Samsung SpinPoint F4EG 2TB Hard Drive Review – Test Bench & Protocol

This is the Test Bench and a quick click will display it close up.  As you may have guessed, it truly is no ordinary Test Bench and I have dedicated more hours creating this build than than I care to admit to get it where it is today.

Our main focal point in this report will be an array of 4 Samsung SpinPoint F4EG (HD204UI) 2TB hard drives that Samsung has graciously provided for testing purposes.

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

CPU: Intel i7-920 DO @ 4.46 Ghz

MOTHERBOARD: EVGA E760 Classified Motherboard

RAM: 6 GB watercooled Crucial Dominators 2000MHz CL8 kit. 7-8-7-24@1700

GPU: Dual  EVGA GTX480

POWER: ST1500 Fully Modular 1500 Watt Power Supply 1500W (Peak 1600W) 12v1320W/110A (Peak 120A)combined+3.3 5v  280W

CHASSIS: Danger Den Torture Rack

CPU COOLER:  HeatKiller 3.0

WATER SYSTEM: Two KMP-400 w/reservoirs in a Parallel loop with Bitspower reservoir , two MCR320-QP rads, and 1 BIPS 240 rad. Areca 1880IX-12, EK Ram Block, EK Fullboard Mobo Block on Loop 1.  Loop 2- CPU only.  Loop 3- MCP-655 and Honda Radiator on dual GPUs.

STORAGE:  4 Samsung SpinPoint F4EG (HD204UI)

TEST PROTOCOL

Our main goal in testing is to ensure that all test results are as accurate as can be and that no anomalies slip through.  We conduct all tests three times and, if necessary, we may conduct specific tests in Windows 7 safe mode to ensure the OS has little to no influence on the end result.  We prefer to use as many benchmark programs as possible to assist with confirmation of results, and provide the reader with the actual tests to avoid any confusion when unexpected test benchmarks are received.

Our F4EG’s will be placed in a RAID-0 configuration and this is mainly to illuminate the performance of the LSI 9265-8i coupled with HDDs . RAID 0 has definite advantages with regards to performance of low-power hard disk drives.

BENCHMARK SOFTWARE

Software used for testing for this HDD review will consist of Crystal Disk Mark, HDTune Pro, ATTO Benchmark, HDTach, and Windows Experience Index Rating.  These benchmarks are well suited to evaluate hard disk drives.

OF INTEREST TO OUR ENTHUSIAST CROWD

Connecting 4 Hard Disk Drives to the Bench Rig is no easy task without the proper enclosure, especially when we have 8 other SSDs occupying the enclosure at the rear of the Bench so we simply secured them to the desk.

All 4 of these HDDs are powered by one Molex power connector on the power supply. We simply used a 2X molex splitter, split out to two other molex splitter plugs and then some molex to 2 SATA connectors. This is a definite advantage of the lower power requirements of the F4EG drives as they have a very low power requirement threshold.
Pg1 – Introduction and Specifications

Pg2 – Test Bench and Protocol

Pg3 – GPT vs MBR Parttitions

Pg4 – ATTO & HDTune Pro Benchmarks

Pg5 – Crystal Diskmark and HDTach Benchmarks

Pg6 – Win7 WEI and Conclusions