Introduction
Lately, almost everybody’s attention has been turned towards the Pentium 4 at 2.2 GHz, various chipset battles in the motherboard scene and the upcoming release of the GeForce 4 graphics processor, but the hard drive industry has not exactly been asleep, either. We picked up one of the latest Fujitsu drives in order to show you what’s going on in this sector. Their enterprise hard drives have improved within the last several months. The latest ‘MAN’ series has replaced its ‘MAJ’ predecessor and is facing competition from Maxtor, IBM and Seagate.
Fujitsu’s MAN3367MP represents a typical high-performance drive. It is available at 18, 36 or 72 GB (we received the 36 GB version), runs at 10,000 rpm and comes with quick seek times and an 8 MB cache memory for fast performance. Although Ultra320 is on its way, it will take some time until host adapters and drives become affordable, which leaves Ultra160 the only applicable solution for high-end storage solutions now. In addition, you should have 64-bit PCI slots in order to make use of the enhanced SCSI bandwidth.
Recent hard drive tests at Tom’s Hardware Guide have reviewed IDE models. We decided to include some of those benchmark results, so that you can compare the performance of IDE drives with SCSI drives, as well.
The Drive
All three versions (18, 36, 72 GB) look pretty much the same, and share the following features:
- 3.5″ hard drive, 1″ height
- 18 GB per platter
- 10,025 rpm rotation speed
- 4.5 to 5.0 ms seek time
- Ultra160 SCSI interface
- 8 MB buffer
- MTBF 1,200,000 hours
We were quite surprised at how little noise the drive makes when running at idle. Even though its speed is 10,000 rpm, this drive just did not produce much noise. Of course, the access sound is perceptible and still allows experienced users to recognize it as an enterprise hard drive. In fact, the noise it produces during access it is clearly louder than that which any actual IDE drive would produce.
| Fujitsu MAN3367MP | |
| Capacity | 18, 36, 72 GB |
| Rotation Speed | 10,025 rpm |
| Average Seek Time | 4.5 (read), 5 ms (write) |
| Cache Memory | 8096 KB |
| Warranty | 5 Years |
More detailed specifications can be found on Fujitsu’s website.
Configuration
At the bottom of the drive are several jumpers that have to be set in order to chose an ID, termination, termination power and some other things. As usual, a quick reference has been printed onto the top of the drive, so that you don’t have to use a manual in order to set up the drive.
This picture shows the bottom of the Fujitsu drive. The jumpers (blue) are on the left.
Test Setup
| Test System | |
| CPU | Intel Celeron, 500 MHz |
| Motherboard | MSI 815E Pro (MS-8xxx) |
| RAM | 128 MB SDRAM, 7ns (Crucial/Micron) CL2 |
| SCSI Controller | Tekram DC-390U3 |
| Graphics Card | i815 On-Board Graphics |
| Network | 3COM 905TX PCI 100 MBit |
| Operating Systems | Windows 2000 Pro 5.00.2195 SP2 |
| Benchmarks and Measurements | |
| Office Applications Benchmark | ZD WinBench 99 — Business Disk Winmark 2.0 |
| High-end Applications Benchmark | ZD WinBench 99 — High-End Disk Winmark 2.0 |
| Low Level Benchmarks | HD Tach 2.61 |
| Performance Tests | HD Tach 2.61 |
| Settings | |
| Graphics Drivers | Intel i815 Reference Drivers 4.3 |
| SCSI-Drivers | 1.0 |
| DirectX Version | 8.1 |
| Screen Resolution | 1024×768, 16 Bit, 85 Hz Refresh |
Data Transfer Diagram
Fujitsu’s current enterprise drive series is able to offer excellent read and write performance. The maximum read speed is 55 MB/s — a result that clearly outperforms the IDE flagships now. The minimum read speed at the end of the medium also turns out to do quite well: the drive does not fall below 35 MB/s.
Data Transfer Performance
In comparison to the drives that we have previously tested, the MAN3367MP goes ballistic! Of course, we have to take into account that it is the newest drive, but still, the minimum read speed clearly leaves the competition in the dust, and that goes for both IDE and SCSI models!
Business Disk WinMarks
In terms of business performance, Seagate’s 15,000 rpm drive, the ST318451LC, is much faster. The two IDE drives from Western Digital are very much on its tail. Business applications are certainly not the reason why such drives are being built, so let’s move on to the Highend Disk WinMark.
Highend Disk WinMarks
In this important benchmark, the new Fujitsu drive achieves results that are quite good. Seagate’s top-performance drive is faster once again — due to its 15,000 rpm. Only Western Digital’s 100 GB drive with 8 MB cache is able to achieve a higher score, and that is due to the higher data density of this IDE drive. Please note that this benchmark does not include CPU usage. This might be a decisive factor to opt in favor of SCSI drives.
Drive Temperature
The next surprise comes from the temperature measurements: Fujitsu’s MAN drive doesn’t even get very hot! Incidentally, this is also its biggest advantage over Seagate’s 15k rpm drive, the ST318451LW, which is literally the hottest model available. 46 degrees Celsius for a 10,000 rpm drive is the best temperature that we have measured. Congratulations to Fujitsu!
Conclusion
When people talk about hard drives, Fujitsu usually isn’t the brand that first comes to mind. However, this new drive is a remarkable one, as it provides excellent performance and up-to-date technology, at very reasonable prices. The low heat dissipation is an advantage that is sometimes underestimated by many people, but it is important — particularly in times when processors and chipsets tend to consume increasingly more power.
Although SCSI has lost prominence in the desktop sector, this technology is not obsolete at all. The MAN3367MP could also be used in an SCSI environment for high-end desktop computers, since hard drives like this one are able to provide everything you want. This drive is fast, cool, relatively quiet, and affordable — and that is exactly what high-end users like to see.
