Review: Samsung Spinpoint F1
Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:22 am
DISCLAIMER: This is by no means a professional quality review. Every following bit of information is based on my own experience with said product for 5 hours. Rather than a review call it "first impressions" if you like. Nothing should be taken seriously here and all information is provided as is. Thanks you for understanding.
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD322HJ
Drive details
320GB capacity (single platter)
16MB cache (great cache algorithms!)
7200RPM speed (great I/O performance!)
3.5" size (normal desktop drive)
1. Holding the Samsung in my hands for the first time
This is my first Samsung hard disk drive and my expectations are great I/O performance and quiet operation. I have a Samsung optical DVD drive, which is one of the fastest to deliver 22X DVD recording speed -- I expect the hard disk drive to be as astonishing as well. Previously I had only Seagate and Western Digital and the occasional Maxtor. Holding the Samsung for the first time in my hands and all I can say... it feels special. Let's get this baby installed, shall we?
2. Testbed and operating environment
Not going to take pictures of my own room for the very reason that it's always messy here! Testbed is my favorite PC consisting of an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS installed in an ASUS P5K WS. The Samsung is going to be installed externally -- using a passthrough SATA cable going to the motherboard and in-between is the Akasa AllInOne multi-functional panel (first revision). Operating environment has an ambient temperature of 22C. Ambient noise is loud, my sister listens to music at loud levels and the TV is very often on, but when everyone else is sleeping and I'm still hacking through the night it's very quiet and that's when I hear my PC components very sensitively.
3. Installation and temperature readings
Installation was a breeze and why shouldn't it be? Although OEM packed the Samsung came with a very nice quick reference sheet showing visually how the hard disk drive should be installed. Cute little pictures of a character posing as a hard disk drive are also included -- small plus for Samsung! Anyway, connect SATA and power cable... hit the power button and off we go! The hard disk drive has been running for 5 minutes copying a big 50GB file (dummy file filled with random bytes). SMART temperature reading is 35C. I tried to stream a DVD quality movie from the hard disk drive and getting halfway through the film (Scary Movie 3) the drive reported 34C temperature. Now the drive is idling and it's running at 33C (was idling at least 30 minutes). Impressive, but SMART data should not be taken seriously so let me add subjective information on the temperatures: when the hard disk drive was copying that big 50GB file it felt just a tiny bit warmer and when idling the drive is only warm, but not hot.
4. *Cough* FINALLY *cough* I/O performance
hdparm 8.9 64-bit, command used hdparm -tT /dev/[s|h]d[a-z]
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD322HJ
Timing cached reads: 2646 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1323.56 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 338 MB in 3.00 seconds = 112.62 MB/sec
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS
Timing cached reads: 2564 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1282.39 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 314 MB in 3.00 seconds = 104.56 MB/sec
The Samsung is around 10MB/s faster than my Barracuda. Although it seems like a small difference, I did see a great boost when copying multiple small files and boot up was around 2 seconds faster (measured with a stopwatch).
5. NNNOOOIIISSSEEE!!!
Actually, it IS quiet! Never heard so quiet seeks before! Compared to my Barracuda this is almost inaudible. There's only one complaint: for a single platter hard disk drive I expected it to vibrate less. Much less actually. My Barracuda has two platters, but still vibrates a hair less than the Samsung. Will get a Nexus Drive-A-Way and see how it eliminates vibration (not yet ready to take the plunge and mod my case to allow hard disk drive suspension). Best of all there's no high pitched whine and nothing else but airborne acoustics. I saw immediately a great change in the noise level of my PC when I swapped the Barracuda for the Samsung!
6. Enough bullshit! Hot or not?!
The hard disk drive is HOT! Not as in very warm but you know if you listen to an euphoric trance track you get that hot feeling... *dreaming* -- I mean, it is really a great drive! I've had it only for around 5 hours now and I am overly impressed. Yes the Samsung did deliver excellent I/O performance, but I am a little but disappointed regarding the vibration. I will see how that changes once I put it into a Nexus Drive-A-Way. All in all a great hard disk drive!
7. (Extra) Direct Audio Sampling
Some of you know that I do immense audio recording and use a technique of what is a revised sampling method. Don't have the time to explain it in detail but in essence direct audio sampling reads audio data directly off from the hard disk drive without a buffer in the middle. The sampler translates the audio into a usable format (decodes a special lossless codec) and then fills a quick 2MB buffer. From this buffer the sampler directs audio into the mixer and from there to my audio interface. Using intelligent algorithms the sampler starts to buffer audio data with the highest sample size that is in the range of 2 seconds. Using this special sampling method it is possible to achieve latencies as low as 0ms with dedicated hardware. My top result was 1ms with a Seagate Cheetah 10K.7 SCSI hard disk drive. Using my current Barracuda I can achieve non-crackling audio at 3ms. With an earlier Western Digital it was even higher. Now I got a whole different picture of 7200RPM hard disk drives though, because the Samsung was able to throw in power that allowed 1.8ms recording, getting very near to the speed of the Cheetah and almost twice as fast as the Barracuda! Great, I will definitely put multiple of these in a RAID configuration for pure audio recording and processing.
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD322HJ
Drive details
320GB capacity (single platter)
16MB cache (great cache algorithms!)
7200RPM speed (great I/O performance!)
3.5" size (normal desktop drive)
1. Holding the Samsung in my hands for the first time
This is my first Samsung hard disk drive and my expectations are great I/O performance and quiet operation. I have a Samsung optical DVD drive, which is one of the fastest to deliver 22X DVD recording speed -- I expect the hard disk drive to be as astonishing as well. Previously I had only Seagate and Western Digital and the occasional Maxtor. Holding the Samsung for the first time in my hands and all I can say... it feels special. Let's get this baby installed, shall we?
2. Testbed and operating environment
Not going to take pictures of my own room for the very reason that it's always messy here! Testbed is my favorite PC consisting of an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS installed in an ASUS P5K WS. The Samsung is going to be installed externally -- using a passthrough SATA cable going to the motherboard and in-between is the Akasa AllInOne multi-functional panel (first revision). Operating environment has an ambient temperature of 22C. Ambient noise is loud, my sister listens to music at loud levels and the TV is very often on, but when everyone else is sleeping and I'm still hacking through the night it's very quiet and that's when I hear my PC components very sensitively.
3. Installation and temperature readings
Installation was a breeze and why shouldn't it be? Although OEM packed the Samsung came with a very nice quick reference sheet showing visually how the hard disk drive should be installed. Cute little pictures of a character posing as a hard disk drive are also included -- small plus for Samsung! Anyway, connect SATA and power cable... hit the power button and off we go! The hard disk drive has been running for 5 minutes copying a big 50GB file (dummy file filled with random bytes). SMART temperature reading is 35C. I tried to stream a DVD quality movie from the hard disk drive and getting halfway through the film (Scary Movie 3) the drive reported 34C temperature. Now the drive is idling and it's running at 33C (was idling at least 30 minutes). Impressive, but SMART data should not be taken seriously so let me add subjective information on the temperatures: when the hard disk drive was copying that big 50GB file it felt just a tiny bit warmer and when idling the drive is only warm, but not hot.
4. *Cough* FINALLY *cough* I/O performance
hdparm 8.9 64-bit, command used hdparm -tT /dev/[s|h]d[a-z]
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD322HJ
Timing cached reads: 2646 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1323.56 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 338 MB in 3.00 seconds = 112.62 MB/sec
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS
Timing cached reads: 2564 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1282.39 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 314 MB in 3.00 seconds = 104.56 MB/sec
The Samsung is around 10MB/s faster than my Barracuda. Although it seems like a small difference, I did see a great boost when copying multiple small files and boot up was around 2 seconds faster (measured with a stopwatch).
5. NNNOOOIIISSSEEE!!!
Actually, it IS quiet! Never heard so quiet seeks before! Compared to my Barracuda this is almost inaudible. There's only one complaint: for a single platter hard disk drive I expected it to vibrate less. Much less actually. My Barracuda has two platters, but still vibrates a hair less than the Samsung. Will get a Nexus Drive-A-Way and see how it eliminates vibration (not yet ready to take the plunge and mod my case to allow hard disk drive suspension). Best of all there's no high pitched whine and nothing else but airborne acoustics. I saw immediately a great change in the noise level of my PC when I swapped the Barracuda for the Samsung!
6. Enough bullshit! Hot or not?!
The hard disk drive is HOT! Not as in very warm but you know if you listen to an euphoric trance track you get that hot feeling... *dreaming* -- I mean, it is really a great drive! I've had it only for around 5 hours now and I am overly impressed. Yes the Samsung did deliver excellent I/O performance, but I am a little but disappointed regarding the vibration. I will see how that changes once I put it into a Nexus Drive-A-Way. All in all a great hard disk drive!
7. (Extra) Direct Audio Sampling
Some of you know that I do immense audio recording and use a technique of what is a revised sampling method. Don't have the time to explain it in detail but in essence direct audio sampling reads audio data directly off from the hard disk drive without a buffer in the middle. The sampler translates the audio into a usable format (decodes a special lossless codec) and then fills a quick 2MB buffer. From this buffer the sampler directs audio into the mixer and from there to my audio interface. Using intelligent algorithms the sampler starts to buffer audio data with the highest sample size that is in the range of 2 seconds. Using this special sampling method it is possible to achieve latencies as low as 0ms with dedicated hardware. My top result was 1ms with a Seagate Cheetah 10K.7 SCSI hard disk drive. Using my current Barracuda I can achieve non-crackling audio at 3ms. With an earlier Western Digital it was even higher. Now I got a whole different picture of 7200RPM hard disk drives though, because the Samsung was able to throw in power that allowed 1.8ms recording, getting very near to the speed of the Cheetah and almost twice as fast as the Barracuda! Great, I will definitely put multiple of these in a RAID configuration for pure audio recording and processing.