Conclusion

The petite size of the Seagate 120GB Momentus 5400.2 PATA hard disk certainly belies its amazing capacity. Its compact 2.5" form factor packs in 120GB of storage space!

That may not be a lot when compared to desktop hard disks, but those 3.5" drives are significantly larger, heavier and more power-hungry. As far as notebooks are concerned, this drive is a monster in disguise!

This amazing capacity is probably due to the higher areal density of the Momentus 5400.2's platters, although the integration of STMicroelectronics' Smooth Drive technology may have allowed them to pack more bits into the limited surface area of the small platters.

Unlike most notebook drives, the Seagate 120GB Momentus 5400.2 hard disk comes with a massive 8MB SDRAM buffer. Such a large buffer is usually found only in high-end desktop drives. Needless to say, the Momentus 5400.2 has this large buffer to thank for its astounding burst transfer performance of 88.1MB/s! That is over 2.3X faster than that of the Fujitsu MHT2040AT hard disk!

Thanks to its higher areal density and faster spindle speed, the 120GB Momentus 5400.2 boasts a much higher read speed than the 4200 RPM Fujitsu hard disk. In fact, it's almost 50% faster! There's definitely a significant performance advantage in switching from a slow 4200 RPM hard disk to the Momentus 5400.2.

Incidentally, this hard disk comes with a magnificent 5-year limited warranty! While this does not guarantee that this hard disk won't quit on you in the next five years, it does show the amount of confidence Seagate has in the reliability of this model.

As far as notebook hard disk goes, the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 has certainly impressed us with its size, performance and quiet operation. We love it so much we feel it deserves our Reviewer's Choice Award! Congratulations, Seagate!

Questions & Comments

Please feel free to post your questions or comments here!