Three 7200 RPM Notebook Hard Drives For 2011

Seagate Momentus 7200.5 (750 GB, ST9750420AS)

The fifth-generation Momentus currently is the highest capacity 7200 RPM noteook drive on the market. We find it interesting to see that manufacturers are picking certain segments where they choose to engage more vigorously than others. This drive is a good example. Another example is the race to 2.5” 1 TB drives using a 12.5 mm Z-height or the effort to hit 3+ TB capacities.

The Seagate drive has 16 MB cache memory, but at 115 g it is slightly lighter than the Samsung drive and heavier than WD’s 111 g. Seagate also specifies a 0-60°C operating temperature range, while Samsung stays at 5-55°C. An access time of 15 ms is typical, but Seagate strikes hard at the throughput tests. Although it has to admit defeat in peak throughput, it shows the highest average throughput result at 91.9 MB/s and it does great in our streaming read/write testing. We also measured nice I/O performance numbers that qualify the drive for heavier workloads. Unfortunately, this performance is not reflected in PCMark Vantage, where we found a few sections in which the new Seagate drive doesn't perform as well.

The specifications declare 0.96 W idle power and 2.5 W seek power. Our 0.9 W idle power measurement and 2.6 W at workstation type I/O is very close to what Seagate says. These results are pretty good in comparison and should help the Momentus 7200.5 to deliver strong power efficiency. You’ll find those results in the benchmark section as well.

Momentus 7200 drives come with a three-year warranty.

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