lead over the older version that records at only 149MB/s.
Low Power Consumption
Anyone who’s looking to save power on a high capacity drive, you can depend on the new Seagate Barracuda 3TB. By introducing a fewer disk on the drive it provides less current draw to start a 3-platter compare to a 5-platter design. The drive has a power draw from 7.96W to 8.5W during heavy read/write task, this is close to its listed value of 8W during operations and 5.4W during idle. This is also true during startup, it requires only 19W as oppose to 23W for a 5-platter drive.
Customer’s Review
Actually beats my SSD in large file transfers, great upgrade even for older computers, November 24, 2011 By Richard C. Drew “Anaal Nathra/Uthe vas Bethod… (Oak Lawn, IL USA)
“My MOBO is about two years old and does not natively support SATA-III, so I purchased a SATA-III card to support the newer drives. The older MOBO does not have the throughput of a newer one with faster bus, etc. So if you have an older PC and want to add some speed, read on!
This is a blazingly fast drive. Because I’m on an older system I can’t utilize it to it’s full potential – but it does really increase performance on my older system – it’s a great alternative to a SSD! Add a SATA-III card to your computer and this drive, and you’ll dramatically speed up read and write speeds.
If you’re using a computer with native SATA-III support, you’re tests will be even better!
Installation was a snap – Windows 7 disk manager detected and formatted in no time. The SSD I compared it to is a Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2” >>Click Here to read more reviews
Conclusion
The new Seagate Barracuda 3TB delivers a strong lead over the previous version, this is due to its highly dense platter. This drive took all the advantage from speed, lightness and less power consumption. However, not in terms of capacity but a quick jump over its performance is extremely significant. This is definitely good news for consumers who’s looking for high capacity and speed demon drive.
With this kind of advance technology, this earns the fastest 7,200rpm drive on the market today. The price it offers is highly competitive and a 5-year bonus warranty upon purchase making it easy to recommend and definitely an enthusiast level drive. What else can we ask for the best 3TB hard drive? Click Here to get it at its Lowest Price!
5. Seagate Barracuda XT 4TB Review
If you’re looking for the biggest storage as well as fast drive for your beast machine, the Seagate Barracuda XT 4TB is the best hard drive you can have. Seagate did it again as the world’s first 4TB drive capacity, as you can recall, they’re also the first who introduced the 3TB drive on the market.
The same thing they did when they released the 3TB drive in the form of external drive with GoFlex, the same exact drive used in their desktop version. This time we’re expecting it again, the 4TB GoFlex external drive comes first then followed by the desktop version.
In today’s computing world, the needs for huge storage are in demand. If you’re one of those heavy HD movie collectors, MP3’s and photo’s chances are you have to provide a large disk space to accommodate all those important files. Having a single drive has a big advantage over multiple drives; firstly, the power consumption is less with a single drive and doubles it when having two. Secondly, this leaves you more space on your drive bay, less clutter and lighter.
What’s New With The Seagate Barracuda XT 4TB?
The new Barracuda XT 4TB offers an additional 30% more disk space than the previous 3TB version. By sticking with the same speed of 7200RPM, it promotes a quicker data transfer and a fast SATA 6GB/s interface. However, it is fully compatible with a SATA 3GB/s at some instance it may slightly degrade its performance.
Boosting up to its speed is the inclusion of a huge 64MB cache, this holds the most frequent access data without the needs to search for the entire platter as the data is available immediately. This time a bigger cache size means it can hold large amount of files, as a result, a quicker data transfer is expected.
They used a five platter disk same as its rival, this requires ten read/write heads having one dedicated for each side of the disk. The five platters are fully dense with 800GB each as opposed to only 600GB each with the 3TB version.
This promotes a faster seeking time in a denser disk because, it travels in a closer distance therefore, a faster time to reach each track. Seagate is planning to released a 1TB per disk in the near future for a more dense and less platter hard drive, these all contributes for much better performing drive.
Testing the Seagate Barracuda XT 4TB
The Seagate Barracuda XT 4TB was tested using 2MB transfer in IOMeter. The sequential read speed is 140.2MB/s and 133.8MB/s in write. The 2MB random transfer read/write speed gives us 48.3MB/s and 40.2MB/s respectively.
These values are excellent that passes more than 100MB/s with closed to 150MB/s, few mechanical drives have reached this point. This shows great improvements over the previous Barracuda XT series drives.
On the physical disk itself, the outer portion is relatively faster than the inner; using the CrystalDiskMark we can measure the outer versus the inner part of the disk. The outer speed reaches 188.6MB/s read and 187.5MB/s write. The inner speed expected to drop at 88.82MB/s in read and 88.71MB/s for write, these numbers are good and consider fast in any mechanical drive.
Conclusion
The Seagate Barracuda XT 4TB shows an awesome performance with a maximum transfer speed close to 190MB/s which is considerably fast compare to any mechanical drive counterparts. Not only a faster performance it promise but also the largest capacity disk you can have on the market today.
However, a newly EFI BIOS only can support this huge capacity; those with older CMOS won’t handle this. If a fast and monster storage is what you’re craving for, the Seagate Barracuda XT 4TB is definitely your best choice. Click Here to get it at its Lowest Price!
6. Western Digital 2TB RE4 Review
If you’re one of those hungry for speed enthusiast and looking for the fastest 2TB internal hard drive, the Western Digital 2TB RE4 is the king in this category. The RE4 is almost the same as the WD 2TB Caviar Black, but loaded with a feature that increases its reliability that makes your data even safer. This is an enterprise drive that is built to gain extra speed besides its reliability.
What Makes The WD RE4 Fast?
The Western Digital RE4 is all about speed, Engineers at this company are devoted to create a state of the art lightning fast hard drive. This hard drive is pack with huge disk space of 2TB, to make sure that you never run out of storage for your wide collection of files. The WD RE4 runs at 7,200rpm for fast data transfer, making all your programs and games runs at vast speed.
To further add in its speed, a 64MB cache buffer is included to store most frequently used data’s for faster access time in a SATA 3GB/s interface. The WD RE4 is made of 4 platters in a 3.5 inch form factor. It has a total of 8 read/write heads and 500GB each platter capacity.
A dual processor design to make it twice the performance you’ll need. A dual actuator technology is added for accurate head positioning. The first actuator serves as for coarse displacement using the electromagnetic actuator and the second uses a piezoelectric motion to fine tune its head positioning. In this kind of technology, you get a fast head positioning for accurately fast data access. With the Dual Actuator, a 0.4ms improvement in access time compare to other drives.
The RE4 has a drive shaft anchored at both ends not only in just one end. This feature called the StableTrac, it further reduces the vibrations and noise while increasing its life span. This improves more durability and a silent running drive compare to other hard drives.
All Western Digital hard drives feature a “No Touch” technology. It means that, all read/write heads never touch the platters and automatically park at shuts down. Western Digital is giving a 5 year warranty to make sure of your purchase.
The WD RE4 enterprise is equipped with more additional features for making it more reliable. The multi-axis sensor protects the data written on the drive by automatically detects any shock events that may occur. The RAFF enhancement technology sophisticatedly monitors the drive to correct both linear and rotational vibration, thus resulting in a more reliable drive even in a high vibration environment.
To increase further its reliability, each drive is put into a burn-in-test in 24/7 operation with thermal cycling. In addition to that, each read/write head is adjusted in Dynamic Fly High in real time for optimum reliability. Another is the Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER), this prevents the drive fallout caused by the extended drive error which is mostly common with desktop drives.
Performance
The Western Digital RE4 was tested against the 3 hard drives with the same capacity of 2TB. Among these are the Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB, WD Caviar Black 2TB and WD Caviar Green 2TB. All drives are running at 7,200rpm except for the WD Caviar Green which is only at 5,400rpm.
For this test, we make two partitions on the same disk, a file was created on one partition and to be copied in the other partition. File transfer on the same drive on a different partition forces the drive to do two tasks at the same time that puts them under heavy loads. The first is reading the files on the source drive, second is writing on the destination drive. The time to complete these operations is measured with the speed of the drives, one is for reading and the other one is for writing.
The first test was the large file transfer with 3.4GB size. The Write/Read speed performance is measured in MB/sec, a higher score means better.
WD RE4 rules the read speed while the WD Caviar Black tops in write. The Seagate Barracuda XT was slightly quicker in read compare with WD Caviar Black, but slower in write. The WD Caviar green as we expected is the slowest, it’s harder for them to compete against the 7,200rpm drive.
The next test is the Sequential Read/Write speed using the Crystal Disk Mark 2.2 measured in MB/sec, higher score is better it means a faster drive performance.
This time, the Barracuda XT dominates the write speed and the WD Caviar Black rules the read speed. However, the WD RE4 doesn’t tops on both category it shows the most impressive performance and having a very small margin compare with those two competing drive.
Conclusion
The Western Digital 2TB RE4 shows the most impressive performance with all of these competing drives. The WD Caviar Black in second place with the Seagate Barracuda XT on third, although not much in a bigger way. These two are also worthy to be a great contender, the WD Caviar Green is not made for speed but rather for a cool and energy saver storage drive.
The additional features of the RE4 enterprise level don’t go far the leads in terms of speed performance, but still that advancement pays off. The main focus for this drive is reliability that keeps your data even more secure. These are the reasons why it is perfect for servers that demands write intensive applications as well as for longer time operations.
What about the price? The price for the WD RE4 is $70 higher than the Barracuda XT and $80 compare with the Caviar Black at this time. Is the price difference worth? Yes, beside its speed performance its got the highest reliability you can get in any hard drive which is most important in keeping your most valuable data safe.
If the price would not be a problem, and your craving for an extra speed and a more secure data, go for it! Click Here to get it at its Lowest Price!
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