2005 Notebook Drive Roundup

The Contenders

This first look at notebook drives has been a long time in coming. Our review of most of these units was initially slated for publication nearly a year ago. With the Testbed4 revision (supposedly) looming, however, a decision was made to delay the printing of results that would soon be outdated by new hardware and methodology. Testbed4, of course, took quite a bit longer to finalize than we imagined. Hence, while the two 7200 RPM models tested in this review represent today's state-of-the-art, many 5400 RPM devices are giving way to their successors. Nonetheless, they are all readily available for purchase in the channel. Naturally, SR will bring you reviews of the latest drives as they become available. When we do, the products in this roundup will serve as a robust sample set against which new drives may be compared.

Without further ado, let us take a look at these contenders!

Fujitsu MHT2080AH

• 80 GB capacity
• 5400 RPM spindle speed
• 40 GB/platter
• 12.0 millisecond seek time
• 8-megabyte buffer

Hitachi Travelstar 5K100

• 80 GB capacity
• 5400 RPM spindle speed
• 40 GB/platter
• 12.0 millisecond seek time
• 8-megabyte buffer

Samsung SpinPoint M40

• 80 GB capacity
• 5400 RPM spindle speed
• 40 GB/platter
• 12.0 millisecond seek time
• 8-megabyte buffer

Seagate Momentus 5400.2

• 100 GB capacity
• 5400 RPM spindle speed
• 50 GB/platter
• 12.5 millisecond seek time
• 8-megabyte buffer

Western Digital Scorpio WD800VE

• 80 GB capacity
• 5400 RPM spindle speed
• 40 GB/platter
• 12.0 millisecond seek time
• 8-megabyte buffer

Hitachi Travelstar 7K100

• 100 GB capacity
• 7200 RPM spindle speed
• 50 GB/platter
• 10.0 millisecond seek time
• 8-megabyte buffer

Seagate Momentus 7200.1

• 100 GB capacity
• 7200 RPM spindle speed
• 40 GB/platter
• 10.5 millisecond seek time
• 8-megabyte buffer