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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