Seagate 160GB Momentus 7200.2 Notebook Hard Drive It's high time for Seagate to refresh the Momentus 7200 line using their Perpendicular Recording technology, which have been in use since it debuted in their Momentus 5400.3 hard drive. Thanks to the use of perpendicular recording, the new Momentus 7200.2 family boasts a maximum capacity of 160GB - 60% more than its predecessor. Not only does this new recording method allow for much higher capacities, it also increases the platter-to-buffer throughput merely due to the increased areal density. While the Momentus 7200.1 had a maximum internal transfer rate of 45.8MB/s, the Momentus 7200.2 boasts a much higher internal transfer rate of 59MB/s. That's about 28.8% faster than the already impressively-fast Momentus 7200.1. This was confirmed in the platter transfer rate graph which showed that the Momentus 7200.2 had a maximum transfer rate of 59.1MB/s and a minimum transfer rate of 33MB/s. In fact, that was very close to the transfer rate profile of the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 desktop hard drive - a very impressive achievement. However, because of its smaller 8MB buffer, it ended up about 14-16% slower in reads and 8.6% slower in writes than the Barracuda 7200.9. Still, that is a very impressive performance for a 2.5" notebook hard drive. It was certainly much faster than the Fujitsu 4200 RPM hard drive we tested - about 21-27% in reads and 43.8% in writes. Perpendicular recording aside, this is the first Seagate hard drive to feature an (optional) integrated G-Force Protection sensor package. This sensor package greatly increases the drive's robustness and the survivability of your recorded data by automatically parking the read/write heads in the event of an accidental fall. This feature will be of great interest to those who put great value in their data but are currently using notebooks that do not support such sensors. Tack on the magnificent 5-year limited warranty, and you will have a very attractive notebook hard drive upgrade for those who are not only interested in performance but also robustness. While the long warranty does not guarantee that this hard drive 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. If you are looking for a high-performance notebook hard drive, the Seagate Momentus 7200.2 hard drive is certainly a hard drive you have to consider. It offers performance that's close to that of desktop hard drives with a large storage capacity of 160GB. It also offers a G-Force Protection option for those who are looking for the extra protection against data loss when the notebook is accidentally dropped. All in a small 2.5" package. Hard to beat that! For more details, read our Comprehensive Review! MSRP  NA Lowest PriceGrabber Price Review  Comprehensive Review Available Models  ST9160823AS

 ST9160823ASG (with G-Force Protection)

 ST9120823AS

 ST9100821AS

 ST980813AS

 ST980813ASG (with G-Force Protection)

Formatted Capacity  160 GB (ST9160823AS, ST9160823ASG)

 120 GB (ST9120823AS)

 100 GB (ST9100821AS)

 80 GB (ST980813AS, ST980813ASG)

Bytes Per Sector  20/30 bytes Sectors Per Track  NA Cylinders  NA Read/Write Heads  NA Recording Method  Perpendicular Recording Interleave  1 : 1 Spindle Speed  7,200 RPM Cache Buffer  8 MB SDRAM Average Latency  4.17 msec. Maximum Internal Data Transfer Rate  59 MB/s (sustained) Maximum I/O Transfer Rate  300 MB/s (Serial ATA) Average Seek  11 ms Track-to-Track Seek  NA Supported Interfaces  Serial ATA 3Gb/s

 Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s Supported SATA Data Transfer Mode  3 Gbits/s

 1.5 Gbits/s NCQ Support  Yes SATA II Hotplug Capability  Yes Maximum Size  9.5 mm (0.374 inches) high

 69.85 mm (2.75 inches) wide

 100.5 mm (3.957 inches) long Maximum Weight  115 g

 0.254 lb Power Requirements  +5V DC

 1.1 A Maximum @ Startup Operating Power  2.3 W (Seek Average)

 2.1 W (Read / Write Average)

 0.8 W (Idle Average)

 0.25 W (Standby Average) Ambient Temperature  0 °C to 60 °C (Operating)

 -40 °C to 70 °C (Non-Operating) Maximum Shock  300 G @ 2 ms (Operating)

 900 G @ 1 ms (Non-Operating) Drive Acoustics  2.9 bels (Seek)

 2.5 bels (Idle) Head-Rest Method  Ramp Load Contact Start-Stop Cycles  NA Non-Recoverable Read Errors  1 error per 1014 bits read Warranty  5 Years Limited Warranty Our Review System Tech ARP is committed to developing new ways to improve your experience with us. As part of our continuous efforts to improve the value of our reviews to you, we are implementing a multi-tier review system. This review system is designed to allow you to quickly receive information on the latest hardware or software. This new system also allows you to quickly get the gist of the review without reading through it. This can be very useful, especially in situations where you need to make a quick purchase decision. In this new system, we start with a Product Overview whenever a company sends us a press release about their latest product. We shift through extraneous PR-talk to create a straightforward summary of the product's features as well as specifications. This allows you to quickly find out all the pertinent details about the product, without reading through official press releases. When we receive the product for review, we will quickly take photos of it and create a Pictorial Review. The purpose of a pictorial review is to allow you, the reader, to quickly examine the product visually. It may help you make better purchase decisions, especially if you cannot wait for the full review. After thorough testing, we will post a Comprehensive Review of the product. This adds on to the pictorial review with comprehensive test results and our final conclusion on the product. But no matter whether you are reading a Pictorial Review or a Comprehensive Review, you can always read the summary of the review as well as examine the product's specifications right on the first page. In all our new reviews, we will maintain the first page as a Product Overview page. If the product is listed in PriceGrabber, you can also check out the lowest price online. We hope this new review system will make your experience a lot more enjoyable and informative!

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