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Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 finally available in US

Bill Gates

Bill Gates

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 21, 2006
2,500
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127.0.0.1
To those who have been waiting to upgrade their hard drives until the Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 hit retail in the US, wait no more. Fry's has the retail version in-stock for $89.99. I just purchased one for my MacBook Pro and should hopefully have it by the weekend for testing. Interestingly enough, Hitachi quotes lower power consumption under certain circumstances for the 7K500 than for the 5K320 that I currently own, so perhaps there will be a slight improvement in battery life as well, although it's not a point of concern.

Here's a link to the 500GB version: http://www.frys.com/product/5966014

Edit 11/24: Newegg also stocks the drive now, for $79.99 with free shipping at the time of this post. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145275&Tpk=travelstar

Here's a link to the specsheet: http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/tech...2901CF4B862575D8005AB39B/$file/TS7K500_DS.pdf

Update 11/20/09:
I had some time today to install the drive, restore my system from a Time Machine backup, and benchmark it. The only problem that I ran into was Software Update crashing when I tried to open it, but reinstalling the 10.6.2 update fixed that. Surprisingly, the new drive is actually quieter and vibrates less than the 5K320 that it's replacing. My virtual machines resume from a suspended state much more quickly, and overall the system feels a little bit faster. Here's the Xbench results for both the old drive and the new one:



 
I'd be interested to see how it performs against a Seagate equivalent. I have that in my MBP. However if I was in the market again, I'd wait for Toshiba's version due out in a few weeks.
 
With all due respect to those who like it, I simply won't use deathstars any more.
 
List any benchmarks that you'd like performed and I'll try to accommodate them. OS X benchmark tools are preferable, but I will also consider running Windows applications if time permits.
 
jessica. said:
With all due respect to those who like it, I simply won't use deathstars any more.
Click to expand...

Really, I've never had a problem with them. Where do you get the deathstar term from? Was there an issue with them back in the IBM days that has carried over to Hitachi?

Cheers,
 
panzer06 said:
Really, I've never had a problem with them. Where do you get the deathstar term from? Was there an issue with them back in the IBM days that has carried over to Hitachi?

Cheers,
Click to expand...
Yes it came from back when IBM was one of the first to have 7200rpm drives. Actually, the nickname never applied to the travelstars. It was for their desktop drives, the "deskstars"... or more commonly referred to as "deathstars"

Get it?!?! :D

In any case, I'm sure they're fine now. Drive technology has improved a lot, and the deathstar incident was a pretty long time ago.

Out of curiosity, I just saw this thread... I've been in the SSD world for a while now and not paying attention to new mobile spinning disks. What are the major advantages of this drive?
 
spaceballl said:
Yes it came from back when IBM was one of the first to have 7200rpm drives. Actually, the nickname never applied to the travelstars. It was for their desktop drives, the "deskstars"... or more commonly referred to as "deathstars"

Get it?!?! :D

In any case, I'm sure they're fine now. Drive technology has improved a lot, and the deathstar incident was a pretty long time ago.

Out of curiosity, I just saw this thread... I've been in the SSD world for a while now and not paying attention to new mobile spinning disks. What are the major advantages of this drive?
Click to expand...
Hitachi makes fine drives. Seagate has actually had more problems recently than Hitachi, which is why I crossed their 7200RPM drive off my list.

The main advantage is the value that it offers when compared to an SSD. Some SSD's, such as those from Intel, offer much better performance, but they also cost a lot more for a smaller capacity.

Gabriel GR said:
Any power consumption figures for it?
Click to expand...
I've updated the first post with a link to the specsheet, with power consumption figures and more.
 
once you get that drive installed, can you please let us know about the sounds it makes, any vibrations?

Thx!
 
Since no one has responded with any specific benchmark requests, I am going to assume that Xbench is sufficient. If that is not the case, please respond with a specific benchmark to be performed.
 
Bill Gates said:
I've updated the first post with my Xbench results and my thoughts on the drive.
Click to expand...

I picked this drive up at my local Fry's in Manhattan Beach for $89

Here are my Xbench results on the drive with just the OS (10.5.6) using the original discs that came with my MBP.

Off the bat, this doesn't seem as fast as the Seagate equivalent, but the Seagate failed on me twice, and the most recent one clicked like none other.
 

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isaki87 said:
I picked this drive up at my local Fry's in Manhattan Beach for $89

Here are my Xbench results on the drive with just the OS (10.5.6) using the original discs that came with my MBP.

Off the bat, this doesn't seem as fast as the Seagate equivalent, but the Seagate failed on me twice, and the most recent one clicked like none other.
Click to expand...

Im really not knowledgeable on all the technical aspects of HDDs but why did Bills bench almost 10 points higher then yours?
 
MikeSantor said:
Im really not knowledgeable on all the technical aspects of HDDs but why did Bills bench almost 10 points higher then yours?
Click to expand...

I have no idea, but that was done right after I installed and formatted the disk, and now after some use and the software update, its performing quicker. I'll post results using more detailed benchmarks when I get finished restoring from backup.
 

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noise?

I picked up a WD 500GB 5400RPM HD this weekend from Fry's along with 4GB Patriot DDR3 RAM. I really wanted to shop locally because I know the uMBP can be finicky with RAM. The RAM seems to be holding up so far, but the WD is noticeably louder then the stock 160GB Hitachi. To call it loud would be inaccurate, but I definitely noticed a noise that wasn't there prior to the upgrade.

I see in the first post that the Hitachi is apparently quiet. Is it normal for the WD HD to audible? My local Fry's has the Hitachi 500GB as well (and it's cheaper than the WD), so I'm on the fence if I should swap the WD for the Hitachi. I went with the WD in the first place because WD is generally pretty highly regarded, and I've had good experiences with WD in my desktops. Any opinions from people who have used both?
 
Nitro,

I had the WD 500GB in the macbook i just sold last week and it was NOT any louder then the stock HD. I have Used nothing but WD HDDs so The Hitachi 7K500 that is scheduled to be here today is my first Non WD HDD (exept for the intel SSD i Just purchased last week)

Wish I could be more help but I dont think anything is wrong with the WD you just bought. Although Going from a 5400 RPM drive to a 7200 RPM drive should see a decent increase in speed. I figured with the price of the 7K500 it was worth a shot atleast.

.02
 
Thanks for the response, Mike.

The WD is only 5400RPM (it's a Scorpio Blue). I'm more interested in battery life and low noise than I am performance.

I think you're right that it isn't defective or damaged, but it is a little noisy for my taste compared to the stock drive, not to mention that it has added some noticeable vibration. Either way, I think I will return the WD to Fry's. I researched the HD quite a bit prior to making the purchase, and people say the WD is quiet, so I was a bit surprised and disappointed when I heard it making noise.

My apologies for going off topic on this thread, I'll continue this here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/817011/
 
nitromullet said:
Thanks for the response, Mike.

The WD is only 5400RPM (it's a Scorpio Blue). I'm more interested in battery life and low noise than I am performance.

I think you're right that it isn't defective or damaged, but it is a little noisy for my taste compared to the stock drive, not to mention that it has added some noticeable vibration. Either way, I think I will return the WD to Fry's. I researched the HD quite a bit prior to making the purchase, and people say the WD is quiet, so I was a bit surprised and disappointed when I heard it making noise.

My apologies for going off topic on this thread, I'll continue this here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/817011/
Click to expand...

I hear ya. Im the same way. For me battery life is number 1 on my list. As I just posted in the Hitachi HDD thread, i just got mine in and im currently charging so ill post up my estimated battery life with the disk mounted and unmounted.

As for the audible level of the Hitachi, Mine is literally silent. I just got it in and transferred 51.XX gigs of music on it from a WD 1 TB drive and it took 18 minutes Via USB and I never herd the disk spin up which is really weird.
 
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