Six 2.5” High-Capacity Notebook Hard Drives

Features
By Manuel Masiero, Achim Roos
published

Advanced Format technology makes it possible to build 9.5 mm high 2.5” hard disks with 500 GB per platter. The result is a range of slim and speedy storage giants.

Comparison Table And Test Configuration

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ManufacturerHitachiSamsungSamsung
Product LineTravelstar 5K750Spinpoint M8Spinpoint M8
ModelHTS547575A9E384HN-M500MBBHN-M101MBB
Form Factor2.5“2.5“2.5“
Storage Capacity750 GB500 GB1000 GB
Spindle Speed5400 RPM5400 RPM5400 RPM
Other Capacities640 GB, 500 GB1000 GB, 750 GB, 320 GB750 GB, 500 GB, 320 GB
Number of Platters212
Cache8 MB8 MB8 MB
Advanced FormatYesYesYes
InterfaceSATA 3 Gb/sSATA 3 Gb/sSATA 3 Gb/s
Operating Temperature0-60 °C5-55 °C5-55 °C
Idle Power (Specified)0.8 W0.7 W0.7 W
Idle Power (Measured)0.8 W0.7 W0.6 W
Shock (Operating, 2 ms, Read)225 G325 G325 G
Warranty3 Years3 Years3 Years
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ManufacturerToshibaWestern DigitalWestern Digital
Product LineMKxx61GSYNScorpio BlueScorpio Black
ModelMK6461GSYNWD10JPVTWD7500BPKT
Form Factor2.5“2.5“2.5“
Capacity640 GB1000 GB750 GB
Spindle Speed7200 RPM5400 RPM7200 RPM
Other Capacities500 GB, 320 GB, 2500 GB, 160 GB750 GB, 640 GB, 500 GB, 320 GB, 250 GB, 150 GB500 GB, 320 GB, 250 GB, 160 GB
Platter222
Cache16 MB8 MB16 MB
Advanced FormatNoYesYes
InterfaceSATA 3 Gb/sSATA 3 Gb/sSATA 3 Gb/s
Operating Temperature5-55 °C0-60 °C0-60 °C
Idle Power (Specified)0.8 W0.6 W0.8 W
Idle Power (Measured)0.9 W0.7 W1.0 W
Shock (Operating, 2 ms, Read)325 G400 G350 G
Warranty3 Years3 Years5 Years

Test Setup

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System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i7-920 (Sandy Bridge) 45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 8 MB SharedL3 Cache
Motherboard (Socket 1366)Supermicro X8SAX, Revision: 1.1, Chipset: Intel X58 + ICH10R, BIOS: 1.0B
RAM3 x 1 GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDDSeagate NL35 400 GB, ST3400832NS, 7200 RPM, SATA 1.5Gb/s, 8 MB Cache
Hard Disk ControllerHighpoint Rocket 620 Marvell 88SE9128
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800W OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmarks
Performance Measurementsh2benchw 3.13PCMark Vantage 1.0
I/O PerformanceIometer 2006.07.27 File server Benchmark Web server Benchmark Database Benchmark Workstation Benchmark Streaming Reads Streaming Writes
System Software & Drivers
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Manuel Masiero
25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • arpitnathany
    On the western digital hard disk page the Western Digital Scorpio Black WD7500BPKT is mentioned as 750 TB please correct it.

    Nice article as a whole
    Reply
  • arpitnathany
    On a lighter note I would love to have a 750 TB drive at that price
    someday.....
    Reply
  • acyuta
    Good to have all the latest data in one place. Wish Dell had put in the 750GB Scorpio Black instead of 750GB Momentus in my XPS15.

    One minor point: good to know that i7-920 is now part of Sandybridge. Can you check???
    Reply
  • JeTJL
    Wonder how well these things survive the drop test. If they can survive a fall that a SSD can sustain then I'll be up for it. Other than that wish higher capacity SSDs become cheaper.
    Reply
  • Zero_
    Talk about a bad time for a hard drive comparison...
    Reply
  • howardp6
    GoFlex is a Seagate disk product line not Western Digital
    Reply
  • AppleBlowsDonkeyBalls
    Western Digital hard drives sound good in theory for laptops, but they're not. I would never use one unless they fix a fatal flaw.

    What flaw? The fact that the hard drive automatically goes to sleep (parks its head) after eight seconds of inactivity, and since this is hardwired into the firmware it completely dismisses what you set in your Power Options in the Windows 7 Control Panel. Why is this bad? Because if the HDD is inactive for more than eight seconds it needs to unpark its head, and that creates a very noticeable lag when launching applications or working with files because the process takes a few seconds to complete, not to mention it puts more stress on the HDD mechanics.

    Unless it's simply for a storage drive where you don't care about performance I recommend you go with Seagate, Hitachi, or Samsung for laptop HDDs instead.
    Reply
  • cadder
    Current prices are a bit higher than what is mentioned in the article, actually pretty scary:

    Hitachi 750GB $140-160
    Samsung 1TB $220
    WD 750GB $160
    WD 1TB $230
    Reply
  • ewood
    yeah prices are way off
    Reply
  • youssef 2010
    I'd go with the WD Scorpio Black
    Reply