Seagate 120GB Momentus 5400.2 PATA Notebook Hard Disk

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!

For more details, read our Comprehensive Review !

MSRP

• NA

Lowest PriceGrabber Price

Review

• Comprehensive Review

Model

• ST9120821A

Formatted Capacity

• 120 GB

Bytes Per Sector

• 512 bytes

Sectors Per Track

• 63

Cylinders

• 16,383

Platters

• 2

Read/Write Heads

• 4

Recording Method

• RLL 0, 11

Spindle Speed

• 5,400 RPM

Average Latency

• 5.6 msec.

Average Seek

• 12.5 msec.

Maximum Internal Data Transfer Rate

• 57.6 MB/s

Maximum I/O Data Transfer Rate

• 100 MB/s

Interface

• Ultra ATA 100

Cache Buffer

• 8 MB SDRAM

Maximum Height

• 9.5 mm
• 0.374 inches

Maximum Width

• 69.85 mm
• 2.75 inches

Maximum Length

• 100.2 mm
• 3.945 inches

Maximum Weight

• 100 g
• 0.22 lb

Typical Startup Current @ 5V (peak)

• 1.0 A

Seek Power (Typical)

• 2.0 W

Operating Power (Typical)

• 1.8 W

Idle Mode (Typical)

• 0.80 W

Standby Mode (Typical)

• 0.26 W

Ambient Temperature

• 5 °C to 55 °C (Operating)
• -40 °C to 70 °C (Non-Operating)

Maximum Operating Shock
(@ 2 msec.)

• 250 G

Maximum Non-Operating Shock
(@ 1 msec.)

• 900 G

Idle Drive Acoustics

• 2.4 bels (Typical)

Performance Seek Drive Acoustics

• 2.9 bels (Typical)

Head Rest Method

• QuietStep^TM Ramp Load

Load/Unload Cycles

• 600,000 Cycles

Non-Recoverable Read Errors

• 1 error per 10¹⁴ bits read

Warranty

• 5 Years Limited Warranty