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2.5" 7200 RPM HDD suggestions

Drizzt321

Junior Member
Silly thing posted before I meant it to...


Anyway, I'm looking around for a 7200 RPM 2.5" HDD that can be USB powered (I have the external case) and to my taste, I'm looking at the fujitsu mhz2320bj-g2 or the segate ST9320423AS. Anyone have any suggestions? Good performance reviews of either? I'm looking for top performance, as I plan to carry this around with my laptop so I can access my photos quickly, but still be able to take it off the power or even power it via an external battery (think one of those USB device charger things).
 
Huh? If you noticed, I said I was looking for top performance while still being bus powered. 7200 RPM gives me better top end performance, especially in seeks, while still being small, cool enough, and low power so it can run via USB power on the go.

If 5400rpm vs 7200rpm has pretty much identical performance, please show me some reviews and performance evaluations.
 
Na...I'm pointing you in the right direction (which you don't seem to appreciate). You do the research 😉.
 
I did do a quick bit of looking on the net, but didn't really see any performance reviews for either of those 2 drives, or 5400rpm vs 7200rpm. Of course, my google-foo might just be failing me today. But how am I supposed to accept your position without some kind of evidence to back it up? Isn't that how a good debate works? Differing positions are held about a topic, and one side or the other, or both brings forth evidence to try and persuade the other that their position is correct.

Sorry if I seem a bit confrontational, I don't mean to be, I'm just dealing with a weird situation with a 3rd party vendor that I just can't really get my head around what exactly he's saying.
 
Cause USB will limit your drive performance to about 25MB/s. Even 5400 rpm drives can have 2 times faster linear speeds than that.
Seek times are a moot point for pure storage drives. So i'd look for a large capacity 5400rpm drive, it would be cheaper and run cooler.
 
Originally posted by: Drizzt321
...But how am I supposed to accept your position without some kind of evidence to back it up? Isn't that how a good debate works? Differing positions are held about a topic, and one side or the other, or both brings forth evidence to try and persuade the other that their position is correct.

Sorry if I seem a bit confrontational, I don't mean to be, I'm just dealing with a weird situation with a 3rd party vendor that I just can't really get my head around what exactly he's saying.

Now were talking 😀 :thumbsup:.

I'm always up for a good debate. Looks like Dark Cupcake comes through with some logic. Also your search with no real results should raise some suspicion. Here is something else to consider....zero 2.5 7200 externals at Newegg.

I could have gave a better reply, but truth is, 5400 fills the usb bus.

Now to answer your question.....best 2.5 external? The cheapest 🙂.

The 7200 drive in your OP is $80.....you can get a 400gb 5400 for the same price, or save $$ and get a 320gb 5400 for only $60.

Short of it: any reliable 5400 will be great!

Good Luck 🙂

 
Some good points by both of you. I did put in my OP that I already have the external case, so I will be buying a bare drive.

One thing I neglected to mention was that the case has an eSATA port, and I have an external card for my laptop, so I can get full speed access to the drive. That may have made my point about performance a bit better.

Given that I can expect full performance via eSATA, I actually managed to get my google-foo working pretty good. I found something at Tomshardware that looks to confirm my thought, that a 7200rpm drive will outperform a 5400rpm drive.

2.5" HDD charts
Avg Read Throughput
Avg Write Throughput


I guess these charts can answer my questions, just get the model numbers off the highest performing drives and price them out.
 
Originally posted by: Phynaz
eSATA doesn't supply power.

No it doesn't. But there is a separate physical power plug and it comes with a USB cable to supply the power from the USB ports when being used with eSATA. Its really annoying actually, that they didn't think to include the amount of power USB provides over an eSATA so that drives that can run with that little power would.
 
Originally posted by: Drizzt321
Originally posted by: Phynaz
eSATA doesn't supply power.

No it doesn't. But there is a separate physical power plug and it comes with a USB cable to supply the power from the USB ports when being used with eSATA. Its really annoying actually, that they didn't think to include the amount of power USB provides over an eSATA so that drives that can run with that little power would.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817193062

Best external 2.5in drive case I've ever owned.

It would be very helpful to those trying to help you, if you'd have mentioned you have an eSATA enclosure in the first place.
 
@Golgatha
Wow, thats a really nice looking case. If I didn't already have one, I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

And you're right, I really didn't give all the information I should have in my OP.
 
I guess these charts can answer my questions, just get the model numbers off the highest performing drives and price them out.

Yep, but it doesn't say which will work on only USB without external power.

That's a chart I'd like to see.

I suppose you could look at the idle power requirements but IDK if there's a relationship to start-up power.

Good Luck!

 
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