9.5 Versus 12.5 mm: Which Notebook HDD Is Right For You?

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Notebook drive manufacturers can choose between two drive heights: 9.5 mm and 12.5 mm. At 9.5 mm, most drives are limited to two spinning platters, while 12.5 mm has enough room for three, enabling higher capacity. We compare the two 2.5" variants.

Comparison Table And Test Setup

ManufacturerToshibaToshiba
ModelMKxx65GSXMK6465GSXMKxx59GSMMK1059GSM
Form Factor2.5" (9.5 mm)2.5" (12.5 mm)
Capacity640GB1,000GB
Spindle Speed5,400 RPM5,400 RPM
Other Capacities160/250/320/500GB750GB
Platters23
Cache8MB8MB
NCQYesYes
InterfaceSATA 3Gb/sSATA 3Gb/s
Operating Temperature5-55°C5-55°C
Specified Idle Power0.8W0.7W
Measured Idle Power0.8W0.8W
Operating Shock (2 ms, read)400 G400 G

Test Setup

System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i7-920 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 8MB L3 Cache)
Motherboard (Socket 1366)Supermicro X8SAXRevision: 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
DriverDetails
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel Chipset DriversChipset Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007
AMD GraphicsRadeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage8.7.0.1007
Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos