StorageReview reviews Maxtor MaXLine Pro, Seagate Barracuda NL35.2, and WD Caviar WD5000YS 500GB hard drives
The enterprise storage market continues to evolve towards a new paradigm. In the past, high-performance applications were served by arrays of 15,000 RPM drives while 10,000 RPM units continued to serve as workhorse units for less intensive real-time applications.
As always, cost is a key factor that drives change. In addition to the price of drives themselves, expenditures relating to housing, powering, and cooling arrays must also be considered. As a result, the industry is moving to a more segregated approach where high-performance 15,000 RPM units service data where speed of retrieval is of utmost importance while slower yet larger and more cost-effective 7200 RPM drives store the bulk of data where a somewhat more leisurely retrieval does not significantly affect productivity.
Thanks to interoperability afforded by the newer SAS standard, SATA drives have stepped into the spotlight. With the ability to easily integrate into serial SCSI infrastructure, enterprise-class SATA drives have enjoyed increased attention from the big three American drive manufacturers.
Seagate, Maxtor, and Western Digital have all entered the fray with SATA units specifically tuned for the enterprise sector. While leveraged from consumer-class SATA designs, these differentiated models undergo tests under different workloads, often enjoy longer factory burn-in cycles, are rated for longer mean times between failures, and are backed by a more business-oriented 5-year warranty.
Let us take a closer look at three 500-gigabyte units that squarely aim to seize the burgeoning nearline enterprise sector where cost and capacity rather than sheer IOps drive the market...
[read more]
