Perfect Notebook Storage: Seven 2.5” 500 GB Drives

Seagate Momentus 7200.4

As you can tell by the model number, the Momentus 7200.4 is Seagate’s fourth generation 7,200 RPM 2.5” notebook hard drive. While the other drives typically include 8 MB of cache, Seagate installed 16 MB on its fast model. The SATA/300 interface with NCQ support is very much standard today; the operating temperature range of 0-60°C is not.

It wouldn't be a stretch to guess that this drive beats every other 500 GB notebook drive in our roundup, as it is the first 500 GB drive running at the fast 7,200 RPM spindle speed. The price is a 1.0 W idle power requirement, which also applies to WD’s Scorpio Blue. Power consumption for streaming operation is also increased when comparing to 5,400 RPM drives, as is power for video playback. Interestingly, the Momentus 7200.4 cannot beat the other drives when it comes to power efficiency. It appears that the increase in power consumption is more than the performance increase, meaning that other products take the top positions in terms of performance per watt.

However, the Momentus 7200.4 remains the fastest notebook drive available today, offering a 16.8 ms access time (which isn’t the quickest, by the way), more than 101 MB/s peak throughput and a 80 MB/s average. This is about as much as the 5,400 RPM drives can reach at peak.

Seagate offers 500, 320, 250, and 160 GB capacity points and optional models with its G-force free-fall sensor. More information can be found on the Seagate Web site.

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