Viewing page 1 of 4 pages.
1 2 3 4 NextJune 5, 2005 by Devon
Cooke with Mike
Chin
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Products
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Western Digital Scorpio WD800VE
80GB, 5,400 RPM Notebook drive
Fujitsu MHT2080BH
80GB, 5,400 RPM SATA Notebook drive
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Sample Suppliers
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Market Price
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Scorpio WD800VE: ~US$120
Fujitsu MHT2080BH: ~US$200 |
A notebook drive is an excellent alternative to a standard 3.5" drive
for use in a quiet computer system. The light, compact design of a notebook
drive means that a smaller, less powerful drive motor can be used, and the smaller
disc size and lower spindle speed tend to cause less vibration than a 3.5"
drive. We at SPCR have been recommending notebook drives for demanding silent
PC seekers since the article Is
the Silent PC Future 2.5-inches wide? was posted back in March 2004.
Notebook drives do have certain drawbacks. They're more expensive than desktop
drives, and, although their shock resistance is usually better, they are generally
less solidly built. They also lag behind a bit in both capacity and performance.
The two notebook drives reviewed in this article seek to address these issues.
WD SCORPIO
The Western Digital Scorpio addresses the problem of drive fragility by manufacturing
the top cover out of thick stainless steel. According to Western Digital, this
makes it 50% more rigid, which should make it less easy to squash it inadvertently.
The top end of the series features an 80 GB capacity and an 8 MB cache, which
makes it competitive with most other notebook drives.
WESTERN DIGITAL SCORPIO (quoted from Western Digital's
data
sheet)
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| FEATURE & BRIEF |
COMMENT |
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Fast — spins at 5400 RPM and delivers seek times of
12ms. It has a standard 2 MB cache, with an 8 MB option.
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We tested the 8 MB version.
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Low Power — spins at 5400 RPM for fast performance but has
power specifications similar to slower 4200 RPM drives. Low power consumption
yields longer battery life and increased overall reliability.
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Usually, there's a bigger
difference in power consumption between form factors than spindle speed. |
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Quiet — features WD's exclusive WhisperDrive™ technology
with SoftSeek™ algorithms to deliver the quietest 2.5-inch hard
drive on the market.
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Quite a boast for a dual
platter 5,400 RPM drive. We'll see if it's true... |
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Reliable — provides ShockGuard™ to protect the drive
mechanics and delicate platter surface from shocks, both when it's in
use and when it's not. This leading-edge technology enables WD drives
to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications in
its class: 250 Gs while in operation, 900 Gs when it's idle.
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More important in a notebook
than a desktop system. |
DuraStep Ramp™
locks the heads off the data disk to provide additional shock protection.
Utilizing the most technologically advanced material available on the market,
the drive is able to execute a minimum of 600,000 load/unload cycles
without contamination — up to twice the performance of its competitors.
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Most notebook drives
unload the heads when not in use to reduce power consumption and increase
shock resistance. |
| Rugged — WD
Scorpio has a rigid stainless steel cover, unlike other devices,
that will withstand greater than 5 pounds of pressure — nearly
1.5 times the industry average without pinching the motor hub or other internal
components. |
Makes the drive less
easily damaged during handling / installation. |
FUJITSU MHT2080BH
Unlike desktop drives, most notebook drives still use the PATA interface. This
interface is fine for a single drive notebook configuration, but it is quickly
becoming obsolete in the desktop market. Many newer motherboards (notably those
with Intel's 9xx chipsets) have only a single IDE channel, which makes it difficult
to compensate for the limited capacity of notebook drives by using more of them.
Fujitsu is the first company to market a SATA-based drive in the 2.5"
form factor. Aside from increased compatibility with desktop systems, the SATA
interface also makes it easier to set up a RAID configuration. The SATA interface
also makes it possible to support native command queuing, another first in the
notebook market.
FUJITSU MHT2080BH (quoted from Fujitsu's data
sheet)
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| FEATURE & BRIEF |
COMMENT |
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Serial ATA (SATA) enables the high-speed transfer of data (1.5Gb/s),
outstripping older, 16-bit parallel bus technology. The 2.5-inch SATA
disk drives feature Native Command Queuing (NCQ), which simultaneously
coordinates up to 32 instructions to be queued and reordered by the hard
disk controller.
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The first SATA notebook drive on the market. It is far more convenient
to use than with a PATA adapter for a desktop motherboard.
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The 2.5-inch 9.5mm hard disk drive is quieter, uses less heat and
power.
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Quieter than
what? |
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Three to four 2.5-inch SATA drives can fit in the same space as one
3.5-inch drive, allowing it to be used in a RAID array.
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Makes it
easier to install many more drives into a minitower or SFF system. |
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The small form factor allows for the design of compact, space efficient
storage products, including notebooks and storage towers, as well as non-PC
devices.
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The form
factor is not supported by most ATX cases, but easily adapted by the average
user. |
Fujitsu has nearly
20 generations of 2.5-inch form
factor product expertise. |
OK, they say
so. |
SPECIFICATIONS
The specifications below are specific to models that we examined. Capacity, cache size, platter number, interface, and even performance vary from
model to model even within a single product line. Acoustics and power dissipation also vary depending on the number of platters
in the drive; smaller capacity drives tend to have fewer platters, and
tend to produce less noise and use less power.
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Manufacturers' Specifications
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| HDD Model |
Western Digital Scorpio WD800VE
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Fujitsu
MHT2080BH
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| Capacity |
80 GB
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80 GB
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| Cache |
8 MB
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8 MB
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| Platters |
2
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2
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| Rotation Speed |
5,400 RPM
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5,400 RPM
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| Interface |
EIDE
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SATA / SATA-II
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| Latency |
5.50 ms
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5.56 ms
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| Average Seek |
12 ms
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12 ms
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| Weight |
117 g
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99 g
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| Operating Temperature |
5 - 60°C
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5 - 55°C
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Power Dissipation:
Idle / Seek |
0.85 / 2.5 W
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0.80 / 2.3 W
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Acoustics:
Idle / Seek |
20 / 21 dBA (no distance/angle given)
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34 / – dBA @ 30 cm
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