Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 chips inward design.

[Skybuck Flying]

Hello,

This seems like a pretty sweet drive to me, especially the 2 Terrabyte
version since it won't have any issue's with the 2.2 barrier limit.

The only thing which bothers me a bit is it's inward chip design which can
be seen here (1) and here (2):

1 (English):

http://www.storagereview.com/hitachi_deskstar_7k3000_3tb_review_hds723030ala640

2 (Chinese):

http://article.pchome.net/content-1298165.html

The product's official website seems to have no real pictures of it which is
a bit suspicious:

http://www.hitachigst.com/internal-drives/enterprise/ultrastar/ultrastar-a7k2000

Personally I think this "chip inward" design is pretty stupid from an "air
flow" perspective...

My case has excellent airflow and now this harddisk won't benefit from that
?!?

So the "chips inward" designs seems really stupid to me...

What do you guys think of it ?

Drives should always be handled with care so I think placing the chips on
the inside is a bit over the top... ?!?

Perhaps "gates" would have been better... like a little protective fence
over it... but not inwards ?!? That's seems real stupid..

Then again maybe gates won't work and perhaps inwards creates little
turbulence for airflow towards cpu... but I rather have my harddisks
properly
cooled...

I am hoping that this is not an issue...

What you guys think of this ? Bad or not ?

The drive does come with 5 year warranty... (from hitahchi, the webstore
where I plan to buy it gives 3 year warrenty)

Also what are these switches on the circuit board near the top center ?
(really weird looking to me)
(Or those switches at all or something else ?)

http://www.storagereview.com/images/Hitachi-7k3000-PCB.jpg

I hope I don't have to use those because I would not like to open it like
that... with fluffy stuff
coming out of it and all... could be a bit to get back in there

The price is excellent though... I can just get one for 103 euro's ?!

And I need it bad I guess... running out of space for my Dream PC 2006 !
=D (which had 2x500 GB )

I'll probably order two just in case... they still available so gotta profit
from that for future ! =D

Just want to know what you guys think of it... and I want to let the world
know that this chip inward designs worries me a bit...

Only adventage I can see is that it might collect less dust... and perhaps
dust could create shortcircuits... or perhaps airflow/wind
could cause static eletricity build up... so maybe inward better for that...
but I am worried that heat will creap into the platter and might cause it to
expand and shrink which could be bad... then again it's not like a cd with
pits that fold back... it's just magnetics... so it's probably ok. (Maybe
electronic head inside it might get heat damag ???)

Just for the record the exact model is:

Hitachi HDS723020BLA642 (Bulk, SATA 600, Deskstar 7K3000, 24/7)

I also saw this site, claiming that it has surge-sensitive board:

http://www.salvagedata.com/hard-drive/hitachi-ibm-data-recovery/deskstar-7k3000-hds723020bla642/

But they seem to do this for each model/version of hitachi:

http://www.salvagedata.com/hard-drive/hitachi-ibm-data-recovery/

So I think it's pretty much a scare-off/scam site, trying to create fear...

I am not going to let that site scare me...

So far my previous deskstars are still working =D


One last thing which is a bit weird is this document I came across:

To me it seems a bit sloppy, it mentions "Windows XP x64 SP3 ?!?!?!?!?!"

As far as I know Service Pack 3 for Windows XP x64 edition doesn't exists
?!?!?!?

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/tech...0/$file/Deskstar_7K3000_CompatGuide_final.pdf

Also seeing all these compatibility chips/host controllers makes me a bit
doubtfull ?!?!?

Will the 2 TB version work with my Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard ?!?

I assume SATA600 is backwards compatible with SATA300 which is what Asus
A8N32-SLI deluxe motherboard uses (!?)
(I just checked and apperently it should be backwards compatible, so
probably no issue there ?)


So I am going to wait a bit with ordering... a few hours or so... to be able
to see your guys responses if any... so I could reconsider if there is
anything else to worry about or to look into closely... but I do hope to
order about two before tomorrow... so that they could arrive tomorrow that
would be great.


(I should probably check some pictures of my build to see how many cables I
need to pull loose from the stickies... but whatever I need to pull loose
I'll do it... and place new sticky tape... because I want more gigabyte
space... 2 terrabyte is about 1.9 terrabyte for real... so that's about 4
extra TB with just 2 harddisks... that would be so sweet... wow... a bit
over the top.. since my current space is just 1 TB lol... but still
awesome... 5x times what I have now in total ! =DDDDDDD



Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

According to this dude, he uses this board with 1.5 TB drives and he has no
problem (with linux):

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...e&id=20090821181850250&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

So this is a good sign... there is a high probability that at least this
board will work with 2 TB drives...

However if Windows XP x64 Pro supports it might be a different matter but
for now I will assume it will work... since it's 64 bit for cry-sakes ! LOL
=D

Even if drives get recgonized as 500 GB it would still be worth it for me...
but I will assume it will be recgonized as 2 TB each that would be nice !
=D

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Chipset drivers could also be an issue for 2 TB drives...

Fortunately I have windows XP which doesn't seem to have these issue's...

However Vista users might be in trouble:

This is information from competitor seagate but it still applies:

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=211211&NewLang=en

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=206391&NewLang=en

It's kinda funny, this is another confirmation that vista is kinda crap !
LOL.

I have Windows XP x64 Pro and as far as I can remember NForce4-sli chipset
so fingers crossed ! =D

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Ok,

I just ordered these two hitachi drives... I am quite nervous that somebody
might snatch them away and that they then go out of stock...

It will probably be ok on the technical front... if anybody has any
objections I might still be able to cancel them...

And it's just 218 euro's or so with delivery costs included... so it's not
like a big financial deal or anything...

It's been a while since I ordered some new hardware and worked on my PC so I
am quite excited ! =D

I can have a lot of fun with 4 TB I am pretty sure about that ! =D

First thing I am gonna do is extract 3DS Max 11 and then see if I can get
mental iray working or something and see the photons in action... and then
later I try FumeFX for some nice explosions =D I know 3DS Max kinda
boring... but I still wanna try it Sigh and then later more fun to be had
with video editing/recording that'd be cool too ! =D

And this way I don't have to clean up my other drives and squaze every last
bit of gigabyte out of it... you know... that's just time consuming... this
way I safe time too... which is real nice. No need to compress video's for a
while. There are just a few... so that can wait till later... compressing
videos sucks... it takes quite long really I should do that... but I am
too lazy for it ! =D

And now I go eat ! Being excited and hungry and nervous is strange ! LOL.

Bye,
Skybuck =D

 

[Paul]

According to this dude, he uses this board with 1.5 TB drives and he has no
problem (with linux):

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...e&id=20090821181850250&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

So this is a good sign... there is a high probability that at least this
board will work with 2 TB drives...

However if Windows XP x64 Pro supports it might be a different matter but
for now I will assume it will work... since it's 64 bit for cry-sakes ! LOL
=D

Even if drives get recgonized as 500 GB it would still be worth it for me...
but I will assume it will be recgonized as 2 TB each that would be nice !
=D

Bye,
Skybuck.

A "chip inward" design, provides mechanical protection for the components
on the printed circuit board.

*******

In terms of array sizes, doing a RAID 0 with two 1.5TB drives, gives a
3TB total array size, which is larger than the 2.2TB (32 bit sector address)
based limit with MBR. This would be an issue for "booting" from the array. Above
2.2TB, you have to switch to GPT, and you don't have an EFI or UEFI BIOS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

If you connect a *single* drive to the computer, I would not expect a problem.
A single 2TB drive is less than the 2.2TB limit, and should behave like smaller
capacity drives. You could connect four single 2TB drives, and each would be
under the 2.2TB limit. It's when you build a RAID array with capacity larger
than 2.2TB that there can be an issue, and as far as I know, you can still
store data on it in that case.

If the NV driver caused a problem, you can also test the SIL3132 port.
So you have two chips to try, if you install a new disk. You'd need to
make sure a SIL3132 driver was present in that case.

*******

Hitachi's disk division (formerly IBM), was recently bought by Western Digital.
So their brand name may not be around for much longer. Warranty support
may eventually be through Western Digital.

http://www.hitachigst.com/press-roo...o-acquire-hitachi-global-storage-technologies

Seagate recently bought some portion of Samsung's disk division.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d00a78162ab6f210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD

Soon, there will only be Toshiba, Seagate, and Western Digital. And
it makes you wonder how long Toshiba will last.

Paul

 

[is_this_seat_taken]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:51:50 +0200, "Skybuck Flying"

Just want to know what you guys think of it... and I want to let the world
know that this chip inward designs worries me a bit...

Amazing that you still don't realize NOBODY GIVES A FLYING SKYFUCK
WHAT YOU THINK - ABOUT ANYTHING!!!! EVER!!!!!

But do have a nice day ;-)

 

[Skybuck Flying]

The two harddisks have arrived on the day that william and katie (catetherin
?) married ! =D
(29 april 2011, 2 days after order day 27 april 2011)

Kinda cool.

I wish/hope my harddisks will bring me as much luck and fun as their
marriage LOL ! =D

(You two are going to have a good marriage right ? )

Bye,
Bye,
Skybuck ! =D

 

[Andrew Smallshaw]

Personally I think this "chip inward" design is pretty stupid from an "air
flow" perspective...

My case has excellent airflow and now this harddisk won't benefit from that
?!?

So the "chips inward" designs seems really stupid to me...

What do you guys think of it ?

I think that well meaning but fundamentally uninformed rank amateurs
need to start learning to trust the engineers that have the training
and expertise to be able to make well founded decisions about these
matters. Then we may finally see an end to all those gamer cases
that look the part, and have far more fans than are actually required,
but still end up with suboptimal cooling.

The circuit board is going to be pretty insignficant in terms of
heat output - I'd be surpised if it is drawing much over 50mW in
total. Placing the chips inside the drive ensures that they are
in a known environment as opposed to slap bang aginst another drive
or power supply of unknown thermal output. The fact that components
are protected is another benefit. This isn't a new arrangment -
drive manufacturers have been doing it for years.

 

[GMAN]

The two harddisks have arrived on the day that william and katie (catetherin
?) married ! =D
(29 april 2011, 2 days after order day 27 april 2011)

Kinda cool.

I wish/hope my harddisks will bring me as much luck and fun as their
marriage LOL ! =D

(You two are going to have a good marriage right ? )

Bye,
Bye,
Skybuck ! =D

Who gives a shit about either subject?

 

[Guest]

I think that well meaning but fundamentally uninformed rank amateurs
need to start learning to trust the engineers that have the training
and expertise to be able to make well founded decisions about these
matters.  

Why do those expert, well trained engineers keep choosing burnout-
prone Smooth motor/head controller chips? Are they nostalgic for 20M
Seagate drives with Motorola MC3479 drivers that also burned out?

 

[Andrew Smallshaw]

Why do those expert, well trained engineers keep choosing burnout-
prone Smooth motor/head controller chips? Are they nostalgic for 20M
Seagate drives with Motorola MC3479 drivers that also burned out?

Designing a controller board that only fails _after_ the mechanical
side seems pretty smart to me. They can fail from time to time
but it is almost always the result of prior mechanical failure.
Damaged heads and/or platters cause the problem but are hidden out
of sight inside the unit. The motor/voice coil controller (it
doesn't talk to the head at all) is not so hidden, so it gets the
flak even when it is the innocent party. If you drop your hard
drive and it breaks that isn't the fault of the circuit board
designer.

 

[Guest]

Designing a controller board that only fails _after_ the mechanical
side seems pretty smart to me. They can fail from time to time
but it is almost always the result of prior mechanical failure.
Damaged heads and/or platters cause the problem but are hidden out
of sight inside the unit. The motor/voice coil controller (it
doesn't talk to the head at all) is not so hidden, so it gets the
flak even when it is the innocent party. If you drop your hard
drive and it breaks that isn't the fault of the circuit board
designer.

I don't know the track record of drives with Smooth chips and have
personally encountered only 2 failed ones, but those drives ran
normally after chip replacement. I used to change MC3479 chips
regularly in those Seagates (I once ordered 74), and the stepper
motors were never bad.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

The only thing which bothers me a bit is it's inward chip design ...

http://www.storagereview.com/hitachi_deskstar_7k3000_3tb_review_hds723030ala640

Most recent models from all manufacturers have PCBs which are mounted
with component side against the casting.

Also what are these switches on the circuit board near the top center ?
(really weird looking to me)
(Or those switches at all or something else ?)

http://www.storagereview.com/images/Hitachi-7k3000-PCB.jpg

Those are motor terminals, not switches. Three phases plus common.

Just for the record the exact model is:

Hitachi HDS723020BLA642 (Bulk, SATA 600, Deskstar 7K3000, 24/7)

I also saw this site, claiming that it has surge-sensitive board:

http://www.salvagedata.com/hard-drive/hitachi-ibm-data-recovery/deskstar-7k3000-hds723020bla642/

I don't trust anything that the data recovery profession have to say.
They always seem to have an ulterior motive, and they are excessively
secretive. They are a bit like the funeral industry -- you are most
vulnerable when you've lost a loved one, or your life's data.

In any case, the board appears to have protection diodes (Z4 and Z2)
on each of the +5V and +12V inputs, and both appear to be fused. If
you ever have a fault on this "surge-sensitive board", check the fuses
and diodes. Does the salvagedata.com web site explain this to you?

I am not going to let that site scare me...

What people need to be aware of is that there is often an easy,
zero-cost DIY repair for surge affected drives.

- Franc Zabkar