speed issue - Seagate 200GB 7200.7 vs Western Digital 160GB

[mlie]

I installed latest seagate 200gb (7200.7/st3200822a) and wd 160GB Caviar SE on my system, both are 8MB, however I figured that WD is much faster than seagate. my configure is :
IDE 1: master-WD 80GB, 2mb ; slave-WD 160GB, 8mb.
IDE 2: master- DVD burner; slave- Seagate 200GB, 7200.7 .

Test is to transfer 1.4GB from WD 80GB (IDE1 master) to WD 160G(IDE1 slave) and Seagate 200G(IDE2 slave). WD uses 52 secs, while Seagate uses 72 secs. From the specs, Seagate should not perform so slow, at least as fast as WD because its avg seek is 8.5ms and avg latency 4.16ms, this is faster than WD's spec.
Is this test fair? or do I miss something here? If I switch the Seagate to IDE 1, should there be any performance improvement? thank you for your reply. BTW, the Seagate is so quiet, I love it!

 

[Dug]

Something doesn't sound right.
I believe the Seagate should be a little faster than the WD.
Also you should get faster transfer rates just for the fact that the Seagate is on a different channel.
I would switch places to test.

 

[GnomeCop]

Take the DVD burner off the IDE2 channel completely and set the seagate as Master, run the test again

 

[Pariah]

Multiple things can affect transer rates, like fragmentation on the drives. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with your drives. The WD being faster should not be much of a surprise. Drive specs among directly competing drives don't tell you much.

 

[TwiceOver]

Doesn't the IDE chains only work as fast as it's slowest component? IIRC if you have an optical device on the same chain as your hard drive, that HD is only going to run in ATA33 mode instead of 100/133, while your primary controller has 2 HDs on it is probably running ata100/133.

I think anyway.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

that new seagate model is definatly faster than the WD,it even rivals the raptor in some respects. its an amazing drive.

 

[GnomeCop]

how much and where did you get the 200gb seagate? I've been looking for one

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
how much and where did you get the 200gb seagate? I've been looking for one

TigerDirect was selling a 200gig version for $150 minus $50 mail in rebate a few weeks ago. i should have nabbed two....

 

[mlie]

thank you guys all for the reply. It seems to me that TwiceOver's answer sounds reasonable, let me move the seagate to ide2 master and test it again. btw, I just defragmented all the drives last night, and run the test today, so there should be no fragmentation factors. Also as Seagate's manual suggested I used their attached cable, should be no problem with the cable either.

For those of you interested in this Seagate drive 200GB 7200.7, Best Buy has it on sale for $199-70 MIR = $129, unadvertised though, valid from 2/29-3/6 , go check it out, even better if you can do some PM trick
It is very quiet, and I haven't heard the pitched whinning someone mentioned before, at least so far so good.

 

[GnomeCop]

damn, I'm pretty much maxed out right nw in my system with 4 80gb seagate drives or else I would get them, if only I'd found these a few weeks ago before I got my 2 80gb ide seagates for 40 bucks each after rebate.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

yea, that clam shell packaging they use is amazing. i have 4 old 10gigs and an old 40gig with that exact casing. you have to go out of your way if you want to hear the drives.

 

[mlie]

Originally posted by: GnomeCop
damn, I'm pretty much maxed out right nw in my system with 4 80gb seagate drives or else I would get them, if only I'd found these a few weeks ago before I got my 2 80gb ide seagates for 40 bucks each after rebate.

lol, yes, buddy, see my 80GB WD 2mb? It is too difficult to get rid of it because I installed too many softwares on it and even Linux. Norton Ghost cannot copy all the data to my new large drives either, maybe due to linux, so I have to carry this turtle back over and over...

 

[GnomeCop]

seagate stopped using their seashell type casing for their HDs (the foam and metal plat on the underside of the HD)

the last model to have them were a few of the barracuda Vs
none of the 7200.7 HDs have them

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

ghost can copy over linux,but if you have the boot loader in the MBR,then you have to rebuilt that on your own.

 

[mlie]

Originally posted by: AWhackWhiteBoy
ghost can copy over linux,but if you have the boot loader in the MBR,then you have to rebuilt that on your own.

Exactly, I doubt the loader thing is the trouble maker.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

well,what does it do? it must do something?

 

[mlie]

just play linux, not serious programming.