X-bit labs

Seagate USB 2.0 Portable Hard Disk Drive Review

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 03/09/2005 | 04:44 PM ]

We are going to introduce to you an excellent portable solution from Seagate with 100GB storage capacity, USB 2.0 interface support and great performance. Do you need extra 100MB at hand any time? Then check out our review and maybe you will make up your mind about this baby!

Table of contents:

• Closer Look
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Performance in Intel IOMeter: Sequential Read and Write Patterns
  
• Performance in Winbench99
  
• Performance in FC-Test
  
• Conclusion
  

Last June Seagate made some really impressive progress having announced 12 new products at a time. The echo from that announcement is still wandering around the market getting materialized in actual products.

Today we would like to introduce to you a very illustrative representative of a new external hard disk drive family from Seagate: a USB 2.0 Portable External hard Disk Drive. The product line for this family includes models ranging from 40GB to 100GB storage capacity (these solutions are based on Momentus HDDs).

USB 2.0 Portable Hard Disk Drives occupy a sort of intermediate niche between two solutions we have reviewed earlier from both – physical dimensions and storage capacity points of view. These solutions are: USB 2.0 Pocket hard drives (see our article called Seagate ST650211USB: External Hard Disk Drive to Fit into Your Pocket) and USB/FireWire hard drives (for details see our article called Seagate External 200GB Hard Disk Drive Review).

Closer Look

The case of this portable storage device is made of aluminum alloy and is painted with attractive black and gray colors. The specific design of the device prevents the internal 2.5” hard disk drive from any external physical damage. The relatively small size and rounded shape of the case corners make it very convenient for carrying around in the jacket pocket. There are ventilation slits along both sides of the case, which look like some decorative ornament at first glance. At the back panel of the drive there is a USB 2.0 port.

The hard disk drive we got hold of boasted 100GB storage capacity. The solution was based on ST9100823A HDD and featured an 8MB buffer. The spindle rotation speed equals 5,400rpm. The drives can resist up to 5,000G of non-operating shock. Another essential peculiarity of this device is its extremely quiet operation: it produces only 23dB of noise, which is comparable to a quiet whisper, according to the manufacturer. This low noise level is mostly achieved due to SonicSoft motor used in the device designed on fluid-dynamic bearings.

The drive’s size is 25mm x 94mm x 127mm and it weighs 292g. The drive supports USB 2.0 interface, which makes its theoretically capable of transferring data at up to 60MB/s. It also belongs to the Plug’n’Play type of devices.

The accessories bundled with this drive include a USB cable, a quick installation guide and a CD disk with the software.

This storage solution is now selling for about $230 for a 100GB model, according to pricewatch.com.