REVIEWS / INTERNAL DRIVES / TOSHIBA INDIA (HARD DISK DIV)

Value For MoneyToshiba DT01ACA200 Review

21 Dec, 2012, 12:33 pm IST | by Anand Tuliani | Internal drives

Internal drives

A high capacity hard drive with the price-per-GB ratio of Rs 3

A high capacity hard drive with the price-per-GB ratio of Rs 3
SiSoft Sandra - File System test
CrystalDiskMark
ATTO Disk Benchmark

PRICE IN INDIA

6,000

TECH2 RATING

7.5

AVERAGE USER RATING

8.5

How we test

CONTACT

Toshiba India (Hard disk div)

 Polad.garda@toshiba-india.com

 +91 9867 955 995

 www.toshiba-india.com

Considering a few hundred megabytes to gigabytes of storage space that the latest operating systems, software and games take up, at least a 1TB hard drive is needed to store everything without running into low disk space popups. By everything, we mean the data that you create—your photos, media library, downloaded data, and so on. If you’re an avid gamer or an entertainment buff, it wouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks to fill a terabyte hard drive to its brim. Then, you have to think which software/game to uninstall, what to delete or transfer to an external storage device to gain free space. At that time, you wish you had a large capacity hard drive to satiate your storage needs. Although it would solve your problem for just the next few months down the line, it would be a big relief. If you’re considering a large capacity hard drive, the Toshiba DT01ACA200 might interest you—here’s what it packs within!

A high capacity hard drive with the price-per-GB ratio of Rs 3

A high capacity hard drive with the price-per-GB ratio of Rs 3

 

 

Features

The latest development in the hard drive technology is the increase in the areal density. The older hard drives used two platters for 1TB or three to four platters for 2TB of storage space. With the bump in areal density, it’s now possible to offer a terabyte of storage on a single platter, or 3TB on the number of platters that was formerly needed for 2TB. This reduction in the number of platters lowers the cost of production, and a higher platter density translates to faster seek time, and in turn, speedier read and write operations. 

 

The Toshiba DT01ACA200 is the 2TB variant from the DT01ACA series that features 1TB-per-platter technology. Other variants use a single or a 3-platter design to offer 500GB, 1TB or 3TB of storage. All the models from the series feature a 7200 rpm spindle and SATA 6Gb/s interface. The only big difference is in the size of the buffer. The 500GB and 1TB drives feature a 32MB buffer while the 2TB and 3TB drives are equipped with a 64MB buffer. Now let’s see how well the tech specs translate into real world performance.

 

Test rig

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K

Motherboard: ECS Z77H2-A2X

RAM: 2x4GB G.Skill RipJawsX DDR3-1866

Graphics card: AMD Radeon HD 6870

SSD: Plextor PX-256M2S

Power supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro 800W

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit

 

Performance

We ran a battery of tests to assess the transfer speed of this drive. The first test was IOMeter, which is most challenging for all kinds of storage devices. The random read and write speed with 4K chunks of data was 0.69MB/s—a tad faster than the Seagate Barracuda XT and a lot faster than the WD Green. The sequential read and write speed was 133MB/s and the random speed was 124.5MB/s (using 512MB chunk of data).This time, with a larger chunk of data, the speed was at par with the 2TB Barracuda XT. CrystalDiskMark and SiSoft Sandra logged slightly higher speeds in sequential tests—145MB/s read and 141MB/s write. However, the random read and write speed logged by SiSoft Sandra was quite low at 77MB/s and 81MB/s respectively.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark

 

SiSoft Sandra - File System test

SiSoft Sandra - File System test

 

ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO Disk Benchmark

 

 

Verdict and Price in India

The overall performance of this drive is excellent and is comparable to the 2TB variant of the Barracuda XT that’s more expensive. The current average price for a 500GB and 1TB hard drive is Rs 4,700 and Rs 5,500 respectively. The Toshiba DT01ACA200 is priced at Rs 6,000 (excluding taxes), which makes it a great bang for your buck. If you’ve already planned to go in for a 1TB hard drive to build/upgrade your PC, buying this drive for the difference of a few hundred rupees more would be a wiser decision.


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Would you buy it?




 


How We Test

The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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