Hard Drive Vs SSD – The space inbetween

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TBLast but not least is one of the fastest HDD’s on the market, the Samsung HD103SJ (Spinpoint F3). The drive is very aggressively priced in the HDD market coming in at under £40 for the 1TB flavour. This makes it ideal for the users who can’t afford an SSD or those who need masses of storage.

The 1TB version we are going to be testing is widely renowned as the ‘cream of the crop’ when it comes to hard drives. It offers class leading sequential read and write speeds, a large 32MB buffer and low access time. Couple all of these features with the variety of capacities available, the low retail price and 3 year warranty offered by Samsung and it looks as if our higher-priced SSD’s could have a tough time when it comes to the recommendations.

SAM_0856 (Copy).JPG

There isn’t really much to say about the looks of this 3.5” HDD because it looks so similar to the rest of the 3.5” HDD’s. Samsung feature a sticker positioned on the centre of the drive which labels the model, capacity and serial number as well as some other specifications.

SAM_0862 (Copy).JPG

Looking at the SATA II data connection and the SATA power connection again shows nothing different to what we have seen before.

SAM_0863 (Copy).JPG

The underneath of the drive shows that Samsung use a Micron controller and ESMT SDRAM chip fitted to a green PCB to make this drive function fast and effectively.

Features

• MAX.500GB Formatted Capacity Per Platter
• Serial ATA II Interface Support
• Improved recording stability over temperature with PMR
• Advanced dynamic FOD control for best data integrity
• Intelligent compensation of external disturbance
• SATA Native Command Queuing Feature
• Device Initiated SATA Power Management
• Rotational vibration sensor
• Environment friendly product with RoHS compliance
• Improved performance with dual-ARM based firmware
• ATA S.M.A.R.T. Compliant
• ATA Automatic Acoustic Management Feature
• ATA 48-bit Address Feature
• ATA Device Configuration Overlay Feature
• NoiseGuard
• SilentSeek

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 100%]
[TR]
[TD]Form Factor
[/TD]
[TD]3.5”[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Interface
[/TD]
[TD]SATA 1.5GB/s and 3.0GB/s[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Buffer Size
[/TD]
[TD]32 MB[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Spindle Speed
[/TD]
[TD]7,200 RPM[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Average Seek Time
[/TD]
[TD]8.9 ms[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dimensions [/TD]
[TD]26.1mm (H) x 101.5mm (W) x 147.0mm (L)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Weight [/TD]
[TD]625 grams[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Storage Temperatures
[/TD]
[TD]-40 ~ 70 °C[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Operating Temperatures
[/TD]
[TD]0 ~ 60 °C[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Power Specs
[/TD]
[TD]Up to 7.2W Active / 6.3W Idle[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Warranty Length
[/TD]
[TD]3 years[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]