Testing:

     We tested the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 using the latest drivers on our Soltek SL-N4Pro-939 motherboard.  The Soltek uses the nVIDIA nForce4 CK804 SATA controller.

     Our first test was performed using HD Tach version 3.0.  HD Tach will test the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds of your attached storage device.  As you can see from the above test, the 5400.2 pulls a respectable 136.4 MB/s burst speed with a 17ms access time and an average read speed at 32.7 Mb/s.

For our second attempt, I opted to use the full test.  The original numbers are confirmed.

     To put these numbers in perspective, here is a short test run on my Seagate 120 Ultra IDE drive using the same motherboard.  The higher burst speed and only slightly increased access time of the 5400.2 over the EIDE version are even more impressive when you take into account the Momentus is only a 5400 RPM drive. The Seagate IDE specs follow:

Hard Drive: Seagate 120GB Ultra IDE Specifications:

Capacity: 120GB
Average Seek Time: 8.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM
Interface: IDE ULTRA ATA100
Features: 350 Gs non-op shock, 3D Defense System

     I also benchmarked the Momentus 5400.2 using SiSoft Sandra version 2005 Sr2.  Sandra reports a slightly faster 34 MB/s average read time.  The four comparison drives are the fastest Sandra has available.

Conclusion:

     The Seagate Momentus 5400.2 drive shows how far we have come in the 2.5" arena.  With the speed of SATA and the huge 120GB storage capacity, these drives are a laptop's dream come true.  Seagate's tests show that Momentus is 47 percent faster at opening a 12-Mbyte Excel file, 30 percent faster at copying a 170-Mbyte folder, and 47 percent faster at shutting down Windows XP than today's standard 4200-rpm notebook drives. With the 8-Mbyte cache option, the drive performs up to an additional 15 percent faster.  Up until now, a drive this fast just wasn't practical due to the limitations of current laptop batteries.  Also worth mentioning is the fact that, even during testing the Momentus was almost inaudible.  With more and more manufacturers looking to SATA in their performance laptop lines, the Momentus series is the storage solution you need.