Soooo... what speeds are you supposed to get with a 2.5" HDD?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I've got a 120GB IDE 5400RPM Hitachi with 8MB cache

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822145176

My HD Tach came out to sequential reads ranging from 40MB/s down to 20MB/s, with an average of 30MB/s. Isn't this on par with super slow 1.8" HDDs? I had nothing else running when I did the bench either.

 

[yh125d]

My laptops 5400rpm is pretty damn slow too (45mb/s avg). I *thought* I had upgraded to the 7200 version when I bought it, but I guess not

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
My HD Tach came out to sequential reads ranging from 40MB/s down to 20MB/s, with an average of 30MB/s. Isn't this on par with super slow 1.8" HDDs?

The Travelstar 5K160 Series uses an older generation platter with relatively low areal density. Maximum areal density for the 5K160 Series is ~131.5 Gbit/sq.in., but that covers single and double platter models. Your 120GB model has two platters, so the areal density likely is lower than the maximum, I would hazzard a guess to be in the neighborhood of 100 ~ 112 Gbit/sq.in.

This is primarily where the lower throughput is coming from. Though 7200RPM would improve things a bit, it still wouldn't reach low desktop-"ish" performance.

Compare this to the Travelstar 5K250 Series, which uses a single platter for its 120GB model and has a maximum areal density of ~205 Gbit/sq.in. Whereas the 5K320 Series increases max. density up to 250 Gbit/sq.in. on a single platter for its 120GB model.

 

[RebateMonger]

I'd say your benchmarks are right where they'd be expected to be. As noted, the two things working against it are the 5400 RPM and the aerial densities of the platters.