New low-power/noise 2.5" HDD from Hitachi (4K120)

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Slaugh
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Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2004 2:27 am
Location: Quebec, Canada

New low-power/noise 2.5" HDD from Hitachi (4K120)

Post by Slaugh » Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:19 pm

I found this one on Digit-Life:
Hitachi releases low-power/noise Travelstar 4K120 series

These new 2.5" HDDs from Hitachi should consume 30% less power than those of the previous serie. The official press release can be found on the Hitachi website.

Here are the specs (appearing in the press release):
  • 120/100/80/60/40 GB
  • 9.5 mm in height
  • 99/99/99/95/95 grams maximum weight
  • 4200 rpm
  • 7.1 ms average latency
  • 98 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density
  • 2/2/2/1/1glass disk platter(s)
  • 4/4/3/2/2GMR recording head(s)
  • 1000 G/1ms non-operating shock
  • 300 G/2ms operating shock
  • 11 ms average read time/13 ms average write time
  • 0.65 W active idle
  • 0.45W low-power idle
  • 0.15W standby
  • 100 MB/sec maximum interface transfer rate ATA-6 Ultra DMA mode-5
  • 2.3/2.3/2.3/ 2.0/2.0 Bels typical idle acoustics
  • 2.7/2.7/2.7/2.4/2.4 Bels typical operating acoustics

perplex
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Location: Club Tropicana

Post by perplex » Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:29 am

i wonder how this compares to other notebook drives like Samsung MP0402H

frostedflakes
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Location: United States

Post by frostedflakes » Fri Jul 08, 2005 7:30 am

This sounds like it could be based on the same concept as Samsung's hybrid drive? Can anyone confirm?

http://news.com.com/Samsung+hybrid+hard ... 83836.html

Tibors
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Post by Tibors » Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:27 am

In their press release HGST wrote:In the notebook space, the 4K120 out-performs all other 4200 RPM 2.5-inch hard drives based on published specifications for seek time, read/write functions and data transfer rates.
(emphasis mine)

So alas this does not sound like a nice candidate for a system drive.

frostedflakes,
Where did you see any reference to this being some sort of hybrid drive? I don't see it.

frostedflakes
Posts: 1608
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:02 pm
Location: United States

Post by frostedflakes » Fri Jul 08, 2005 10:43 am

I didn't see any reference to it being a hyrbrid, but I don't see how it could supposedly use such little power and not be a hybrid. And I find it kind of odd that none of the specs mention anything about cache. This makes me think that there is no cache, or at least not in the traditional sense, but the hybrid flash storage for temporary holding of data until it can be transferred for permanent storage to the platter.

Just my $0.02, though - I could be way off.

EDIT: Looked at some detailed specs, and it doesn't appear to be a hybrid. Just a normal hard drive with many optimizations for low power consumption.

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