Seagate Pipeline HD - 500GB on 1 platter at 5900 RPM!

[Joovilhar]

I did some research for a media-friendly hard disk to replaced the clapped-out WD RE2 500GB, which gave up the ghost surprisingly quickly in my SkyHD box. It turns out that Seagate has just started producing a very interesting drive, based on 5900 RPM spindle speed - so it's faster than a regular 5400 RPM unit (especially with areal densities that support 500GB per platter!) and reasonably quiet. Seagate is quoting 1.9 bels typical / 2.0 maximum on the spec sheet.

It might be worth a look for anyone looking for a deathly-silent 500GB unit. Watch out for the model number, though - there are TWO Pipeline HD 500GB models - the single-platter version is the ST3500312CS, while the older, noisier, slower dual-platter version is the ST3500321CS. Nasty - it is probably quite easy to order the wrong part if you're dyslexic or transpose the last two numbers...

Mine is on order (don't know when I'll get it, but I'll let you know how I get on with it.)

[dhanson865]

I thought the 5900 RPM had to be a typo so I looked it up. The PDF is at http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/supp ... 29372a.pdf and on page 8 the stats are

2.4 Recording and interface technology
1000, 500 and 250 GB models

Interface Serial ATA (SATA)
Recording method Perpendicular
Recording density (kbits/inch max) 1417 kbits/in max
Track density (ktracks/inch avg) 236 ktracks/in avg
Areal density (Gbits/inch2 avg) 341.5 Gbits/in2 avg
Spindle speed (RPM) 5,900 +/- 0.2%


It's interesting as that is higher areal density than what they claim for the 500GB platters in the 7200.12 series.

3.5" Seagate desktop drives
341.5 Gbits/in2 for Pipeline HD drives (500GB Platters)
329 Gbits/inch2 for 7200.12 (500GB Platters)
277 Gbits/inch2 for 7200.11 (375GB Platters)
228 Gbits/inch2 for 7200.11 (320/334GB Platters)
180 Gbits/inch2 for 7200.11 (250GB Platters)
109 Gbits/inch2 for 7200.10 (187GB Platters)
109 Gbits/inch2 for 7200.10 (166GB Platters)

I guess they can just fudge the numbers or they are continually increasing density and the Pipeline HD drives have more than 500GB per platter.

[dhanson865]

Watch out for the model number, though - there are TWO Pipeline HD 500GB models - the single-platter version is the ST3500312CS, while the older, noisier, slower dual-platter version is the ST3500321CS. Nasty - it is probably quite easy to order the wrong part if you're dyslexic or transpose the last two numbers...

It's messier than that. Page 6 of the PDF shows

ST3500414CS
ST3500312CS

as both being single platter 500GB drives. The 414 has 16MB cache and the 312 has 8MB cache.

ST3500321CS you mention has 8MB cache.

So you may just want to pay attention to the cache amount. The drive with 16MB cache will be ok.

[Matija]

Mine is on order (don't know when I'll get it, but I'll let you know how I get on with it.)

Yeah, uhm, cancel the order. The drive is a pile of garbage.

Here's a roundup of 1 TB drives, but it also features a larger Pipeline.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storag ... undup.html

[QuietOC]

Mine is on order (don't know when I'll get it, but I'll let you know how I get on with it.)

Yeah, uhm, cancel the order. The drive is a pile of garbage.

Here's a roundup of 1 TB drives, but it also features a larger Pipeline.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storag ... undup.html

According to the specification page that is an older 4 platter drive. This is a newer single platter drive. The fact that the two share a name doesn't mean much.

[Matija]

If they screwed up the old one, what are the chances of making the new one better? We also know that the 7200.12 is a disappointment, horribly slow seeks and poor performance (apart from sequential reading/writing).

[Joovilhar]

Thanks for the comments. I asked the seller (Jakob Elektronik in Germany) to change the order to the 16MB cache version (the ST3500414CS) - I didn't see that drive on the lineup PDF (it only mentioned the 8MB version, for some reason.) I may get it sooner, though - they apparently have >100 units of the ST3500414CS model in stock (they didn't have the 312 in stock), so I may even get it in time for the weekend! Fingers crossed...

By the way, I am not interested in a drive larger than 500GB, because the SkyHD box cannot format drives larger than this (although you can use drives <=1TB if you prep and format them with Xcopy+ beforehand.) Since the SkyHD box is going to be on loan to my parents, I don't want to have to drag the hard disk out and use Xcopy+ on a PC to reformat it, if the SkyHD box decides to throw its toys out of the pram and crash (it's been known to happen.)

Especially since I live in another country...

They'll simply have to make do with 500GB for storing television programmes. It'll be okay, though, since they're coming from an older system with only 40GB of storage space. By comparison, 500GB (360GB free for general storage, once the SkyHD box has formatted it - 140GB or so is reserved for AnyTime content) will seem vast by comparison: They won't know what's hit them.

[MANOS]

Seagate is quoting 1.9 bels typical / 2.0 maximum on the spec sheet.

500gb seagete 2.1 max bells in idle and 2.4 max bells in seek.

1TB seagate 2.3 max bells in idle and 2.5 max bells in seek.

Page 15; http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/supp ... 29372a.pdf


500GB WD 24db in idle, 25 in seek mode 3.

1TB WD 25db in idle and in seek mode 3.

2TB WD 25db in idle and 26db in seek mode 3.

According to silentpcreview's measurements:
13 in idle and seek mode 3 for wd 1tb and (25 in idle and seek mode 3)
14 in idle and 15 in seek for 500GB Seagate (2.3 bells in idle and 2.5?? bells in seek)

So it seems that WD 5400rpm models are quiter than seagate's 5900rpm. The info in seagate's website obviously misleading and let people think that the typical bells is the noise during idle mode and max bells is the noise during seek mode.