Seagate Laptop Ultrathin HDD Review: 500 GB In 5 mm Of Space

By Manuel Masiero, Achim Roos
published

When you look at it from the side, Seagate's Laptop Ultrathin HDD is almost easy to miss. Measuring just 5 mm tall, it’s one of the thinnest hard drives in existence. We got our hands on the 500 GB model to see if it can keep up with larger disks.

Laptop Ultrathin HDD Tech Specs And Benchmark System

Technical Specifications

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ManufacturerSeagate
ModelLaptop Ultrathin HDD
Model NumberST500LT032
InterfaceSATA 6 Gb/s
Form Factor2.5" (5 mm)
Capacity500 GB
RPM5400 RPM
Platters1
Cache16 MB
Operating Temperature0-60°C
Maximum Data Transfer Rate (Official Specifications)100 MB/s
Power Consumption at Idle (Official Specifications)0.48 W
Power Consumption at Idle (Measured)0.50 W
Shock Tolerance (2 ms, read)400 G

Benchmark System

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Benchmark System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i5-2500K (32 nm, Sandy Bridge, D2), 4C/4T, 3.3 GHz, 4 x 256 KB L2 Cache, 6 MB L3 Cache, w/ HD Graphics 3000, 95 W TDP, 3.7 GHz max. Turbo
Motherboard (LGA 1155)Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3, Revision: 0.2, Chipset: Intel Z68 Express, BIOS: F3
RAM2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333, Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D
System SSDIntel X25-M G1, 80 GB, Firmware 0701, SATA 3 Gb/s
ControllerIntel PCH Z68 Express SATA 6Gb/s
Power SupplySeasonic X-760 760 W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3
Benchmark Software
Synthetic Benchmarksh2benchw 3.16 PCMark 7 1.0.4
I/O Performance BenchmarksIOMeter 2006.07.27 File Server Benchmark Web Server Benchmark Database Benchmark Workstation Benchmark Streaming Reads Streaming Writes 4 KB Random Reads 4 KB Random Writes
System Software and Drivers
Software / DriverDetails
Operating SystemWindows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1
Intel Inf9.2.0.1030
Intel Rapid Storage10.​5.​0.​1026
Manuel Masiero
32 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nevilence
    makes ya wonder how small this format can go. impressive.
    Reply
  • razor512
    For the hard drive being benchmarked, is it possible for tomshardware to color the text to make them easier to find in the list?

    for example http://i.imgur.com/VXwTs6y.jpg
    it only takes about 3 seconds to do (even faster if you are in the process of making the chart and not changing colors in post)
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    Its main selling point is the fact that it's only 5 mm thick, instead of the 9.5"
    Think you meant 9.5mm there.

    At least it's not got proprietary connectors like the WD 5mm ones do. Think you need to add one of those to the benchmarks though - it's Seagate's biggest competition.
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    This would be a good choice for a mITX build when you want budget storage to complement a SSD.
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    Not really; it'll cost significantly more per GB than a 9.5mm drive, but all the bays are fine with the thicker drives.
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    11265059 said:
    Not really; it'll cost significantly more per GB than a 9.5mm drive, but all the bays are fine with the thicker drives.

    Regular thickness drives are $60-80 and this one is mentioned to be under $100 with no price given for the consumer market. I wouldn't mind paying a small premium for a drive that utilizes 53% of the area of a 9.5mm drive.
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    The thing is there's nothing you can do with the extra space; it's a couple of millimeters in the middle of an HDD cage
    Reply
  • XngXtuHl
    No point in 5 mm HDD, any laptop can install regular 9 mm HDD
    More expensive, more slower
    Reply
  • Flying-Q
    Please Tom's, get rid of the new format for pictures having the caption as an alpha-blended banner overlapping the bottom of the picture. This article's second picture, which attempts to illustrate the thinness of the new drive, is ruined by the new captioning method. Use some intelligence and put the caption UNDER the picture. This is the way that has worked for decades in both print and online. Why change something that works for a system that fails?
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere
    11265453 said:
    No point in 5 mm HDD, any laptop can install regular 9 mm HDD
    More expensive, more slower

    Nope, ultrabooks often have 7mm slots or none, and soon I'd expect that to be 5mm.
    Reply