by Andrey Kuznetcov
12/09/2004 | 10:43 PM
Maybe not quite triumphal, the return of Seagate Technology to the market of hard disk drives for notebooks was very successful. Disks of the Momentus family with a spindle rotation speed of 5400rpm proved their competitiveness against best models from other manufacturers.
To hold the acquired market positions, it is necessary to be constantly improving the produce, as Seagate did. Back in summer, their press release dated June 14, 2004 announced new members of the Momentus family, one of which is going to be the hero of this review.
So how does this hard disk drive differ from its predecessors? The ST9100823A features a higher capacity (100GB) as it is based on platters with a high data density, 50GB. At the time of writing this review this capacity was the world record for devices of that form-factor. So, there are two platters and four read/write heads in our sample (beside the 100GB drive, the series includes 60GB and 80GB models). As the family name suggests, the spindle rotation speed has remained the same, 5400rpm; the size of the cache buffer is 8 megabytes. The average seek time is 12.5 milliseconds; the average latency is 5.6 milliseconds. The burst transfer rate amounts to 48.5MB/s. The ST9100823A supports the UltraATA/100 interface, can sustain an operational shock of 250 Gs for 2 milliseconds and a non-operational shock of 900 Gs for 1 millisecond.
The acoustic characteristics of the drive can be considered good: the sound pressure level is 2.9 bels in the performance seek mode, 2.6 bels in the quiet seek mode, and 2.4 bels in the idle mode.
The low power consumption of the device should be emphasized, too. The manufacturer claims it to equal the power consumption of 4200rpm drives: 2.3 watts in the seek mode, 2.05/2.1 watts at read/write operations, and 0.99/2 watts in the idle/standby mode. The dimensions of the drive are 9.5x69.85x100.2mm; its weight is 102 grams. The ST9100823A is equipped with fluid dynamic bearings and Giant Magnetoresistive heads, supports EPRML technology. The drive also features the exclusive innovations 3D Defence System and QuietStep ramp load as well as the industry-standard S.M.A.R.T. So, all the positive traits of the first generation of the Momentus family have been inherited by the second generation.
The retail price of the drive was not declared yet at the time we worked on the article.
We used the following benchmarking software:
The testbed was configured like that:
We tested the drive using the generic drivers of the OS. The drives were formatted in FAT32 and NTFS as one partition with the default cluster size. In some cases, specially mentioned below, we created 32GB partitions (FAT32 and NTFS, default cluster size).
To have a reference point in our examination of the Momentus ST9100823A, we compared it to hard disk drives of the same capacity (80GB) from the competing companies: Hitachi 5K80 HTS548040M9AT000, Toshiba Super Slimline MK8025GAS and Samsung SpinPoint M40 MP0804H.
I’m going to begin the classical WinBench 99 test from viewing the data-transfer graph of the drive.
The data-transfer line shown on the diagram has no obvious slumps, but is rather steadily going downwards. This is indirect evidence of the good quality of the platters.
The first table and the first diagram reflect the performance of the drive in the FAT32 file system, and we’ve got a queer result from the very start: Seagate’s new HDD has a much lower High-End Disk WinMark score compared to its own Business Disk WinMark score. This is an outstanding event in hard disk drive tests and it is probably explained by the fact that we’ve got a presale sample of the Momentus 2, probably with some flaws in the firmware. Since we traditionally sort the results by the High-End Disk WinMark parameter as it is the more important, the Seagate drive finds itself on the last line, losing to the 4200rpm device even. On the other hand, the Momentus 5400.2 has a much higher Business Disk WinMark score compared to the other participants. Well, it should have had a similar advantage in the other test, too.
The table and the diagram show you the results of the drives when the first 32 gigabytes of their storage space are in use. You can see that thanks to its higher data density Seagate’s drive have improved its WinMark scores more compared to the opponents, both in relative and absolute estimation, but the overall situation remains the same: the Momentus 5400.2 outperforms its rivals in Business Disk WinMark and loses to them in High-End Disk WinMark.
When partitioned in NTFS, the Seagate again has scored less High-End Disk WinMark points compared to Business Disk WinMark. And again, the Momentus 5400.2 is the worst device in this test in the former parameter, although the gap between it and the other drives is smaller here than in FAT32. Note also that the Seagate has a bigger advantage over its competitors in the Business Disk WinMark parameter her and that the difference between the two results of the Momentus 5400.2 is smaller in NTFS than in FAT32.
We again create a 32GB partition on the drives, now in NTFS. And here’s a surprise once again: the Momentus’ High-End Disk WinMark score is much bigger than its Business Disk WinMark score. This makes the Seagate an unrivalled leader in this particular test – this must be due to its higher data density, which reduces the access time with operations on a 32GB partition.
The next diagram shows you the read speeds of the drives. The Momentus 5400.2 takes the second position, closely following the leading drive from Hitachi.
Our access time measurements (in FAT32) are presented in the last diagram, and the Seagate has the best access time of all. It is better than the two drives with the same (5400rpm) spindle rotation speed as well as the 4200rpm Toshiba.
Unlike the synthetic WinBench, FC-Test allows measuring the performance of a hard disk drive in more realistic and “transparent” tests. Instead of some general performance showings, hard disk drives are evaluated by their success at processing certain file patterns. The speed is calculated basing on the time it takes the drive to perform writing, reading and copying of the patterns.
Windows and Programs patterns consist of many small-size files, while MP3, ISO and Install patterns include fewer files of a bigger size. For the copy operations two 32GB partitions were created on the drives. The patterns were then copied within one partition (copy near) and from one partition to another (copy far).
We’re going to begin with the FAT32 file system. The first diagram shows you the speed of creating (i.e. writing) files. Alas, the Momentus is hopelessly slow compared to the remaining drives in all our patterns. Writing isn’t among its strong sides, definitely.
The next graph represents the reading speeds of the devices. The Seagate doesn’t look hopeless anymore, but is closely following the leader, the drive from Hitachi. The Momentus is especially good at processing patterns that consist of many small-size files.
When copying files within one partition, the drive from Seagate is far behind the drives from Hitachi and Toshiba. Its performance equals that of the Toshiba device: the Momentus is faster in three patterns with large files and slower in two patterns with small files.
The last test action – copying from one partition to another – allows the Momentus 5400.2 to take the third place as it is always faster than the drive from Toshiba. It is also much slower than the drives from Hitachi and Samsung, though (the Seagate is closer to the leaders when processing two patterns with many small files). The certain improvement of the results of the Seagate drive compared to the previous test must be again due to its higher data density, which allows to spend less time on moving the read/write heads about.
Let’s examine the results of the drives under NTFS now. The first diagram shows you the speeds of creating (i.e. writing) files. Like in FAT32, the performance of Seagate’s drive is a disaster – it is too sluggish.
The Momentus 5400.2 is better at reading than at other operations. Here it takes the second place, after the Hitachi drive.
As the diagram shows, the NTFS file system positively affects the performance of the Seagate drive in the copy-near test. The Momentus 5400.2 looks better than in the same test in FAT32 and takes the third place. Note also that it is more efficient at processing patterns that include many small files.
The last diagram shows you the speeds of copying files from one partition to another. The Momentus 2 takes the third place again, outperforming the drive from Toshiba and losing to the two leaders.
This test session poised more questions than it gave answers. Yes, the new hard disk drive model from Seagate’s Momentus 5400.2 series deserves our attention as a product with fundamentally new characteristics like a storage capacity of 100 gigabytes, but on the other hand, its performance raises our doubts. Particularly, this device’s Business Disk WinMark score is higher than its High-End Disk WinMark score in WinBench 99 – that’s a most unusual thing for a hard disk drive. The new Momentus was also slow in FC-Test, except read operations. Considering that the Momentus 5400.2 is head above the others in the Business Disk WinMark parameter, we might expect it to have an advantage in other tests, too.
So, we suspect some firmware flaws as the main reason for the low speed of the Seagate drive in some cases (as mentioned earlier, we tested a pre-production sample). We will certainly check this hard disk drive model once again when it comes to market in mass quantities – we will try to learn the truth about the new Momentus because the majority of the results we got today do not match the level of technologies Seagate had implemented in this new device.