Performance loss of Seagate ATA IV?

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Wed May 12, 2004 10:26 am

I recently got fed up with the whining of my WD 1200JB and when looking for alternatives I came upon this site

Some time ago I build a PC for my mother using the Seagate ATA IV and was impressed with it's low noice, so now I'm contemplating getting a 80 GB ATA IV instead.

I'm aware that the speed of the ATA IV never was it's strong point, but how will it's reduced speed (compared to my WD 1200JB) be noticable?

I'm primarely using my PC for gaming and surfing the web.

DonP · Post by **DonP** » Wed May 12, 2004 12:21 pm

Ronin wrote:..so now I'm contemplating getting a 80 GB ATA IV instead.
I'm aware that the speed of the ATA IV never was it's strong point, but how will it's reduced speed (compared to my WD 1200JB) be noticable?

AFAIK the Cuda IV aren't made any more.. the Cuda V's are hard if not impossible to get.. and the Cuda 7200.7 aren't all that quiet. From looking around the forums here and from personal experience the Samsung Spinpoints are the current queiet kings, and they run pretty cool too.
As far as speed goes.. check out the database at www.StorageReview.com. As a quick comparison with "SR Office DriveMark 2002 in IO/Sec" as metric:
WD1200JB: 413
Spinpoint P80 160G (SP1614N): 405
Cuda IV: 296

Or, for your viewing pleasure: A head-to-head comparison

btw.. don't take SR's noise measurements very seriously.

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Wed May 12, 2004 1:06 pm

Thanks for your reply!

I'm familiar with StorageReview.com and have used their performance database to compare these drives already, but I'm uncertain as to what the numbers actually mean for everyday use.

(I actually based my decision of getting the WD 1200JB when I build my current PC 2 years ago on it being on the StorageReview leaderboard back then.)

I also know that the Samsung P80 drives are pretty fast, but have seen some threads here about their idle noise not always being all that quiet.

I wanted to get a Seagate ATA V, but they're unatainable here in Denmark (AFAIK), but strangely enough, there are still some ATA IVs to be had.

So I was hoping that some of you could translate the performance numbers or maybe from experience could tell me how I would notice (if at all?) the performance drop of going from a WD 1200JB to an ATA IV drive.

As I mentioned, I'm primarily using my PC for web surfing and playing games.

Post by **MikeC** » Wed May 12, 2004 1:25 pm

DonP is right -- if there are IVs around, it's just a matter of local stock. The IV is slower than the V and the V is slower than the 7200.7, which is maybe almost as fast as the Samsung, which is very close to the WD. Not sure how much of a difference you will notice, but you will notice something.

Noise-wise, both B-IVs and Samsungs will kill the WD. I measured ~20 and 21 dBA / 1m for these drives.

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Wed May 12, 2004 2:07 pm

So rather than going with the venerable ATA IV you'd recommend a Samsung P80 drive?

I've been trying to sift through the noise (

) about the Samsung drives on this board, but in the end it seemed that my only sure way of getting a quiet drive was to get an ATA IV.

Do the majority of you feel that the risk of getting a slightly noisy Samsung drive is outweighed by it's increased performance compared to the ATA IV?

Post by **MikeC** » Wed May 12, 2004 2:15 pm

Your comment "slightly noisy Samsung drive" is so amazingly off the mark!!

Where do you get such an idea??

The only time the Samsung sounds even the least bit "noisy" in comparison with other drives is against the defunct Barracuda IV which it trounces in every way performance-wise. Compared to any other 3.5" HDD, it is SILENT!

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Wed May 12, 2004 2:37 pm

I was merely going by the posts on this board about how some Samsung P80 drives were noisier than others, leading to speculation about whether they're all made with FDB's.

There was this poll about different drives having motors made by different companies, and some of these being noisier than others.

Also, there was this thread about some Samsungs having high idle noise.

Are you saying that I should disregard these threads?

Post by **MikeC** » Wed May 12, 2004 3:53 pm

Those threads are discussing fine differences between samples of Samsungs, but not between Samsung and other makes, generally speaking. I personally have not run into a single SP drive that varies more than 1 dBA from any of the others; I've gone through more than 10 samples. Your WD is likely to be at least 30 dBA in idle alone...

ao · Post by ao » Sun May 16, 2004 4:56 pm

Ronin wrote:I recently got fed up with the whining of my WD 1200JB and when looking for alternatives I came upon this site

I'm aware that the speed of the ATA IV never was it's strong point, but how will it's reduced speed (compared to my WD 1200JB) be noticable?

It's probably not a big deal, but as much of a fan as I've been of the barracuda IV's , they really have always felt sort of sluggish to me. Or, rather, the systems I've used them in, even when they've been fairly high end (like the one I'm using now), have still not felt as responsive as lower end machines with faster (and noisier) hard drives. Still plenty fast to be usable, don't get me wrong, but they do seem to lag a bit. I love the drives for their low noise, but my perception stands. If I were in the market, I'd get the samsung.

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Sun May 16, 2004 6:29 pm

I'll know about the Cuda IV soon. I just received one in the mail -- 80GB ST380021A.

Performance loss of Seagate ATA IV?

Performance loss of Seagate ATA IV?

Re: Performance loss of Seagate ATA IV?

Re: Performance loss of Seagate ATA IV?