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Samsung SP4004H 7200RPM 40GB Hard Drive
Samsung SP4004H 7200RPM 40GB Hard Drive - PCSTATS
The Samsung SpinPoint SP4004H is a two platter 7200RPM 40GB hard drive with Ultra ATA/100 support.
 78% Rating:   
Filed under: Hard Drives/SSD Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Samsung Dec 12 2001   Max Page  
Home > Reviews > Hard Drives/SSD > Samsung SP4004H

Samsung SP4004H 7200RPM 40GB Hard Drive


These days 40GB drives are among the smallest you can get as hard drive manufacturers see their 10, 20 and 30GB lines fazed out. While the upper limit is still around the 100GB storage barrier, and drives continuously adopt newer and better technologies, 40GB drives offer a happy medium for most of us that satisfies both the wallet and average system storage requirements.

The Samsung SpinPoint SP4004H is a two platter 7200RPM 40GB hard drive with Ultra ATA/100 support. The drive features Samsung's NoiseGuard technology and is pretty quiet running (3.1bels) compared to the Quantum which sits at 3.4bels. The SpinPoint SP4004H comes with 2MB of cache buffer and demonstrates a average seek time of 9ms, and 0.8ms for track-to-track seek.

Samsung SP4004H
  • MFG: Samsung
  • Model No: SV6004H
  • Est Drive Cost: $98USD
  • Cost/GB: ~$2.45 USD
  • Features: ImpacGuard, NoiseGuard

Memory Type

Comparison Drive Specs

Parameter   Quantum Fireball Plus AS     Samsung SP4004H  
- Capacity 40.0 GB 40.0 GB
- Areal Density 20GB/platter 20GB/platter
- Interface Ultra ATA/100 Ultra ATA/100
- No. of Platters 2 2
- No. of Heads 4 4
- Buffer Size 2 MB 2 MB
- Rotational Speed 7200 RPM 7200 RPM
- Acoustic Noise 3.4 bels 3.1 bel
- Avg. Rotational Latency 4.17 4.17 ms
- Internal Data Rate (max) N/A 473 Mbit/s
- Avg. Seek Time (Read) 8.4 ms 9.0 ms
- Avg. Track-to-Track
Seek Time (Read)
0.8 ms 0.8 ms
Approx cost/GB: $2.88 $2.45
EST unit cost: $115 USD $98 USD

Test Bed System Specs:

Each of the test hard drives was cleanly formatted and set to one partition of the maximum size. Hard drives were connected to the test motherboard via an 80 wire ATA-100 compliant cable in groups of two. No other devices (like CD ROM's for instance) were connected to the same IDE channel as that of the drives being tested.
Test System Specs
Computer:

Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz
MSI 845Pro Motherboard
ProLink GF2 Ti200 Video card
TwinMos PC166 256MB SDRAM
10/100 Realtek NIC
Enermax 430W PSU

Software: Windows 2000 SP2
All devices had their respectable latest drivers
Benchmarks:

HD Tach 2.61
Winbench 99 V1.2

Drive Performance Benchmarks:

Access Time (ms)
  Quantum Fireball Plus AS     Samsung SP4004H  
Winbench 99 13.3 ms 13.6 ms
HDTach 1.61 12.8 ms 13.7 ms

The SpinPoint SP4004H and the 40GB Quantum Fireball Plus AS are just about identical in terms of performance when it comes to access times. The Quantum drives shows a bit of a lead in the HDTach test, but other than that the results are just about dead on. This isn't much of a surprise as both drives feature two platters and a spindle speed of 7200RPM.

HDTach 2.61:

Hard drive Tach 2.61 is standard for benchmarking drives and provides a wealth of data on the peculiarities of each drive tested. The software tests four major points; access time, burst speed, read speed and percent CPU utilization.

Samsung SP4004H Hard Drive Performance Graph

HDTach 2.61
  Quantum Fireball Plus AS     Samsung SP4004H 
Access time (ms) 12.8 ms 13.7 ms

Read burst speed (mbps)

57.4 mbps 53.6 mbps
Read speed max (kps) 37013 kps 36106 kps
Read speed min (kps) 18349 kps 18128 kps
Read speed avg (kps) 30029 kps 28547 kps
CPU ultilization 6.2% 6.0%

The SpinPoint drive lags behind the Fireball with an average Burst Speed of 53.6 mbps, and read speed of 36106 kps. Minimum read speeds are just about the same for each of the drives, and the only place where the SP4004H comes out ahead is on CPU utilization, and then only by a scant 0.2% lead.

WinBench 99:

WinBench 99
  Quantum Fireball Plus AS     Samsung SP4004H  
Disk Transfer Rate
- Beginning: 35400 kbs 34500 kbs
- End: 20300 kbs 20300 kbs
Disk Access Time: 13.3 ms 13.6 ms
CPU Utilization: 1.25% 1.25%

Once again we see that the Samsung Spinpoint and the Quantum drives are essentially equal in terms of performance. The SpinPoint illustrates just slightly slower access times as we have mentioned already, and slightly lower transfer rates. Other than that, the differences between the two drives are really superfluous.

The Quantum and Samsung drives are very evenly matched on just about every performance level, but when it comes to cost factors, the Samsung Spinpoint comes out ahead. With an average selling point of about $2.45/GB the Samsung drive is less expensive than the Quantum which runs for about $2.88/GB. We like to shop by price when the specs are so closely placed so I'd suggest going for the SpinPoint if you need a good 40GB 7200RPM drive.

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Contents of Article: Samsung SP4004H
 Pg 1.  — Samsung SP4004H 7200RPM 40GB Hard Drive
 Pg 2.  Full Spec Sheet

 
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