Portable drive speed

ajm · 13 Jan 2006 at 09:44

Western Digital WDXML400UETE Passport 2.5" 40GB Portable Drive (HD-056-WD)
What are the speed comparrisons between the type of drive above to normal ide drives are they a lot slower if so by how much on average?I am thinking of investing in one of the portable drives and wondering if they are worth it.

AFK_Matrix · 13 Jan 2006 at 10:39

Ok 3.5" IDE drives run at 7200rpm and the 2.5" ones run at 5400rpm, although i think they are brining out 7200 2.5" but there very expensive.

If i were you i would personally would get the caddy and HDD seperate. For one the portable drive u have there only has a 2mb cache and god knows what the warranty is. With the following HDD i am gonna give you it has 3 years warranty and an 8mb cache.

Caddy = Akasa External Enclosure 2.5" Black with High Speed USB 2.0 interface (CA-011-AK) @ £19.92 Inc VAT

Western Digital Scorpio 40GB WD400VE 2.5" 8MB Cache HDD - OEM (HD-040-WD)
@ £51.64 Inc VAT

Slightly more i know but u get peace of mind with the warranty etc and its a little faster.

ajm · 14 Jan 2006 at 10:46

Thanks for the advice AFK_Matrix i will look into it a bit further.

ShakenNstirred · 14 Jan 2006 at 18:53

Hitachi do 7.200 rpm 2.5in drives
about £75 for a 40gig

ajm · 15 Jan 2006 at 16:22

I have found a Travelstar 7k100 60gb Ata6 - 2.5in 7200rpm 8mb which i think are made by Hitachi for £79.97 +vat are these any good and is it worth the price?Also will it run hot?

Fred_Or_Dead · 15 Jan 2006 at 17:14

http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.72e3cabd3a6a384ccf1824a0eac4f0a0/

The fact that they use similair power requirements as other 5.4k 2.5" hd's means they will not run a great deal hotter. Superb drives if you are after a 2.5" hd with desktop Hd performance :-)

MagicBoy · 15 Jan 2006 at 22:18

I've got a Hitachi 7k60 and it's a lot faster than the 20gb Tosh 4200rpm drive that was in my laptop previously. That said the high capacity 5400rpm 2.5" drives are nearly as fast the 7200rpm on DTR becuse they have a higher capacity per platter. The 7200 rpm drives are still much faster on seek times.

The 7k60 isn't as fast a current 7200rpm desktop drive, it's more comparible to a older drive of similar capacity like a Maxtor D740X.

ajm · 16 Jan 2006 at 09:27

Taking on board what you guys have said would i be better off going with a normal sata drive in an external enclosure than a 2.5 drive for speed?

MagicBoy · 16 Jan 2006 at 20:48

ajm said:
Taking on board what you guys have said would i be better off going with a normal sata drive in an external enclosure than a 2.5 drive for speed?

Yeah, but I'd recommend using Firewire rather than USB to connect it - it's significantly faster and uses less CPU.

ajm · 17 Jan 2006 at 10:35

Thanks MagicBoy that is good to know as i have firewire on my pc.