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160 GB Notebook Drive Roundup

Posted June 4th, 2007 by eugene

The 2.5" notebook drive market continues to expand with several manufacturers recently announcing units that manage to cram 200 GB or more inside their tiny cases. Widespread use of perpendicular recording methods, where bits of information are stored on platters vertically rather than horizontally, fuels continually rising capacities.

Manufacturers and users alike also watch in anticipation as this final sector of drive-based storage continues to evolve and consolidate from its older legacy paradigm of a 2x22 pin grid power/data connector to the increasingly consistent 22-contact paradigm enjoyed by the SATA and SAS standards.

As we prepare to turn our attention to a series of individual drive reviews that pit the newest contender against other similar units, let us take this time to strengthen the base against which new units may be compared by rounding up a few 160-gigabyte drives submitted by Hitachi, Seagate, and WD.

We will take a look at the following units:

Top of the drive

Hitachi Travelstar 5K160

  • 5400 RPM
  • ATA-100 (SATA also available)
  • 80 GB/platter
  • 11 millisecond seek time
  • 8-megabyte buffer
  • Available in (GB): 160, 120, 80, 60, 40
A versatile line that fully straddles the PATA and SATA divide: unlike other offerings, the Travelstar 5K160 family offers all its sizes and capacities equipped with both interfaces.
Lowest Real-Time Price (160 GB):
Top of the drive

Seagate Momentus 5400.3

  • 5400 RPM
  • ATA-100 (SATA also available)
  • 80 GB/platter
  • 12.5 millisecond seek time
  • 8-megabyte buffer
  • Available in (GB): 160, 120, 100, 80, 60, 40
The industry's first product to utilize the increasingly-common perpendicular-recording paradigm, the Momentus 5400.3 extends Seagate's mature Momentus 5400 platform to 160 GB and remains Seagate's primary offering for legacy PATA interfaces.
Lowest Real-Time Price (160 GB):
Top of the drive

Seagate Momentus 7200.2

  • 7200 RPM
  • SATA
  • 80 GB/platter
  • 11 millisecond seek time
  • 8-megabyte buffer
  • Available in (GB): 160, 120, 100, 80
First of a new-generation of 7200 RPM units that combine a performance-oriented spindle speed with 160 GB or more of capacity, the Momentus 7200.1 promises to close the gap between notebook and desktop drives, albeit at a hefty cost/GB ratio.
Lowest Real-Time Price (160 GB):
Top of the drive

Western Digital Scorpio WD1600BEVS

  • 5400 RPM
  • SATA
  • 80 GB/platter
  • 12 millisecond seek time
  • 8-megabyte buffer
  • Available in (GB): 160, 120, 100, 80, 60, 40
A second-generation WD design that bridges a gap as the firm transitions to the SATA interface for the Scorpio line. The firm's current designs top out at 5400 RPM; as a result, WD differentiates its units with buffer sizes –- units with a 2-meg buffer are also available.
Lowest Real-Time Price (160 GB):

In our tests, the two SATA drives (Momentus 7200.2 and Scorpio WD1600BEVS) will have their NCQ ability enabled. All four 160 GB drives will be compared against the following:

Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 (100 GB) Previous-generation 7200 RPM drive
Seagate Momentus 7200.1 (100 GB) Previous-generation 7200 RPM drive
Seagate Momentus 5400.2 (120 GB) Previous-generation 5400 RPM drive
Western Digital Scorpio WD800VE Previous-generation 5400 RPM drive


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