That looks good to me!
I've also got a 7200.11 500GB (the one with the 250GB platters & 32MB cache) that is supposed to be good for above 100MB/s tach rated sequential read speeds and only drop to 60 - or higher MB/s - toward the inner part of the disk(s).
Originally posted by: RideFree
That looks good to me!
I've also got a 7200.11 500GB (the one with the 250GB platters & 32MB cache) that is supposed to be good for above 100MB/s tach rated sequential read speeds and only drop to 60 - or higher MB/s - toward the inner part of the disk(s).
The higher density platters, everything else being equal, would of course have better numbers. When the 320GB 7200.10 first came out they were shipped with both 125 (3) and 160 (2) platters. The 375 triple platter were only factory formatted to 320GB (unused space). Some sites reported these 3 platter jobs were very noisy and had lower numbers and were to be avoided. I just wonder if Seagate is up to its old tricks again.
There are faster HDD avail - the new Samsung 333 platter Spinpoint F1's for example. http://www.tomshardware.com/20...with_a_bang/index.html
However the Seagate 320 is a known device to me with an excellent reliablility history. It comes from the worlds largest HDD company with very good warranty and service. Its not too big and not too small, runs cool and quiet, and its cheap as dirt. If I wanted a fast drive, I'd buy a raptor or two, but those things run hot and do have audible noise.
The fact is, the HDD is the biggest bottleneck in current PC tech, and are dinosaurs. The 320 Seagate is just something I throw in and dont think about - thats why I dont like to hear about "problems".
FWIW Storage Review is the gold standard review site on HDD and you can go to their benchmark database and plug in a parameter, and see just which is the fastest drive in descending order
For example try max transfer rate listings in the flyout window
http://www.storagereview.com/Testbed4Compare.sr
Could not find the F1 320GB in any retail channel, or I would have ordered two of them when I ordered the 7200.10s 320GB last week.
i picked up an aak 500GB last saturday as my store was out of 320GB sata drives. heading back today to exchange (hopefully will have 320 back in stock) and i plan to open up the new drive in the parking lot to make sure it's not aak.
I have never returned anything to Fry's so I just checked - cant return online purchase to stores
So I can either ship it to Seagate or Fry's in Ohio (at my expense)
One good thing - if I had installed this not knowing about the firmware issue, probably would have spent hours trying to figure out why it was not going full speed. It scares me to think how many driver reinstalls I might have done.
I also vaguely remember seeing something that Seagate drives can be set to "quiet run" or "performance"
[Sigh]
So I can either ship it to Seagate or Fry's in Ohio (at my expense)
One good thing - if I had installed this not knowing about the firmware issue, probably would have spent hours trying to figure out why it was not going full speed. It scares me to think how many driver reinstalls I might have done.
I also vaguely remember seeing something that Seagate drives can be set to "quiet run" or "performance"
[Sigh]
konakona
Diamond Member
- May 6, 2004
- 6,285
- 1
- 0
I think if you need more storage and not a seagate fanboy, the choice is clear.
If you are talking about 501LJ that is, which could be had for $105ish from CV (0.21c/gig)
This drive would run you 70ish after tax depending on where you live (0.22c/gig in my area). 501LJ should perform at least as good if not (and most likely) better and MUCH quiter. vibrations could get in your way though, so you better have a case with some form of dampening (ie rubber grommets or air suspension like in solo)
well i guess if you want to get the drive RIGHT NOW and want an easier return in case of a failure, then this might work better. if you can afford the wait and dont wanna get caught in the traffic driving to your local fry's, then samsung it is. the latter is a better performer of the two.
my frys was still out of 320 sata drives so i exchanged for another 500GB. most were made in china with S/N's just like I had before so I assumed they would be aak. fortunately, they had a few thailand drives with s/n starting with 9Q. i grabbed one of those and sure enough, it's aae. i'll probably keep this one.
Back in stock and Frys just dropped it another $5 - heh ($59.95)
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/209/frysft3.jpg
Edit: Nope, now goes in shopping cart @ $109
I'm calling Seagate today to see what the story is on these drives
Tech support 1-800-732-4283
RMA 1-800-468-3472
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/209/frysft3.jpg
Edit: Nope, now goes in shopping cart @ $109
I'm calling Seagate today to see what the story is on these drives
Tech support 1-800-732-4283
RMA 1-800-468-3472
That sale price was good through 1/29.
Today (1/30), Fry's has the Maxtor 320GB SATA (7200.10) on sale:
http://www.outpost.com/product/4987891
It's only a one-day sale, so check back on 1/31 and see which one they have on sale the next time.
The Maxtor drive is also on sale through 1/31 at local Fry's stores, along with the PATA version (4987821) which is not available at Outpost.com:
http://shopping.dallasnews.com...8&subid=19699053&type=
Originally posted by: jiffer
That sale price was good through 1/29.
Today (1/30), Fry's has the Maxtor 320GB SATA (7200.10) on sale:
http://www.outpost.com/product/4987891
It's only a one-day sale, so check back on 1/31 and see which one they have on sale the next time.
The Maxtor drive is also on sale through 1/31 at local Fry's stores, along with the PATA version (4987821) which is not available at Outpost.com:
http://shopping.dallasnews.com...8&subid=19699053&type=
Maxtor is same drive, right? But only 3 year warranty....
accguy9009
Senior member
- Oct 21, 2007
- 504
- 10
- 81
Originally posted by: accguy9009
Mine was AAE
Well, I was going to let this thread go, but since you resurrected it, I will add what my research has come up with on this situation.
Firstly, I spent about an hour and a half on the phone trying to reach tech support to no avail. The first call to the 800 number went to India of course (after about 3 minutes), and I asked to speak with a level 2 tech helper in the USA. ( I'm not gonna go thru firmware questions with someone in Bangalore). So he took all my info, then I was transferred to someone in Okllahoma, whereas I waited about 30 min. with some 10 sec jazz refrain repeating endlessly. Then I was routed to voicemail, so I asked for the operator, then I was transferred to some one in Colorado, and another 30 min wait, and another voicemail, and another return to the operator. Actually the operator was the most helpful person in the whole mess. She told me that she couldnt figure out why no one would answer, but please try again tommorrow. (Yeah, right)
So then I turned to google to see what I could find.
The initial offering was a Q&A on the Seagate forum itself
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/...a_drives&thread.id=181
First post says this
"I also hear reports that all firmware revisions below AAE will not support SATA3.0Gb/s, and are stuck in SATA1.5Gb/s mode."
Mod comes in then second post says this:
"I would accept if Seagate just came out with a direct, frank posting from Seagate to the internet public at large (as opposed to specific emails to individuals that had to wade through your many layers of technical support to find they will get no help) and say that NO firmware upgrades can ever be issued. I would accept it (but not be very happy) becasue it came from Seagate.
Instead, we have slience from Seagate + internet conspracy theorys backed by amatures benchmarking results = a lot of confused, wary customers with AAK firmware."
Note that the moderator was in this thread and gave NO REPLY to the charge of silence. Note also that some drives were dropping from RAID arrays (striped writing accross dif firmwares/platter types)
---------------------------------
Then theres some 7200.11 drives that dont use all their cache:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-...ther_downloads/cuda-fw
"A small number of Barracuda 7200.11 drives with firmware versions SD04 or SD14 may show and utilize only part of the available cache. Please follow these steps to ensure that your system recognizes the full cache."
--------------------------------
Heres a guy who sent back an AAK drive to Seagate and they sent him back same crap 5 friggin' times
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=423144
"The Seagate 7200.10 drives with 3.AAK firmware are slow. See this article and this related (non-MR) forum thread for comparative tests and user experience. I think this issue affects all 7200.10 HDs with the 3.AAK firmware, regardless of GB capacity.
If you do buy a 3.AAK drive, good luck getting it replaced under warranty. After buying a 500GB 3.AAK HD for my iMac and sending it back due to sluggishness, I'm on my sixth exchange with Seagate -- they keep sending out replacement HDs with the exact same firmware."
Second post in same thread:
I had this problem, Seagate tech support sent me a firmware update but it killed the drive and I had to send it back anyway. I recently tried a Western Digital aaks and it's the fastest drive I benchmarked on a Mac Pro.
-------------------------------
Another customer who successfully upgraded his firmware with files sent to him by tech support (not offered to public at large)
http://forums.vr-zone.com/show...ad.php?t=213448&page=5
"I have just upgraded to the 3.AAM firmware and I get an average of 78MB/sec instead of the 51MB/sec I had before!
I have uploaded the update below:
http://www.mediafire.com/?30ddatf19xs
The update will ONLY work with drives that have a P/N that end in 308!
(Example: 9BJ146-308)
It is in the form of an iso so just burn it to a cd and type flash in the command prompt after reading the disclaimer.
It makes quite a difference!"
Note that the firmwares are extremely specific. Apparently the firmwares started at AAA and are now up to AAS. I have also found out the flasher is on the Seatools Enterprise edition software (2.9MB)
------------------------
Here we see that the AAK drives HAVE A DIFFERENT LAYOUT (from the factory) so that AAK cannot be flashed to AAE
I am now wondering if they are using those less dense platters once again for dif runs.
http://www.overclock.net/hardw...rmware-have-odd-2.html
"Y'know, normally I might make a comment about preferred companies, fanboyism, etc. etc....but you're actually right.
The seagate drives from benchmarks are not AAK, but anyone buying has a chance of getting an AAK. With WD, you get what the reviews say you get.
AAK is a firmware revision, but it's present on drives with slightly different layouts, making it impossible to flash AAE"
--------------------------
Now a guy who tried to upgrade with firmware given to him by level 2 but it never took
http://forums.dpreview.com/for...=1023&message=24823363
I have a couple of 7200.10's (the 750GB ones) that were purchased with the AAC revision. There are some known issues with this version, and once (I assume) seagate 2nd level tech support was reached, they forwarded an upgrade binary to get it to the AAE revision.
The upgrade was in the form of some files to export to a DOS bootable floppy, and the process was to boot the floppy on a PC compat with the drives installed. It then proceeded to upgrade the hard drives...
Or so it was supposed so.. for whatever reason the app told me that it was successful uploading, but after a reboot, the drive still told the world it was on AAC...
Never progressed it to far beyond this, instead made the disks 'backup' drives and purchased shiny new faster drives for the primary ones..
------------------------
So, I say to you Seagate - SCREW YOU!
I have never bought a WD drive in my life but that is about to change.
I note that they now have a new 320GB drive in their RE2 Enterprise drive series for $90 @ the egg (1.2 million mtbf)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136201
Or the regular SE16 for $78
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136074
http://www.wdc.com/en/products....asp?cat=3&language=en (SE)
http://www.wdc.com/en/products....asp?Cat=2&Language=en (Enterprise)
BYE BYE Seagate - adios
Note the new, single-platter Western Digital 320Gb has an average read in HDTach of 90.6 -- 33% faster.
The new version with a 320Gb platter is part number WD3200AAKS-00B3A0.
What about noise? I'm in the market for a new drive, but drive noise is an issue for me (it'll be going into an HTPC).
Why is this so complicated!
Yeah, thnx for info. Thats the new CaviarSE version.
As noted in Storage Review forum you posted in,
http://forums.storagereview.ne...=26499&mode=linearplus
most order sites dont give the last string of 6 numbers. So the question is, once again, how would you know?
However, the new 320 RE2 enterprise version is definitely single 333 - and only $90.
Its so new, newegg doesnt even have a pic.
(I'm kinda glad now that I got a goofy drive from Seagate - heh)
http://tinyurl.com/2uyfcf
"An initial WD Caviar capacity point of 320 GB is available immediately. The 320 GB-per-platter technology will be deployed across WD's desktop, enterprise, CE and external hard drive product lines, including additional capacity points, throughout this calendar year."
In any case, I will buy both and post results here.
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