Hands On Review of Seagate Momentus 5400.6 (Tested on Windows 7)

Today, we were sent a parcel from Seagate with their new Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500 GB hard drive for reviewing purpose. After unpacking the hard drive, it was evident that the product was very lightweight and compact. Seagate says, the best part of the hard drive is the areal density of 394 Gbytes per square inch – the highest ever for a notebook hard drive – with a data transfer rate of 87 Megabytes/second, the fastest available for a 5400-rpm notebook drive (as claimed). Also it is shock proof (G-Force protection) and has a 8mb cache to help it become faster. Anyway, let us see how did it look and faired in our tests.

Key Features

• 8-MB cache delivers fast performance.
• 1000 Gs of nonoperating shock make the drive ideal for notebook PCs and industrial applications.
• G-Force Protection™ feature available for added robustness in mobile environments
• Utilizes ramp load features that remove the head from the disk during idle periods, improving idle power consumption and adding to the durability of the drive
• QuietStep™ technology enables ultra-quiet load/unload acoustics.
• SATA 3Gb/s interface with Native Command Queuing
• Perpendicular recording technology:
  • Higher areal density means higher throughput speed.
  • Fewer platters means lower complexity and manufacturing cost.
  • Fewer platters also means lower usage and cooler operation, especially important for battery-powered mobile devices.

Our Set up

I used a 3 GHz P4 Processor with 1 GB RAM and the software we used are HD Tach, HD tune and SMART (for error check etc)

Pros as we Tested

• Fast.
• Even at the time of maximum write speed, the HDD doesn’t generate much sound. It is really well controlled.
• The price is really cool considering other products in the market
• Native Command Queuing (though its not that useful for desktops)
• Low temperature maintained.
  

Cons as we Tested

• Its fast but with 5400 RPM, its still not the quickest.
• The G Force protection (though no one is concerned about it) - I have doubts.
• As you will see our results, the HDD acts a bit slower on write speed.

Statistics

• Average Read: 72.1 MB/s
• Average Write: 53.4 MB/s
• Minimum transfer rate: 43.1 MB/s
• Maximum Transfer Rate: 84 MB/s
• Average temp Throughout: 31 degree celsius

Statistics when Tested on Windows 7

Recently we tested for another round on the newest Windows 7 operating system. The results as per HD Tune are not that satisfying though. The minimum transfer rate is a let down. Still the maximum one is quite impressive reaching 80 at some points.

Seagate Momentus 5400.6 tested on Windows 7 when the CPU is completely idle and we are not running any background process

Seagate Momentus 5400.6 tested on Windows 7 when we are running background processes, such as Firefox

A complete diagnostic test of Seagate Momentus 5400.6

Seagate momentus 5400.6 complete firmware configuration

Unboxing of Seagate Momentus 5400.6

Seagate Momentus 5400.6- First look

While Unpacking Seagate Momentus 5400.6 box

Seagate Momentus 5400.6 Hard drive lying upon HP Tx Pavilion tablet Pc

Seagate Momentus 5400.6 width compared with Moserbaer DVD Front View

Seagate Momentus 5400.6 width compared with Moserbaer DVD - back view

Seagate Momentus 5400.6 sleekness compared with a 50 Paisa coin

Our Verdict

Its an impressive product from Seagate with all the features yielding decent results. We are quite satisfied with it on our first set of tests. More will be revealed if a major discrepancy is found. Why don’t you leave your feedback here too.