Reviewed: 2.5" Notebook Hard Drives From Toshiba And Hitachi

Features
By Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos
published

With more than 100 MB/s throughput and 500GB of storage capacity for notebooks, Hitachi’s Travelstar 7K500 and the Toshiba MK5056GSY face the established Seagate Momentus 7200.4. Were the two newer drives worth waiting for? We benchmark them to find out.

Test Setup, Comparison Table, And Throughput Diagrams

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System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i7-920 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 8MB shared L3 Cache)
Motherboard (Socket 1366)Supermicro X8SAX Revision: 1.0; Chipset: Intel X58 + ICH10R; BIOS: 1.0B
RAM3 x 1GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDDSeagate NL35, 400GB ST3400832NS; 7,200 RPM, SATA 1.5 Gb/s, 8MB Cache
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800W; OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmarks
Performance Measurementsh2benchw 3.12PCMark Vantage 1.0
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2006.07.27Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-BenchmarkStreaming ReadsStreaming Writes
System Software & Drivers
DriversDetails
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset DriversChipset Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007
AMD GraphicsRadeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage8.7.0.1007
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ManufacturerHitachiToshiba
ModelTravelstar 7K500MKxx56GSY
HTS725050A9A364MK5056GSY
Form Factor2.5" (9.5 mm)2.5" (9.5 mm)
Capacity500GB500GB
Spindle Speed7,200 RPM7,200 RPM
Other Capacities120, 160, 250, 320 GB160, 250, 320 GB
Platters22
Cache16MB16MB
NCQyesyes
InterfaceSATA/300SATA/300
Operating Temperature5-55°C5-55°C
Specified Idle Power1.0W1.0W
Measured Idle Power1.1W1.0W
Operating Shock (2 ms, read)400 G325 G
Warranty3 years3 years

Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos