1.8" Hard Drives: Small is Beautiful
Access Time
Unlike the average seek time, which is primarily a function of the drive's head mechanics, the average access time highly depends on the spindle speed of a hard drive. When the read/write heads are positioned, drives may have to wait for up to a full platter rotation before data can be read or written. Perhaps surprisingly, then, the benchmark results show that the 1.8" models have access times that are not much slower than comparable 2.5" drive models that also run at 4,200 RPM.
Stay on the Cutting Edge
Join the experts who read Tom's Hardware for the inside track on enthusiast PC tech news — and have for over 25 years. We'll send breaking news and in-depth reviews of CPUs, GPUs, AI, maker hardware and more straight to your inbox.
Corsair iCUE Link H150i RGB Review: Strong performance, tons of customization options
Intel confirms Microsoft's Copilot AI will soon run locally on PCs, next-gen AI PCs require 40 TOPS of NPU performance
Intel shares Microsoft's new AI PC definition, launches AI PC Acceleration Programs and Core Ultra Meteor Lake NUC developer kits at AI conference
Most Popular
By Matt Safford
By Ross Rubin
By Matt Safford