2.5-Inch Hard Drives Roundup

Baseline Test Results

Graphs of linear transfer rates are published below.

WD Scorpio ML80 WD1600BEVS	Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541616J9SA00
Samsung SpinPoint M80 HM160JI	Samsung SpinPoint M80 HM160JC
Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST9160821AS	Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST9160821A

Note the slightly different approaches of manufacturers to data density, which is increased owing to PMR: some of them (Seagate, Samsung) condense tracks along the platter radius (especially at the initial stage); others (Hitachi, WD) increase linear data density along the tracks, which resulted in higher growth of linear transfer rates than in competing products. Leadership of 5k4 PMR models from WD and Hitachi is the best proof (see the diagram).

But Seagate Momentus 5400.3 drives manufactured with a one-year difference also demonstrate noticeable gains in linear transfer rates relative to each other. So adaptive formatting with streamlined PMR technologies can improve performance of storage drives within the same model/series. We should also mention that 160 GB 5k4 models have practically caught up with 7k1 models of the previous generation in linear access rates. Only Hitachi 7K100 has a little advantage here.

The average random access time for reading differs in our contenders:

Samsung hard drives are the slowest here, although WD models are not much faster. The Hitachi drive demonstrates a tad better results. But only Seagate Momentus 5400.3 drives show outstanding results in this task, they almost catch up with 7k1 models, which latency is lower by 1.5 ms! We can only congratulate Seagate M5400.3 with its results in this test - it even catches up with the M7200.1 models. But it must be noted that these drives have the noisiest active seek mode. You can actually hear it, unlike the situation with competing drives. Seek acoustics management is supported by all manufacturers, except for Seagate.

Efficiency of caching data for writing can be evaluated with the random access test under Windows.

Seagate models are outperformed here. WD and Hitachi drives are again better than other models. So we can expect the best results from them in consumer applications.