Debating: 100GB Fujitsu or WD notebook drives

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:49 am

I'm looking at a couple 100GB laptop hard drives and they're both the same price. It's either going to be the Fujitsu MHV2100AH or the Western Digital Scorpio WD1000VE. They're both spec'd the same at 5400RPM and 8MB, so I was just wondering if anyone could offer any comments or comparisons between these drives.

Especially the Fujitsu because it seems to have fewer users, and while the old 4200RPM/single platter model reviewed well, the faster/newer models haven't been tested and that doesn't necessarily transfer to this model...

Thanks.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:00 am

Well, the Scorpio 80GB is an SPCR Recommended 2.5" HDD, and I would expect the 100GB to have very similar acoustic qualities.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:33 am

Have a look at the 120 GB Scorpio too, not much of a price difference.

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:47 pm

Heh. I went through the Storage article section a little bit better and discovered that the SATA version of a very similar Fujitsu drive with two platters had already been reviewed by SPCR with somewhat disappointing results. No wonder it's not on the Recommended page. I also didn't notice the 120GB Scorpio review

which is probably my fault for not paying close attention to 2.5" drives until recently...

I guess between the two then it's going to be the WD Scorpio.... or a Samsung even though for the life of me I can't find much reference to the larger models.

If the audio recordings are anything to go by though, I think I may prefer the WD, since the seeks seem less noticable.

xilencer · Post by **xilencer** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:22 am

If you want a 100GB 2.5" drive with minimum seeking noise you might wanna check the Hitachi TravelStar E7K100 review. It's the first drive I've heard recorded that actually has inaudible seeks! Also, it's one of the only 2.5" drives that won't be clicking every now and then because it won't unload and reload the heads from the platters, like other drives do after 10 seconds or so of inactivity. Idle noise is one of the smoothest I've heard as well. However it does not come cheap, but if you can afford it and want the best this is arguably it.