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Performance:::...
One
of the key technologies that has enabled Toshiba to cram
so much capacity into such a small format is the development
of the Femto slider. The slider, in simple terms, is like
the stylus on your old record player which held the needle
in place in that it houses the read/write head and the electronics
needed to carry that signal back and forth to or from it.
Because
the Femto slider is significantly smaller than the previously
predominant Pico sliders, it needs less mass in the arm
to support it, uses less power, writes and reads narrower
tracks and "flies" closer to the surface of the
platter.
Because
of its lower mass, it also responds less to knocks and vibration
meaning better shock-handling capabilities too, in fact
some 50% better according to some claims!
Here's
a diagram ripped shamelessly from Hitachi's
website.
Looks
massive in the picture doesn't it? Okay, here's something
to show how tiny it actually is:
 00000
Another
important factor is power consumption, and here Toshiba
are claiming gains of around 20% over their previous generation
hard disks by using Pulse Width Modulation to vary the motor
speeds. In short, this means that instead of delivering
varying continuous voltages to influence speed, the same
voltage is sent in pulses of varying frequency to achieve
the same effect. How this impacts on motor life, if at all,
remains to be seen. There are certainly those who claim
that controlling larger motors using PWM can shorten their
operating lifetime.
Operating
noise is reduced to just 21dB at idle thanks to what Toshiba
state is "an optimized sinusoidal waveform to control
the operational current of the spindle motor." I knew
that!
SiSoft
Sandra 2005:
Sandra
doesn't actually set out dual results like the one above
before you go checking which version I used, it's down to
a little Photochop wizardry. As you can see, Sandra reports
that the faster spin speed translates to a 25% increase
in performance. Don't expect that across the board though,
even Toshiba only tout a 12% increase.
HD
Tach 3.0.1.0
Click
For a Larger Image
Again
don't go looking for a version of HDTach, or AIDA below,
that display dual results like these because there isn't
one, not as far as I know anyway. I overlaid one onto the
other using the scale grids to line them up accurately.
As
you can see, HDTach gives an average read of 23.3MB/sec
for the 1031GAS and a very impressive 29.2MB/sec for the
1032GAX, which is again around the 25% mark.
You
may remember the Hitatchi drive showed an 80+ MB/sec burst
speed in the last review, yet once again here we see both
Toshiba drives reporting a mere 33.5 and 34.9MB/sec? I repeated
this test several times with similar results.
AIDA
32
AIDA32
from Lavalys Enterprise Management is now known as EVEREST,
but as I had the original version on my hard disk I decided
to run with it.
AIDA
Access Speeds:
Click
For a Larger Image
As
you'd expect, access times are somewhat lower for the 1032GAX
which records a maximum of just 20.2ms, a good way below
the stated 22ms . When you look at the chart above remember
that lower is better here.
AIDA
Buffered Reads:
Click
For a Larger Image
So
much for the 1032GAX's increased buffer size. It seems it's
actually slower than the 1031GAS, though I think it's fair
to say these benchmarks weren't really written in a way
that takes full advantage of an 8MB buffer let alone a 16MB
one.
Not
every application is going to benefit from the huge buffer
size but things like heavy databases, spreadsheets and the
like will probably see some definite improvements.
AIDA
Random Reads:
Click
For a Larger Image
This
test more than any of the others is probably a more relevant
reflection of general hard disk use in the real world, certainly
for applications that don't rely heavily on on buffering
data or large, linear reads. Again the increased rotational
speed gives a fairly significant advantage in the order
of some 5.2MB/sec.
AIDA
Linear Reads:
Sustained
linear reads are useful to benchmark but rarely relevant
in real world usage unless you're working with video or
something similar. They remain a good performance indicator
though.
Click
For a Larger Image
Again
we see more than 5MB/sec in favour of the 1032GAX. Not quite
25% this time but better than the 12% Toshiba Toshiba quote.
That said, you don't calculate tax, design cars or balance
accounts with a benchmark, you use real-world applications
that rarely mirror these pure tests exactly. 12% however
looks perfectly reasonable in real terms.
Summary:
I
liked the 4200rpm 1031GAS for its compact size, low power,
low noise and solid performance, but the 1032GAX strikes
me as offering a better balance of price, capacity and performance
when all factors are taken into account. £129 isn't
cheap for 100GB of storage, not by desktop standards at
any rate, but it's just £10 more than the 1031GAS
was priced at when I reviewed it and is around £10
cheaper than the competition on the couple of sites I checked.
Conclusion
The
3DVelocity 'Dual Conclusions Concept' Explained: After discussing
this concept with users as well as companies and vendors
we work with, 3DVelocity have decided that where necessary
we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions Concept'
to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the hardware we
review. As the needs of the more experienced users and enthusiasts
have increased, it has become more difficult to factor in
all the aspects that such a user would find important, while
also being fair to products that may lack these high end
"bonus" capabilities but which still represent
a very good buy for the more traditional and more prevalent
mainstream user. The two catergories we've used are:
The
Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely to put
price, stock performance, value for money, reliability and/or
warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that operates
beyond its design specifications. The mainstream user may
be a PC novice or may be an experienced user, however their
needs are clearly very different to those of the enthusiast,
in that they want to buy products that operate efficiently
and reliably within their advertised parameters.
The
Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the things
that the mainstream user cares about but is more likely
to accept a weakness in one or more of these things in exchange
for some measure of performance or functionality beyond
its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard
may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels of
overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually large
heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may be considered
acceptable if it offers significantly superior cooling in
return.
The
Mainstream User ~
If
you need this much hard disk space I can't think of a single
good reason not to pick yourself up an MK1032GAX. It's large,
fast and very reasonably priced. It can't quite compete
with their Guinness World Record 0.85" hard drive for
size, but for its minimal dimensions it packs a big punch.
The
Enthusiast ~
Big
enough for large-scale multimedia storage and fast enough
for realtime video capture
and editing, this little drive represents an excellent balance
between speed, capacity and price. At last you can perform
those capacity-hungry tasks without having to sit at your
desktop machine. Just think of the possibilities. Your assistant
could have a proof edit of that wedding video ready before
they've even cut the cake!
From
gaming to heavy duty database and spreadsheets, the huge
16MB buffer should help keep paging in check, while the
very reasonable power demands should be kind to your battery
life.
All
in all a really great drive that barely puts a foot wrong,
though I'm curious about those stunted burst speed numbers.
We're
always looking for ways to make our reviews fairer. A Right
To Reply gives the manufacturer or supplier of the product
being reviewed a chance to make public comments on what
we've said. They can explain perhaps why they've done the
things we were unhappy with or blow their own trumpet over
the things we loved. It's easy for us to pick a product
apart but sometimes things are done a certain way for very
specific reasons.
Should
Toshiba decide to exercise their "Right To Reply",
we'll publish their comments below:
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