Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Miniature 5400 and 7200 RPM HDDs Reviewed

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the small-sizes-and-big-storage dept.

PReDiToR writes "At Tom's Hardware I found this favourable review of some remarkable Hard Drives. The article points out that with 40GB units suitable for server or desktop use, life with 2.5" drives could be just around the corner. Heat noise and power consumption are all apparently within acceptable tolerances."

19 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. USB Key's by Heartz · · Score: 5, Insightful
    With USB keys being much smaller and storage sizes increasing exponentionally,will the spinning disk still be a relavant tool for easy to carry around storage.

    USB keys are not only lighter, but you don't even have to worry about it fsckign because you shook it too much while you were on the bus.And they look waaay cooler too.

    1. Re:USB Key's by tomstdenis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, right until after you re-write a sector that 100k'th time......

      Normal IDE disks are rated for a billion re-writes at least. [provided the motor lasts that long]. That's why "them there funny rotating disc like objects" are used to store data.

      Until they invent a lower-power [recall flash requires around 10V or higher to write, from a 3V source that's a loss!] and longer-lasting high density flash you won't see "them funny discs" replaced any time soon.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    2. Re:USB Key's by fr0z · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But USB keys don't have enough space to store my pr0n...

      --
      Never underestimate the predictability of human stupidity...
    3. Re:USB Key's by Alien+Being · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "will the spinning disk still be a relavant tool for easy to carry around storage."

      It's about 100x cheaper than solid state and storage "requirements" keep going up, so I'd say yes. Disk based digital video recorders will probably catch on at some point.

    4. Re:USB Key's by Phroggy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Find me a USB key that holds 40GB for under $200 and we'll talk.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  2. Very Nice by Delifisek · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It will lead lots of different things
    Like smaller desktop PC'S etc.

    --
    [My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]
    1. Re:Very Nice by Pharmboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It will lead lots of different things
      Like smaller desktop PC'S etc.

      Yea, and hover cars. We have been promised smaller computers for 20 years now and the closest thing we have in mass production is a Dell Opti (not bad, I have one). 98% of all pci cards are still the same height as the original ISA (and S100 for that matter). The industry has put more energy into mod cases than smaller designs, and really we have to blame ourselves, since they make what we will buy. While having an aquarium built into your case has a certain degree of cool factor (inverse pun intended) we won't see smaller desktops until people DEMAND them.

      We already have the technology and components to make very small and still powerful computers (ie: laptops) but people would rather spend the extra $300 (for the same power) on case mods or better speakers. Perhaps once LCD screens become standard equipment, smaller computers will become more in vogue. Until then, the size of a mid tower doesn't look so big compared to a 19" CRT. Personally I can't wait for computers the size of a CDROM drive, with midlevel+ power, I'm just not holding my breath.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    2. Re:Very Nice by Delifisek · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hmmm I'm not talk about people who wants aquarium in his pc case.

      I'm talking about small PC cases, or think how many of this 2.5 7200 rpm drives can fit 1u rack server ?

      Also you point about size of PCI and AGP cards. So I'm asking is your VGA do same job your good old VLB cirrus logic card ? Or what. You may look at size of Realtek network cards. Or you may check Linux on chip systems. If Hitachi or Seagate can produce 73 gb SCSI 10.000 RPM 2.5 drive it will lead another options for the system builder.

      And remember, if USA live another power shortage goverments may think raise of power prices.

      Also I'm not asking to you hold your breath.

      --
      [My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]
  3. What they didn't touch on is... by Colitis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Durability. The faster the drive is spinning, the more strain on the bearings if your laptop (I'm assuming laptops are the biggest use for these right now) is moving around at all.

    I'm afraid I'd rather a slow drive that'll take all sorts of abuse - using my laptop on the bus, shuffling it around on my lap, turning it around to show somebody something on the screen etc etc - than a fast one that isn't tough enough.

  4. Re:slightly ot by patch-rustem · · Score: 2, Insightful
    what I'm thinking might be interesting for doing servers on the cheap would be to do raid arrays with usb based drives...

    Put down the crack pipe, sir, and move away from the keyboard.

    --
    Karma: Bad due to google bombing - Robert Watkins woz 'ere.
  5. Interesting, but what does it cost? by dphoenix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You have to remember .. the "cost" figure is strangely omitted anywhere from his review. People will pay for performance, but only within reason! However, inevitably, price will drop on these things and you will see smaller systems (tablets, tiny desktop pcs, consoles). It would be nice to make an even smaller media center PC using one of these.

  6. Re:slightly ot by jtcampbell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    USB speed is highly dependant on the processing power of the "host" computer. This is one of the main things that differentiates it from firewire. So whilst you may be able to do this you may well need another processer per drive or something silly like that. This would obviously drive up the cost a lot.

    Also the cost of all those IDE->USB converters and custom "USB raid controller" is likely to push the cost of the array above that of a (much better) SATA or even SCSI one.

    You'd be much better using SATA. It's designed for this sort of thing.

  7. Re:With 20k rpm scsi drives.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Excuse me? Please, tell us about these mythical 20K and 25K RPM drives. I dare you to post a link.

  8. Oh please by Gherald · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are a lot of comments up there saying this will allow for smaller desktops, etc.

    I don't think that is realistic. For the price you pay, 2.5" drives are horribly inefficient, and nowhere near as fast as 3.5" models.

    Pretty much all 2.5" get used for now are notebooks and MP3 players.

    Maybe as Mini PCs become more popular and mature these drives will get some use there. But this is hardly something to write home about.

    --
    The unofficial /. digest
  9. smaller != better by meshko · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even full size harddrives have gotten much less reliable lately. I assume this is because the data density keeps growing. I would rather buy a hard drive which is slightly bigger (I guess it would have to be more platters because making the radius bigger will make seek times longer?) but will last for more than 2 years.

    --
    I passed the Turing test.
  10. A couple of points... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am a storage consultant so I kinda know what I'm talking about here (just thought I'd get that in before I get slagged off) and assuming that you're not totally joking...

    1) The technology used within USB type memory keys is only good for about 10000 write operations max.

    2) They are very expensive

    3) I don't see any USB -> Fibre Channel converters and none of my suppliers have them on their hardware roadmaps (can't think why)

    4) They are staggeringly slow, even if you RAIDed a thousand of the buggers.

    5) If anyone took one of these keys into a datacentre in which I was responsible for the storage, I would do some painfully biological things to them.

    6) In modern datacentres the mass storage (and quite offen the local system disks as well) are supplied from a consolidated disk array which is hung off a fibrechannel network almost nobody who is anybody does JBOD for mass storage any more.

    7) RAID shouldn't ever be controlled by software for serious users

    8) can't be arsed to go on, but you get the general idea...

  11. Re:Laptops feel so slow... by vudufixit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd like to see effort put into making batteries that last longer. Those methanol fuel cells have been two years away for five years now.

  12. Re:USB Keys with HDs - already happening by b-baggins · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Transferring 1.5 GB over USB?!? I think not. Firewire 800 maybe...

    --
    You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
  13. Re:Autonomous Computing? by derrith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the problem with using 2.5" drives for user customised machines is that EVERY machine has to be exactly the same as next one. Well, not exactly, cpu and ram can be different. However, Motherboard, video card, whatever peripherals, sound cards (if any) would need to be exactly the same as win2k and unix do not take so kindly to hardware chaning on them from one bootup to another. what may work is a FAT32 home partition on the unix boxen which will just pop up as another drive on the 2k boxen. just my thoughts on the matter.

    --
    why does the porridge bird lay his eggs in the air?