Configure your own hard drive results…the dream drive

Last week I posted a configure your own hard drive test and though this was not a scientific study by any means, the results are interesting to consider.

When asked what type of storage device users preferred:

• 37% indicated hard drive
• 33% said Solid State Hybrid
• 27% said SSD

When asked to select their capacity:

• 33% indicated 1.0TB
• 26% said 500GB
• 16% said 3.0TB

RPM was even more interesting…

• 44% said 15000
• 22% said 10000
• 16% said 7200

The interface of choice…

• SATA 3Gb/s 39%
• SATA 6Gb/s 33%
• SAS 6Gb/s 16&

What about Cache size?

• 50% want 4GB of SSD
• 33% want 64MB
• 16% want 32MB

Security (self-encrypting drive technology was split down the middle

• 50% with encryption
• 50% without encryption

In terms of acoustics…

• 60% want the drive to be silent
• 40% didn’t care

Low power was heavily one-sided…

• 72% wanted low power as a key feature
• 28% didn’t care

In terms of warranty, this was surprising

• 50% wanted a 5 year warranty
• 44% said 3 year was fine

And, finally, what was the primary use of this custom configured drive?

• Desktop 33%
• Laptop 27%
• Server 16%
• NAS 16%
• DAS 5%

So according to this small audience, the storage device of choice is either a hard drive or solid state hybrid drive with 1.0TB, 15000 RPM, SATA 6Gb/s (since it’s backwards compatible with 3Gb/s), 4GB of cache, encryption option, silent, low power, with a 5 year warranty.  Sounds like a dream drive.  Somewhere between a Savvio 10K and a Momentus XT seems like a winner for this group. So, if Seagate came up with a 1.0TB SATA solid-state hybrid drive for desktops and laptops…

would you buy one?