Like many of today's drives, the MPG-AH features provisions to reduce seek noise through algorithms that intelligently reduce seek speed and distance. For the purposes of our tests, noise reduction was disabled.
The MPG-AH turns in a WinBench 99 recorded access time of 14.8 milliseconds, a disappointing increase over its predecessor (the MPF-AH) that allows it to best only the Seagate Barracuda ATA III in this closely watched spec. Subtracting 4.2 milliseconds to account for the average rotational latency of a 7200 RPM drive yields a measured seek time of 10.6 milliseconds. The drive misses its 8.5 ms spec by quite a bit.
Outer-zone transfer rates for the Fujitsu weigh in at 38.6 MB/sec, pretty much on par with other 20 GB/platter drives. Inner-zone rates are a bit on the speedy side. At 26 MB/sec, it trails the category-leading Barracuda ATA III by a negligible margin.
WinMarks...