It seems everything on a laptop is getting quicker.
It is so easy to find a laptop now that has the same stats as
your typical desktop computer. With faster processors, memory,
and faster dedicated graphics cards there seems to be one thing
missing, the hard drive. With all that performance packed
into the rest of the system, it surprises me that most laptop
hard drives are still running at 4200rpm. Even with the
5400rpm drives the technology is still behind that of the desktop
systems. If there is one thing I know about technology though,
is that it is always changing.
Seagate recently has proved this point.
Seagate has just released their brand new 7200rpm 2.5” hard
drives. Yes you read that correctly, 7200rpm. Finally,
we have desktop level performance available for all components
of your laptop. So let's take a closer look at the
Seagate ST910021A.
Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB #ST910021A
The drive supplied to us for review is an OEM ST910021A.
OEM drives are the same drives you would find in a retail store,
just without any manuals or cables. You basically get just
the bare drive, in an antistatic bag. This is perfect for
someone looking to upgrade their notebook, as you don't really
need the manuals, and OEM drives are usually cheaper.
The drive itself looks exactly like any other
2.5” hard drive. The ST910021A utilizes the typical
IDE interface, but a SATA drive is also available.
Test Setup
AMD Athlon 1700+ @ 1833 MHz
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
1GB Corsair PC4000
Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM PATA
Seagate ST910021A 7200 PATA
A desktop system is being used in this situation,
as I don't believe my college will enjoy me ripping apart my laptop; A
2.5" hard drive adapter was used to hook the ST910021A to
the desktop system.
Benchmarks
HD Tach 3.0.1 is a standard synthetic benchmark when hard drives
are compared. HD Tach's long benchmark was used, shown
below are the results.
|
Random Access (ms) |
Average Read (MB/s) |
Burst Speed (MB/s) |
| Seagate ST910021A |
15.1
|
40.8
|
93.5
|
| Western Digital 250GB |
13.1
|
52.2
|
95.4
|
The ST910021A held up incredibly well to the
WD 250GB. Although it was slightly slower, it is still extremely
fast for a laptop drive. We finally have a laptop drive
that is close to the performance of a desktop drive.
Conclusion
Performance is the main focus of this drive, that's what
you are paying the extra $140 for after all. So how does
it do? Is amazing, excellent, jaw dropping enough for you?
The Seagate ST910021A will blast the covers off of the hard drive
currently located in your laptop. Laptop drives are known
for their speed, or lack their off, but no longer. As shown
in the tests, the Seagate drive came very close to desktop drive
performance, which is a huge hurdle. This drive will now
allow you to have a full desktop replacement laptop.
Performance does come with a price though, and
that price with the ST910021A is two fold. First is the
actual price; you will pay an extra $140 to get the 7200rpm drive
as compared to the 5400rpm drive. The second is that battery
life will diminish with the added speed. The ST910021A uses
.6 watts more power than the ST9100824A (Seagate's 5400rpm drive).
So don't expect to have an endless battery with this drive
installed.
Pros: Speed, storage capacity,
5 year warranty
Cons: Price, power requirements
Overall: The ST910021A
is an incredibly fast notebook hard drive. If you are building
a Desktop Replacement notebook where performance is critical this
drive will be amazing, but if you are on the go, or on a budget,
a slower drive may fit your needs better.
If
you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
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