Next-Gen 7,200 RPM Notebook Hard Drives

Results: Efficiency for Workstation I/O

First we looked at the performance level of the hard drives when running our workstation-type I/O benchmark on the test notebook, a Dell Latitude D630. Thanks to its quick access time and high I/O performance, the WD Scorpio Black dominates, followed by the Travelstar 7K320 and the Momentus 7200.3. Next, let’s look at the power consumption consumed on average during this benchmark.

Although the Seagate drive did not deliver the best performance, it required less power to deliver its still high performance. The Samsung Spinpoint MP2 clearly requires more power than its competitors at 3.02 W. Now we’ll divide performance by power requirement, to get a rating of performance per watt.

Seagate and WD basically share the first position, as the difference is minimal. WD offers more performance at increased power, which moves it to the same efficiency level of the Seagate drive. The Momentus 7200.3 isn’t the fastest, but is the most efficient.