X-bit labs

Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 HDD: 7,200rpm Achieved!

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 01/20/2004 | 11:40 PM ]

We are glad to introduce to you the first 2.5” hard disk drive with 7,200rpm spindle rotation speed. This solution from Hitachi should indicate the beginning of a new stage in the HDD market. Besides setting a new standard for notebooks, low-profile 2.5" "mobile" drives with "desktop" speed are about to start their invasion into the SFF systems.

Table of contents:

• Hitachi HDDs
  
• Travelstar 7K60 HTS726060M9AT00
  
• Travelstar 5K80 HTS548040M9AT00
  
• Travelstar DK23FB DK23FB-40 and DK23FB-60
  
• Travelstar 80GN IC25N080ATMR04-0
  
• Travelstar 40GN IC25N040ATCS04-0
  
• Seagate HDDs
  
• Momentus ST94811A
  
• Toshiba HDDs
  
• Super Slimline MK8025GAS
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Performance in WinBench 99
  
• Performance in Intel IOMeter DataBase Pattern
  
• Performance in Intel IOMeter Sequential Read & Write Patterns
  
• Performance in Intel IOMeter Fileserver & Webserver Patterns
  
• Performance in Intel IOMeter Workstation Pattern
  
• Performance in FC-Test
  
• Conclusion
  

It is one of the strongest trends in the modern computer industry that production volumes of notebooks are on a rise. The demand is increasing as the users have substantial reasons for purchasing portable computers; the growing efficiency of the invested money and the technological maturation of notebooks are among those reasons.

A big-diagonal and high-quality LCD screen coupled with a powerful graphics card allows you to work in heavy 3D applications on your notebook. Of course, the industry of small form-factor (2.5”) hard disk drives is growing, too. Such drives have been constantly developing their characteristics to match the performance advances in the processor, graphics and chipset directions.

Until quite recently, the spindle rotation speed of notebook HDDs was limited at 5,400rpm, and 2.5” models had been traditionally slower than their 3.5” counterparts. This couldn’t last for ever – the time called for certain changes.

Last year, Hitachi tried to change this situation and combined its own experience in HDD-making with the handed-over technologies from IBM to produce two new HDD families with a spindle rotation speed of 7,200rpm. This feature endows the drives with an opportunity to work as fast as their 3.5” counterparts on the classic ATA interface. It’s quite probable that Hitachi resorted to speeding up “notebook” hard disk drives in order to make them appropriate for desktop systems with their traditionally higher performance requirements. Considering that 2.5” HDDs can potentially replace 3.5” devices in ordinary computer systems, Hitachi did a wise thing having invested into this highly promising field.

Of course, the innovation from Hitachi is very interesting and we, at X-Bit labs, couldn’t leave it out. This time we are going to test a new 7,200rpm hard disk drive from Hitachi and compare its performance against other HDDs you can find in a modern notebook.

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