X-bit labs

Three 2.5-Inch Hard Disk Drives with 120GB Storage Capacity (page 2)

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 02/13/2007 | 11:19 AM ]

Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS

This HDD series includes 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120GB models. The model we will test has two platters and four heads. Its spindle rotation speed is 5400rpm. The cache buffer is 8MB large. The drive is equipped with a SATA interface. Its average seek time is below 12 milliseconds. The drive can sustain an operating shock of 300G and a non-operating shock of 1000G.

Like the drives from other manufacturers, this one features a number of exclusive innovations, particularly WhisperDrive technology with noise-reducing SoftSeek algorithms. The robust stainless-steel cover of the drive provides a better protection for the internal components. ShockGuard technology protects the drive’s mechanical components and the surface of the platters against shocks. The specially designed DuraStep ramp places the heads off the operating surface of the platters when the drive doesn’t work.

The average retail price of the drive is $120.

Testbed and Methods

The following testing utilities were used:

• WinBench 99 2.0
• FC-Test 1.0
• IOMeter 2003.02.15

Testbed configuration:

• Albatron PX865PE Pro mainboard
• Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz CPU
• IBM DTLA-307015 hard disk drive, 15GB
• Radeon 7000 32MB graphics card
• 256MB DDR SDRAM
• Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4

We installed the generic OS drivers for the drives and formatted them in FAT32 and NTFS as one partition with the default cluster size. For some tests 32GB partitions were created on the drives and formatted in FAT32 and NTFS with the default cluster size, too. HDDs with a Serial ATA interface were connected to a Promise SATA150 controller. We’ll add the results of five HDDs we have tested earlier to give you a fuller picture. For detailed specifications of the drives, click on the table below:

Click to enlarge