Beware: there are two different Hitachi 7K80 HDDs!

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat May 20, 2006 11:29 am

The first is the one reviewed by Mike Chin as a one-platter HDD. It's 80GB, 2 heads, max media transfer rate of 757Mb/sec, 26dBA idle. Part # HDS728080PLA380 (for the SATA II version). Delivered as SATA I. You have to download new code and zap the microcode from a floppy to switch to SATA II.

Hitachi has announced the 7K160, 160GB, one platter 2 heads. There's a one-head 80GB version of this drive called the... you guessed it, 7K80! Max media transfer rate of 966Mb/sec, 25dBA idle. Part # HDS721680PLA380 (for the SATA II version). Delivered as SATA II.

The thing is, I can't find the 7K160 or the new version of the 7K80 for sale anywhere (yet). Customers are buying the 7K80 on Newegg, thinking they'll be getting the new version (not knowing there are two 7K80s) and getting the slower, noisier, SATA I default version.

If you want the old version, fine. It's a pretty good drive, and under $50 at Newegg. Or you can wait for the new version and find a way to assure you'll get the new version, not the old one.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Sat May 20, 2006 11:33 am

Well if you say the first version is SATA I and the new one only SATA II, then... buy SATA II?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat May 20, 2006 12:02 pm

JazzJackRabbit wrote:Well if you say the first version is SATA I and the new one only SATA II, then... buy SATA II?

The first one is also a SATA II, but it is delivered as the default SATA I - and some Newegg customers are steaming!

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 6:43 am

Well, it took a while, but now it's a fact. Google "Hitachi 7K80" today and you'll get three hits: two the old version and one (on eBay) the new version, at a ridiculous price when shipping is included.

Two or three weeks ago, the 7K160 made an appearance on eBay and on "Flicker(something)", which sells to the enterprise market. Last Monday the PATA version appeared at TigerDirect, and now the PATA version is available at at least one more outlet (Froogle), both ~$80.

So these drives are finally becoming generally available, the more profitable 160G version first of course.

And you definitely don't want to buy the old 7K80!

edit: alas, the above is dead wrong. Since the old 7K80 is available for ~$42 (Provantage, for example) I assumed that the >$100 (including shipping) on eBay was the new model, as its 7K160 parent had actually appeared on eBay earlier. Alas, the eBay site is trolling for suckers. It's perfectly legal to sell stuff worth $42 for over $100...

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 6:05 am

my friend got an 80gb (8mb) ata100 drive.

the device manager states "<something>1680<something>"

this the good one?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:39 am

Techno Pride wrote:my friend got an 80gb (8mb) ata100 drive.
the device manager states "<something>1680<something>"
this the good one?

Yep. First, the cache is 8mb - it's 2mb on the one you don't want. Second, "1680" means you have an 80G drive on a model whose "full up" capacity is 160G. So you're home free!

xilencer · Post by **xilencer** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:43 am

Also check the edit above, it was a mistake, the new 80GB model is not called 7K80.
These are the two new Deskstar product lines:

7K160: 160GB / 80GB

T7K500: 500GB / 400GB / 320GB / 250GB

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:45 am

xilencer wrote:Also check the edit above, it was a mistake, the new 80GB model is not called 7K80.

If Hitachi has decided not to use "7K80" for the new model, I'll be happy to be wrong. Otherwise there would be massive confusion in the marketplace for those limited few persons looking to save $5 by choosing 80G instead of 160G (comparing the directron.com price I paid for my 7K160 with the Froogle prices for the new 80G).

xilencer · Post by **xilencer** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 12:10 pm

If you'll be happy to be wrong, then I'm glad to be of service

This has happened before on a large scale when it comes to hard drives. For example I know lots of resellers continued to use the Barracuda IV name long after it was discontinued for selling the V and even the 7200.7 series 40-80GB models. Maybe it was intentional or maybe they didn't care as long as it was the same capacity. That was a couple of years ago when new product series did not usually contain the same capacities as previous series. Nowadays popular capacity points are usually carried over several drive series, so by now they should all get it right. But as always you should get the model number to be sure of what you're getting.

However that may be, the right name of the new 80GB Deskstars is 7K160.