Power Comparison

While hard disk manufacturers have been producing 5400 RPM notebook hard disks for years and even 7200 RPM hard disks in this form factor, many companies still insist on using slow 4200 RPM hard disks. Their reason? Faster hard disks consume more power and reduce battery life.

Even when we asked local retailers for faster 2.5" hard disks, we get snorts of derision. Why? According to them, faster hard disks suck up power like there's no tomorrow. You don't want that in your notebook, son.

Because 2.5" hard disks are designed for notebooks and mobile devices like MP3 players, their power consumption is an important consideration. Hard disks that use more power will certainly reduce the limited battery life of those devices.

But are claims that faster hard disks consume more power really true in the first place? Let's find out.

Let's compare the power consumption of the two hard disks we tested in this review - the Seagate 120GB Momentus 5400.2 and the Fujitsu 40GB MHT2040AT.

As you can see, the faster Momentus actually consumes LESS power than the Fujitsu MHT2040AT during reads and writes! It only consumes more power when it's idling or in standby mode. That could be due to the much larger SDRAM buffer used in the Momentus hard disk.

Therefore, it is not true that using a faster hard disk will definitely reduce your notebook's battery life. The faster spindle speed does not necessarily mean the hard disk will require more power.

So, do not be afraid to use faster hard disks in notebooks. It's more than about time for notebooks to enjoy much better hard disk performance. And you don't even have to worry about reduced battery life. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too!