This 2.5” 640 GB drive is probably the last one in Toshiba’s portfolio to employ conventional 512 byte sectors. It spins at 5400 RPM and has 8 MB cache memory as well as a SATA 3 Gb/s interface. The drive is available at 160, 250, 320, 500, and 640 GB capacities, but we used the 640 GB flagship for this comparison with its successor.
We found that this older model has a higher interface bandwidth of 204 MB/s (as opposed to 183 MB/s on the newer 750 GB drive with 4 KB sector size). However, effective throughput is higher on the newer drive by quite a significant amount. The latter is a result of improvements in data density, as well as the modified sector size.
In terms of I/O performance, we found that the MK6465GSX is slightly ahead of the 750 GB MK7559GSXP, but the difference is hardly relevant. The only time when the older drive is significantly faster is when it is compared to the newer 4 KB sector size drive that runs at misaligned logical 512 byte sectors. See the benchmark section for details.
- ‘Advanced Format’ Will Be Standard By 2011
- 512 Byte Emulation: Issues
- 512 Byte Sectors: Toshiba MK6465GSX (640 GB)
- 4 KB Sectors: Toshiba MK7559GSXP (750 GB)
- Test Setup And Transfer Diagrams
- Misaligned Sector Results: I/O Performance
- Misaligned Sector Results: Streaming Reads/Writes
- Benchmark Results: Access Time And I/O Performance
- Benchmark Results: Throughput And Interface Bandwidth
- Benchmark Results: PCMark Vantage
- Benchmark Results: Power Consumption And Efficiency
- Analysis And Conclusion


