Hard Drive Benchmarks - Over 100,000 Hard Drives Benchmarked

Hard Drive Naming Conventions

Whilst they may at first appear to be merely a jumble of numbers and letters, the hard drive model names used in our charts have a lot of meaning behind them. This page aims to deconstruct and explain the naming convention used by the different HDD manufacturers.

Seagate

Example: ST3500620AS

ST This is a Seagate drive
3 The physical size of the drive:
3 = 3.5"
6 = 1”
7 = 1.8”
9 = 2.5”
500 Capacity in GB. This drive is 500GB
6 Size of the cache:
0 = 2MB
2 = 2MB
3 = 8MB
4 = 16MB
6 = 16MB
8 = 8MB
20 Identifier, unknown meaning.
AS Interface:
A = ATA
AS = SATA
CF = CompactFlash
ACE = ATA Consumer Electronics
SCE = SATA Consumer Electronics
AV = ATA Surveillance Video
SV = SATA Surveillance Video

Reference: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=204763&Hilite=model

Western Digital

Example: WD6400AAKS-75A7B0

WD This is a Western Digital Drive
6400 Drive capacity, meaning changes depending on the next part of the name. This number should be interpreted such that the final digit is after the decimal point: 6400 = 640.0
A Capacity/Form Factor:
A = GB/3.5-inch
B = GB/2.5-inch
C = GB/1.0-inch
E = TB/3.5-inch
F = TB/3.5-inch
H = GB/3.5-inch (Backplane-Ready)
 - In this case ('A') the previous 640.0 means the drive is 640.0GB with a 3.5" form factor.
A Brand:
A = Desktop/WD Caviar®
B = Enterprise/WD RE2 (3-platter)
C = Desktop/WD Protege®
D = Enterprise/WD Raptor®
E = Mobile/WD Scorpio®
H = Enthusiast/WD Raptor X
L = WD VelociRaptor
V = Audio/Video - WD AV
Y = Enterprise/WD RE2 (4-platter)
K Drive RPM / Cache Size:
A = 5400 RPM with 2 MB cache
B = 7200 RPM with 2 MB cache
C = IntelliPower™ with 16 MB cache
F = 10,000 RPM with 16 MB cache
G = 10,000 RPM with 8 MB cache
J = 7200 RPM with 8 MB cache
K = 7200 RPM with 16 MB cache
P = IntelliPower/EM (maximum buffer size offered by product)
V = 5400 RPM with 8 MB cache (Mobile)
Y = 7200 RPM/EM (maximum buffer size offered by product)
S Interface:
A = ATA/66 with 40-pin IDE connector
B = ATA/100 with 40-pin IDE connector
C = ATA with 33-pin connector (zero insertion force—ZIF)
D = SATA 1.5 Gb/s with 22-pin SATA connector
E = ATA/133 with 40-pin IDE connector
S = SATA 3.0 Gb/s with 22-pin SATA connector
T = SATA 3.0 Gb/s with 22-pin SATA connector (Mobile)
- Everything following the dash was only meant for in house use by Western Digital, as such this is little information on the meanings of these values and the following information may not be entirely accurate or complete.
75 Vendor Code
00 = general consumer market
01 = general enterprise market
22 =  promotional sample
23 = IBM
53 = Gateway
60 = Compaq
71 = HP
75 = Dell
A A = Unkown
C = 40 GB platters / BallBearings
D = 66 GB platters / BallBearings
E = 83 GB platters / BallBearings
F = 83 GB platters / FDB
G = 83 GB platters / FDB / SilentSeek
M = 80 GB new platters / SATA2 / no NCQ
N = 80..107 GB new platters / SATA2 / with NCQ
K = 107 GB new platters
P = 107 GB new platters / SATA2 or RE2 / with NCQ
7 Unkown
B Unkown
0 Firmware version or generation

References:
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/2579-001028.pdf
http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=22131

Hitachi

Example: HDS728080PLAT20

H This is a Hitachi Drive
D Product Family:
D = Deskstar
C = CinemaStar
T = Travelstar
U = Ultrastar
M = Microdrive
E = Endurastar
S Series prefix:
S= Standard (default, if no series name prefix)
C = Compact
J/N = Endurastar Temperature Range 
E = Enh. Availability (24x7)
T = Differentiator between two models with the same name (T7K250)
72 Speed, expressed in Revolutions Per Minute (rpm):
36 = 3600 rpm
42 = 4200 rpm
54 = 5400 rpm
72 = 7200 rpm
10 = 10,000 rpm
15 = 15,000 rpm
80 Top capacity available for a particular drive release:
25 = 250GB (first two significant digits)
18 = 180GB
In this case it is 80GB
80 Model capacity for this specific drive:
25 = 250GB (first two significant digits)
18 = 180GB
In this case it is 80GB
P Unique code
L Height:
L = 1"
S = 15mm
7 = 7 mm
9 = 9.5 mm
5 = 5 mm
8 = 8 mm
AT 16 = Ultra 160, 68 pin  
18 = Ultra 160, 80 pin
36 = Ultra 320, 68 pin
38 = Ultra 320, 80 pin
A = ATA/Entry level
A3 = Serial-ATA 3 Gbit / s
AT = ATA
CA = CE-ATA 
CE = ATA (ZIF Connector)
CF = CF2 pin 
CM = ATA on MMC
F2 = Fibre channel 2GB
F4 = Fibre channel 4GB
SA = Serial-ATA 1,5 GB /s
SS = Serial-attached SCSI
2 Feature Code assigned by business unit (e.g., cache buffer size)
0 Unique code

Reference: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/newnum.htm

Old IBM Drives

Example: IC25N040ATCS04-0

IC Stands for Internal Code, can be taken to mean an IBM drive.
25 Form factor:
35 = 88.9 mm (3.5 inch)
25 = 63.5 mm (2.5 inch)
N Height: 
L = 25.4 mm (1 inch)
T = 12.5 mm (0.49 inch)
N = 9.5 mm (0.37 inch)
040 Unique code
AT Interface:
AV = ATA 
UW = Ultra SCSI 68-pin Wide 
UC = Ultra SCSI 80-pin SCA 
F2 = FC-AL-2 (2 Gbit)
CS Unique code
-0 Unknown

Reference: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/modnum.htm

Fujitsu

Example: MHV2160BT

M Fujitsu Drive
HV Product Generation Counter
2 Form Factor:
2 = 2.5"
3 = 3.5"
160 Capacity in GB
BT Interface:
AH = ATA 5400RPM
AS = ATA 5400RPM Extended Duty
AT = ATA 4200RPM
BH = SATA 5400RPM
BS = SATA 5400RPM Extended Duty
BT = SATA 4200RPM

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/storage/hdd/support/how-to-read-models.html