Next-Gen 7,200 RPM Notebook Hard Drives

Results: Efficiency for Streaming Reads

We’ve already seen that the Seagate Momentus 7200.3 provides the best transfer rates, which is reflected in our streaming read test. All four drives come out on top of this benchmark because they all offer high transfer rates. Let’s look at power consumption.

Samsung’s Spinpoint MP2 requires a whopping 4.4 W average power for delivering sequential data, which is way too much. The other drives prove that this discipline can be mastered at 25% or even lower power requirement.

As a result of the high power requirement, the Samsung Spinpoint MP2 looks rather bad in the performance per watt results. Seagate dominates once again, and keeps its promise of providing the most efficient drive in the industry. Hitachi’s Travelstar 7K320 and the WD Scorpio Black deliver identical performance per watt in this benchmark.