Hitachi 7K1000 1TB a silent beast? :O

gb115b · Post by **gb115b** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:01 pm

any updates on this?

i need to upgrade my RAID 6 array, at the moment i'm using a mix of 400 / 500GB Seagates and WDs

but seriously considering stepping up to these if the numbers match up, sound wise...

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 6:45 pm

I have one of the T7k500 (320gb one) and while I can't say anything about the 7k1000, if it's anything like the drive I have it should be a very plesant drive to own

Also, the 320GB drive from Hitachi is cooler compared to the 7200.10 320gb drive I have from Seagate, and the Hitachi is noticeably quieter . I happen to be a big fan of Seagate but Hitachi is definitely offering some nice drives.

here's wishing that SPCR will be able to review the 7K1000 in the near future!

madshi · Post by **madshi** » Mon May 21, 2007 11:18 pm

Just to let you guys know, in Germany the 1TB drive is available now, albeit in limited quantities and only in a few shops:

http://www.cyberport.de/item/1074/997/0 ... ml?APID=14
http://www.komplett.de/k/ki.asp?sku=335 ... 269119C879

The price is still rather high right now, though. 360 Euros.

gb115b · Post by **gb115b** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:33 am

pre-order is available in the uk from www.scan.co.uk (pretty unreliable when it comes to pre-order stuff though, when i last used them)

i'd love to see how this drive compares against the WD 750 GB AAKS drive thats coming out

tonyw · Post by **tonyw** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:28 am

Anitec Computers shows the Hitachi 1TB drives as in stock: http://www.anitec.ca/product/8878/hitac ... _drive_kit_/

... as does Infonec Computers: http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php?mo ... &id=342492

Erssa · Post by **Erssa** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:36 am

It's price is 352.90e at the biggest retailer here in Finland.

madshi · Post by **madshi** » Sat May 26, 2007 12:29 am

It's broadly available in Germany now at multiple shops for around 315 Euros. How about US? Who's going to buy one of these first?

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Sun May 27, 2007 5:08 am

While StorageReview isn't the most noise-focused reviewer they make good performance benchmarks. And, outside of server workload, 7K1000 appears to perform about as good or maybe even better than Raptor 150: http://www.storagereview.com/HDS721010KLA330.sr (slightly less office performance, but more high-end (image/video editing) performance and more gaming performance than Raptor).

StorageReview provides power consumption in watts, like SPCR does, so that should at least be worth something even for a silent enthusiast, but I recommend reading the whole article. Some highlights:
- real-life single-user performance is outstanding: better than Raptor. (History repeats itself as 7K500 outperformed previous generation Raptor in SR benchmarks.)
- while SR's noise evaluation is far from accurate, they don't claim it's the most silent HDD ever reviewed.
- idle power consumption is very low for 5-platter drive: cooler than any 4-platter competitors from WD, Seagate and "Maxtor". (Seek power consumption (peak consumption) is high, like with all previous Hitachis of 3.5" form factor. Spin-up current is extremely low like with 7K400 and 7K500: these 5-platter Hitachis consume less power during spin-up than 3-platter variants. Less strain on PSU.)

One funny thing though... the review is "Posted May 29th, 2007"... isn't that like... the day after tomorrow?

tonyw · Post by **tonyw** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:49 am

I just got the 750GB version of this drive and am very happy with it. It's at least as quiet as my 500GB Western Digital drive

gb115b · Post by **gb115b** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:40 am

tony, what model numbers for those drives are you talking about?

tonyw · Post by **tonyw** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 5:32 am

Hitachi makes a 750GB version of this drive, using four platters instead of the five that are needed for the 1TB model. It has not received nearly as much press as the 1TB model, but here it is: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=768

(and FYI for the Canadians on this board, Overclockers do ship to Canada and it arrived in about 8 days. This 750GB Hitachi drive cost me about $330 including tax and all charges)

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:53 am

Just bought one. First impression is positive. The drive isn't as quiet as the Samsung 500GB, but I didn't expect it to be. Subjectively, it seems about twice the noise, but it's a fairly smooth swishing sound that's easy to tune out. Vibration is even lower than the Samsung. With AAM enabled at full, seeks are inaudible. Installed in a Scythe Quiet Drive, in my computer, it's no more audible than the Samsung (meaning that it's inaudible when I'm sitting at my desk). It definitely seems quieter than two drives together. Hopefully when it's been running a while, the sound will drop even more.

It's still too early to be sure, but for the capacity, I think this may be the quietest storage solution I've yet heard.

zoob · Post by **zoob** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:36 am

Denorios wrote:Vibration is even lower than the Samsung. With AAM enabled at full, seeks are inaudible. Installed in a Scythe Quiet Drive, in my computer, it's no more audible than the Samsung (meaning that it's inaudible when I'm sitting at my desk).

Excellent news!

What are the drive temperatures (compared to ambient) when installed in the Quiet Drive?

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 2:44 pm

Drive temps are around 40C compared to an ambient of around 22C, which isn't bad considering that the only airflow in the case is generated by a 7V Nexus 120mm.

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:12 pm

Denorios.
Just for clearness which Hitachi drive did you buy. Was it the 750 GB or the 1 TB?

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:25 pm

The 1TB model. I considered 750GB, but decided I might need the extra space.

zoob · Post by **zoob** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 6:41 pm

40 C IN the enclosure? Wow! Did you take measurements of the bare drive too?

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 1:03 am

No, fraid not. But the Quiet Drive is quite effective at cooling. The temperature peaked at 49, but that was after a full format. Which, incidentally, takes HOURS.

gb115b · Post by **gb115b** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 3:50 pm

do you have the aam enabled...

mshan · Post by **mshan** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:01 pm

Is this the drive you guys are talking about?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145141

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:54 am

Yes, I have AAM set to 128. The drive temperature in use is stabilsing at about 48C now, which is higher than the Saumsung, but still acceptable. So far, the noise level is still agreeably low.

gb115b · Post by **gb115b** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 8:55 am

sorry, just to clarify

the Hitachi 1TB with AAM at 128 it is 'twice as loud' as the samsung (AAM?)

do you have any idea of the power consumption of the drive?

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:56 pm

Twice as loud before I enabled AAM. After setting to 128, and running in a while, it's quietened a bit more. However, since its mounted in a drive silencer, it isn't easy to be exact. It's quieter than I expected. I'm afraid I don't know the power consumption, but I'm fairly sure it's more than the Samsung.

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 1:36 am

Check idle power consumption from this SR Performance Database comparison.

T-series is missing but since power consumption doesn't differ as much from test setup to another we could probably use SPCR's measurement to obtain T-series's power consumption. Difference in measurement where the drive have been reviewed by both have typically been 0.1 watts.

WD5000AAxx is also missing but probably around T-series (i.e a tad cooler than WD5000xx).

Hitachi T7K500: 6.8 W (SR)
Samsung T133: 7.4 W (SPCR)
WD5000AAxx: 7.x W (my guess)
Hitachi 7K1000: 7.9 W (SR)
Hitachi 7K500: 8.5 W (SR & SPCR)
WD5000xx: 8.6 W (SR), 8.5 W (SPCR)
Seagate 7200.9/NL35.2 500GB: 9.4 W (SR), 8.3 W (SPCR) (*)
Seagate 7200.10/ES 750GB: 9.4 W (SR), 9.2 W (SPCR)

(*) probably different variants as difference is that big. NL35.2 is intended for nearline (enterprise) use, but shouldn't differ that much from desktop variant. Same goes for 7200.10 & ES ("enterprice storage"?) which should be mechanically similar as well. Of course there's variance between desktop and enterprise variants like there's variance between two desktop HDDs. Seagate just happens to be a high variance manufacturer at the present time.

Looking at the table, we can see 7K1000 is quite cool for a high capacity drive. It's cooler than previous 5-platter Hitachis, which weren't that hot to begin with: not hotter that 4-platter competition, but hotter than 3-platter T-series. New and cooler 5-platter 7K1000 is still 0.5 watts warmer than T133 but I'd say that's a surprizingly small difference.

Hitachi's own T7K500 is the only lower capacity alternative that has significantly lower power consumption but mounting two of them next to each other would probably make them run warmer than a single 7K1000 (due to heat radiation and conduction).

sweatypickle · Post by **sweatypickle** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:39 pm

Denorios wrote:Yes, I have AAM set to 128. The drive temperature in use is stabilsing at about 48C now, which is higher than the Saumsung, but still acceptable. So far, the noise level is still agreeably low.

Sorry for the bump. However, when you said it was louder than the Samsung were you referring to idle or seek or both.

Hitachi 7K1000 1TB a silent beast? :O

I have

Availability in Canada

StorageReview's review on 7K1000!