New IDE Hard Drives at 20 GB per Platter: Fujitsu MPG3409 and Western Digital WD400 – THG.RU

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Hard Drives for 2001: 40 GB Models by Fujitsu and Western Digital

Buying a hard drive is always some kind of venture. Particularly at the end of every year, many shops and distributors are trying to dispose their remaining stock. It is quite normal to get an old and a latest generation hard drive for the same money.

Non-professionals have hardly any chance to find out which one is the better choice. As a result, many people frequently make the wrong decision.

This time we took a look at two brand new 40 GB drives which are both quite a good buy right now. We also included the results of several formerly tested drives to show you the technical development.

First of all, discounters like to reduce the differences between hard disk drives just to the capacity. The only additional hint they sometimes provide is the average seek time. But those numbers (8 or 9 milliseconds usually) are quite far away from reality, as the complete access time is more important than the naked seek time.

There are also some other factors which should all have an influence on your buying decision: The rotation speed (5400 or 7200 rpm) and hence the resulting noise, capacity of the buffer memory (512 KB or 2 MB), storage density (GBs per platter) and additional features just like acoustic management.

Fujitsu MPG3409AT

The latest spear in Fujitsu’s desktop drive family is called MPG3xxxAT and is available in capacities of 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 GB. In contrast to IBM and Maxtor, Fujitsu still does not ship any high capacity drive. Instead of that, Fujitsu is consistently focussing on the mainstream market. One interesting feature is their Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB), which will likely replace ball bearings, as it is a very effective way to reduce the drive noise. So far, FDB is not available on all MPG drives, so be sure to get the FDB version if you want to get the best. Unfortunately we did not get such a drive for testing this time.

As the MPG3409AT works at 5400 rpm, it is quieter than the WD400 at 7200 rpm. However it is surprising enough to see that drives of IBM’s high end 7200 rpm DTLA family don’t make any more noise than the Fujitsu 5400 rpm MPG family.

Fujitsu also offers a 7200-rpm-family which is called MPG3xxx-AH instead of -AT. Users with high performance expectations should take a look at those drives.

Fujitsu MPG3409AT, Continued

Acoustic Management

Fujitsu’s MPG-family features acoustic management. Using a little software tool, you can adjust if the drive should access as fast or as quiet as possible. Most of you certainly know the cracking noise, which every hard drive makes during read or write access. After applying the Fujitsu acoustic management utility, the access noise is indeed more like a dull rushing instead of the cracky sound. Please be aware that you “pay” for the lower noise level by a disk access time, which is 2-3 ms longer! If that is okay for you, you will get a very quiet hard drive.

Western Digital WD400

The latest high performance drive from Western Digital is called WD400 and also comes with two platters at 20 GB each, making a total of 40 GB storage. Thanks to 2 MB buffer and a rotation speed of 7200 rpm, the benchmark results are quite good. Unfortunately, the drive is not as quiet as the Fujitsu one. Even after closing the computer case we could still clearly hear the WD400 working.

WD also offers two smaller drives WD200 and WD300 at 20 and 30 GB. Each comes with ATA/100 interface and 2 MB cache memory. Those WD drives are also equipped with the acoustic management feature, but you will have less benefit due to the higher spindle speed. While acoustic management reduces access noise, it won’t make the 63 dB of idle noise disappear.

Easy Configuration

You won’t need an installation guide for either with the Fujitsu or the Western Digital drive. The settings for master or slave mode can easily be adjusted using the on-drive descriptions.

This sticker can be found on top of the MPG3409AT. A similar label is present on the WD drive. Western Digital also printed a jumper description directly on the PCB right behind them:

Thanks to the excellent jumper labeling, everybody should be able to set the jumpers correctly. Right now the drive is configured as single drive.

Test Setup

Benchmarks

Data Transfer Speeds

A look at the maximum and minimum transfer speeds does not reveal any surprises. Due to the progress in hard drive technology, those new drives get good ratings. The WD drive works at 7200 instead of the Fujitsu’s 5400 rpm, resulting in a clearly better minimum transfer speed.

Data Transfer Diagram: Fujitsu MPG3409AT

Even at the end of the medium, the Fujitsu drive is still able to read at almost 20 MB/s. This is mostly due to the high data density of the disks, equalizing a bit of the slower 5400-rpm rotation speed.

Data Transfer Diagram: Western Digital WD400

The WD400 is hardly able to beat the good results of the Fujitsu drive.

Access Time

Even though the WD drive works at 7200 rpm, its access time is not very impressive. The IBM DTLA series continued to stay the undisputed performance champion.

I am quite surprised to see the Fujitsu drive performing better than the faster rotating Western Digital drive (HD Tach 2.61). I double-checked the result under Windows 2000 and Windows 98 and continued to get those results.

Business Disk WinMark 99

The Winmark is a good indicator for a drive’s real performance, as this benchmark simulates real disk accesses.

HighEnd Disk WinMark 99

I prefer the High End WinMark to the Business WinMark, as it seems to be better related to practice. The amount of data that the benchmark and the drive have to handle is much bigger.

Here we have some real surprise: The WD400 is even able to beat our performance champion, the IBM DeskStar 75GXP!

Operating Noise

We have been using a new measuring device for some weeks now, so you cannot compare those results with former test results. The good performance result of WD’s WD400 drive has to be paid with a high idle noise level. The situation is different with the Fujitsu drive. Even though it is not far away from the WD400’s benchmark results, it makes clearly less noise.

Operating Temperature

The WD drive reached a surface temperature of 42°C after almost two hours – that very acceptable for a 7200-rpm drive. You should add some 5-10 extra degrees, as I attained those results having the drive running on my desk.

The Fujitsu drive stays absolutely cool at 37 degrees – excellent.

Conclusion

Both Fujitsu and Western Digital showed that they are absolutely able to build technically competitive hard drives. I still remember the staff of a local computer shop going on about several hard drive companies just because they were not selling high capacity drives. This review shows that there’s more to hard drive technology than only high capacities. After all, the average size of IDE hard drives is still less than 30 GB.

40 GB models seem to be a good choice right now, as they usually come at reasonably attractive prices. The Fujitsu drive is available for approximately $190, which seems normal for a 40 GB drive right now. Also consider the liquid bearing which is not available from the competitors.

The Western Digital WD400 can be obtained for approx. $200-215. Particularly demanding applications should run faster on such a 7200-rpm model than on a 5400 drive. The good transfer rates make those two drives suited for digital video as well.

It’s great to see that each company in the hard drive sector is doing hard work. Nobody can predict which companies will survive and which ones will finally disappear due to continuously decreasing margins. Luckily, this war is not fought at the users’ expense.