Main -> Useful resourses -> Best hard drives




Best hard drives


Below are the tables of the best (IMHO) HDDs and SSDs on the market now. (Contact me is you think I've missed some)

Note:
Bucks for the bang = Price/Capacity/Speed/IOPS*10000
Drives in 1.2GB/s array - number of drives for guaranteed 1.2GB/s array transfer speed = 1200/(Min. transfer rate) + 1


3.5" HDD
Model Capacity Streaming
(read+write)/2
(MB/s)
Workstation IOPS
(IO/s)
Price Bucks for the bang Drives in 1.2GB/s array
Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330 2TB 100 143 $165 0.06 19
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 98 146 $120 0.06 19
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 124 109 $95 0.07 20
Samsung EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB 82 123 $120 0.08 25
WD RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 94 220 $175 0.08 22
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 91 120 $87 0.08 22
WD Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB 108 175 $320 0.08 18
WD RE4 WD2003FYYS 2TB 109 176 $420 0.11 18
Hitachi Deskstar E7K1000 HDE721010SLA330 1TB 93 138 $150 0.12 20
Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 500GB 115 126 $90 0.12 16
Sumsung Spinpoint F1 RAID HE103UJ 1TB 100 115 $145 0.12 22
WD Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 92 105 $80 0.13 24
WD Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB 77 126 $245 0.13 24
WD RE4-GP WD2002FYPS 2TB 83 145 $300 0.13 24
Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 106 115 $320 0.13 19
Seagate Maxtor DiamondMax 23 ST32000641AS 1TB 101 95 $120 0.13 24
Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 ST3600057SS 600GB 155 430 $800 0.2 10
Seagate Cheetah 15K.6 ST3450856SS 450GB 140 420 $550 0.21 12
Hitachi Ultrastar 15K450 450GB 140 400 $550 0.22 13


2.5" HDD
Model Capacity Streaming
(read+write)/2
(MB/s)
Workstation IOPS
(IO/s)
Price Bucks for the bang Drives in 1.2GB/s array
Hitachi Ultrastar C10K300 300GB 115 305 $225 0.28 16
Seagate Constellation ST9500530NS 500GB 80 181 $220 0.3 30
WD VelociRaptor WD3000BLFS 300GB 103 285 $300 0.34 16
Seagate Savvio 15K.2 ST9146852SS 147GB 140 375 $350 0.36 12
Fujitsu MBD2300RC 300GB 102 291 $340 0.38 18
Fujitsu MBE2147RC 147GB 103 288 $325 0.75 18


3.5" Flash SSD
Model Capacity Streaming
(read+write)/2
(MB/s)
Workstation IOPS
(IO/s)
Price Bucks for the bang Drives in 1.2GB/s array
OCZ Colossus OCZSSD2-1CLS1T 1TB 260 6000 $4200 0.03 6


2.5" Flash SSD
Model Capacity Streaming
(read+write)/2
(MB/s)
Workstation IOPS
(IO/s)
Price Bucks for the bang Drives in 1.2GB/s array
Intel X25-M G2 SSDSA1MH160G2 160GB 165
(230r+100w)/2
8500 $500 0.03 15
Intel X25-E SSDSA2SH064G1 64GB 205
(210r+200w)/2
5000 $750 0.11 6
Crucial RealSSD C300 (in SATA 3G mode) 256GB 255
(334r+206w)/2
950 $800 0.13 n/a
Crucial RealSSD C300 (in SATA II mode) 256GB 233
(260r+206w)/2
950 $800 0.14 5
OCZ Vertex Turbo OCZSSD2-1VTXT250G 250GB 160
(220r+100w)/2
1650 $1000 0.15 10
OCZ Vertex OCZSSD2-1VTX250G 250GB 150
(210r+90w)/2
1500 $900 0.16 12
OCZ Vertex EX OCZSSD2-1VTXEX120G 120GB 215
(250r+180w)/2
3100 $1350 0.16 8
OCZ Summit OCZSSD2-1SUM250G 250GB 200
(220r+180w)/2
700 $750 0.21 8
Intel X25-M SSDSA1MH160G1 160GB 137
(200r+75w)/2
1200 $740 0.22 20
Note: OCZ Vertex II and other SandForce-based SSDs are not listed here because their productivity depends on the type of data (much better on highly compressible data and much worse on uncompressible). Unless the tests with different data types run it's impossible to rate them properly.

PCIe Flash SSD
Model Capacity Streaming
(read+write)/2
(MB/s)
Workstation IOPS
(IO/s)
Price Bucks for the bang Software RAID supported
PhotoFast G-Monster-Promise 1TB 1000 25000 (est) $4500 0.002 No
Fusion-io ioDrive 80GB 580 15000
(Fusion-io clames ~100000, but that's the utter lie - their drive would not support the needed throughput)
$3000 0.04 Yes


5.25" RAM SSD
Model Capacity Streaming
(read+write)/2
(MB/s)
Workstation IOPS
(IO/s)
Price Bucks for the bang Drives in 1.2GB/s array
ACARD ANS-9010 16GB dual port connection (one-drive RAID 0) 16GB 280
(400r+160w)/2
30,000 $675 0.05 8
ACARD ANS-9010 32GB dual port connection (one-drive RAID 0) 32GB 280
(400r+160w)/2
30,000 $2350 0.08 8
ACARD ANS-9010B 12GB 12GB 168
(185r+150w)/2
20,000 $430 0.1 8
ACARD ANS-9010 16GB single port connection 16GB 168
(185r+150w)/2
20,000 $675 0.12 8
Gigabyte I-RAM 4GB 4GB 115 11500 $310 0.5 12


Note: the table shows that the drives with over 0.3 "Bucks per the bang" are ether outdated or overpriced (whatwver othe advantagies they have).