Comparing: TOSHIBA MK3252GSX vs DDR3 SODIMM 1066MHz [Disk]

Specification Comparison Table

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About Hardware TOSHIBA MK3252GSX

The TOSHIBA MK3252GSX is a chunky 2.5-inch hard disk with a 320GB capacity, specifically designed for use in laptops and other mobile devices. Using a SATA II (3.0 Gbps) interface and operating at a rotational speed of 5400 RPM, this HDD offers a balance between power efficiency and basic performance, making it an ideal solution for everyday use.

Equipped with 8MB of buffer cache, the drive is capable enough to handle common storage needs such as operating system files, work documents, music collections, and medium-resolution videos. Although it cannot match the speed of a solid-state drive (SSD), the TOSHIBA MK3252GSX remains an affordable alternative for users who prioritize storage capacity at a more economical price.

Physically, this hard disk generally uses two platters and four heads to read and write data, a standard configuration for a 320GB HDD. In synthetic testing, the read and sequential speed was 41.22 MB/s and the write speed was 38.74 MB/s, depending on system conditions and data fragmentation.

Despite the growing popularity of SSDs, the TOSHIBA MK3252GSX remains relevant as a backup storage solution or as a cost-effective upgrade for older laptops that still rely on mechanical storage media. Its ample capacity and power efficiency make it suitable for use in educational systems, netbooks or home computers with light to medium storage requirements.

Device Test:

Device: HP 1000 1b05au (HDD Caddy), IdeaPad Slim 3i 14ITL6 (HDD Enclosure)
Specs: E1-1200, 4GB RAM, SATA-II, Win7 | i5-1135G7, 12GB RAM, USB 3.0

Tuesday, 03 November 2020 12:43:42 | Update: 1 month ago

About Hardware DDR3 SODIMM 1066MHz [Disk]

DDR3 SODIMM 1066MHz is a third-generation memory module with a speed of 1066MHz that is commonly used in laptops and small devices. With the SODIMM form factor, these modules are often the standard choice for mobile computing systems, serving as the main memory for running operating systems, applications, and light to medium multitasking processes.

However, in this particular experiment, two 1066MHz DDR3 SODIMM modules from Micron and ADATA (2GB capacity each) were uniquely configured as a RAMDisk, a temporary storage space that uses RAM capacity to simulate a storage drive with much higher access speeds than SSDs or HDDs.

The 1066MHz DDR3 SODIMM-based RAMDisk test was conducted on an HP 1000 1b05au laptop device, powered by an AMD E1-1200 processor. The system is equipped with a 2x2GB DDR3 SODIMM 1600MHz RAM configuration, but due to processor architecture limitations, the memory only runs in single channel mode with an effective speed of 1066MHz. The operating system used is Windows 7, and to create and manage the RAMDisk, two popular applications, SoftPerfect RAMDisk and ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver, were used. The configured RAMDisk size was 2GB, utilizing some of the available RAM capacity.

Even though the device specifications are old and have limited memory bandwidth, the RAMDisk configured in this system was still able to show excellent performance in the read and write speed benchmarks. Based on tests using CrystalDiskMark, the read speed reached 746.24 MB/s, while the write speed touched 828.18 MB/s. In a follow-up test using ATTO Disk Benchmark with a 64MB block size, the read speed increased to 1020.00 MB/s, and the write speed reached 1080.00 MB/s. These results prove that even on older systems, RAMDisk configurations are still capable of delivering very high I/O performance, far surpassing conventional storage such as HDDs or even some SSDs.

Analysis

The results show that a 1066MHz DDR3-based RAMDisk is still capable of delivering data transfer speeds on par with entry-level NVMe SSDs, even outperforming many SATA SSDs and leaving conventional HDDs far behind. This makes RAMDisks an ideal solution for temporary use such as:

• Application caching,
• Temporary file storage,
• Fast computing with high I/O,
• Software or script testing without the risk of contaminating the main file system.

Although limited to a small capacity (2GB in this test), RAMDisk is still very useful for specific needs, especially for users with more than enough RAM or older devices that want to maximize their performance.

Test on:

Device: HP 1000 1b05au
Specs: 
CPU: AMD E1-1200
OS: Windows 7
RAM: 2x2GB Single Channel 2 DIMM 1066MHz (Does not support dual channel due to limitations of the CPU, currently running single channel mode and 1066MHz)

Wednesday, 26 December 2012 14:27:32 | Update: 1 month ago