Hitachi GST pulls an OCZ

[VirtualLarry]

I was doing research for which 2TB HDs would work in a WHS v1 system.

I found out that Hitachi drives, the 7K2000 series in particular, were mentioned as non-Advanced Format drives that would work.

I found out that Microcenter carried these drives, retail-boxed, for $110 + tax. So I bought 8 of them.

I just opened one of them (six of them were made in China, Jan 2011, two were made in Thailand, Dec 2010) made in China.

The box says 2TB, 32MB cache, 7200RPM.

The drive P/N shows H3D20006472S. Which if you google (not many hits), shows up as a 7K3000, not a 7K2000, and with 64MB cache and SATA 6G, not 32MB cache and SATA 3G.

You might say, what's the problem, more cache and higher interface transfer speeds is good, right?

Well, first off, the box's cache size measurement, which is an indicator of the drive model, doesn't match the drive itself.

Hitachi is pulling a drive switcheroo, just like OCZ did.

 

[curlysir]

Possibly, or it could be a screw up in packaging. I recently received a couple of 4GB USB drives that were in the correct 8GB packaging from the factory. They were in blister packs that were not tampered with.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

While that definitely isn't correct packaging, the 7K3000 are still 512-byte sector drives, not Advanced Format. So, there shouldn't be anything to worry about in that regard.

 

[Soundmanred]

what's the problem

 

[dorion]

I don't see this as a switcheroo, its a boon. You actually got something more instead of something less.

 

[MagickMan]

Sad over free upgrade?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, it means that all of those reliability reports on the 7K2000 2TB drives amount for NIL. I'm in uncharted territory with the 7K3000. Hopefully they are more reliable (4 500GB platters, rather than 5 400GB platters), but the higher density platters kind of scare me. Then again, I'm not afraid of the Seagate 7200.12 1TB HDs, which are also 2 500GB platters.

 

[SickBeast]

The 500gb Hitachi platters are very good. I highly recommend their drives.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm, HDTune maximum speed starts out at 164MB/sec. That's pretty good for a platter drive.

Edit: Min, 70MB/sec, Ave, 120MB/sec.

 

[pjkenned]

The 5K3000 series has been great for me thus far, and I have been a big fan of 7K2000 drives.

 

[RU482]

I get where he's coming from. Gotta remember that Hitachi is executing their HDD exit strategy, so you get what you get.

They were SO much better to deal with 3-4 years ago (RMA wise). Then, they released that awful 5k160 series. If they didn't fail within 2 months of deployment, they failed 2 days after warranty expiration (a bit of exaggeration, but wow, what a failure rate compared to previous and later generations). Their user friendly warranty service went bye bye then.