真乄科技業的頂尖投資團隊

Seagate Laptop Ultrathin HDD 目前已經開始出貨，專為平板電腦和類似 Ultrabook 之類的行動裝置所設計，因此除了厚度為 5mm 薄之外，在重量方面越 93.5g。

目前這款硬碟擁有 500GB（ST500LT032）和 320GB（ST320LT030）兩種容量，採用 SATA 6.0Gbps 傳輸介面，快取為 16MB/s。至於轉速方面，並沒有多做說明，推測應該為 5400RPM 的產品。與 WD 不同的是，Seagate Laptop Ultrathin HDD 採用標準的 SATA 介面，讓使用者自行升級更為方便。

Seagate’s latest single-platter laptop hard drive that was announced today has slimmed down to just 5mm thick while maintaining standard SATA connectivity and interoperability with 7 and 9.5mm drive bays. The 5mm HDD market is centered around laptops, tablets, ultrabooks, and other mobile storage; product lines which are also transitioning from larger form factors to 5mm. If its performance is competitive with other third-generation slim drives, the Laptop Ultrathin's flexible form factor may give Seagate an edge in the mobile storage market.

It's not just in-compute devices that Seagate sees a great deal of potential for 5mm hard drives. Accessory vendors ranging from portable hard drive enclosures to those trying to provide unique storage access for tablets and other small portables see value in a high-capacity, low-cost storage option this size. There is a battle being waged though in the 5mm storage space and it's centered on interface. Whereas WD’s new 5mm Blue UltraSlim HDD we reviewed in April is strongly oriented towards newly-developing niches for 5mm single-platter drives that can take advantage of the new edge connector, Seagate has emphasized interoperability with existing mobile devices to increase the appeal of the Laptop Ultrathin to manufacturers. In other words, manufacturers buying drives to support existing 7mm and 9.5mm enclosures will find the new Laptop Ultrathin provides continuity with standard HDD offerings while allowing the company to focus product development on newer devices designed from the ground up for 5mm. WD on the other hand requires a different cabling harness for their drive, making it difficult for OEMs to multi-source hard drives in this class. There will likely only be one interface that wins out, Seagate is betting it's standard SATA.

The Laptop Ultrathin HDD line is offered in 500GB and 320GB capacities, with a separate Seagate Secure self-encrypting edition that meets TCG Opal protocol at the 500GB capacity. Being limited to a single platter means that larger 750GB and 1TB capacity drives from the previous generation have not made the transition, which is the tradeoff for the reduced height. Our review model is the 500GB Laptop Ultrathin (ST500LT032), without self-encryption.

Seagate Ultrathin HDD 500 Specifications

• Capacities
  • 320GB ST320LT030
  • 500GB ST500LT032
  • 500GB ST500LT033 (Self-Encrypting)
• Interface: SATA 6Gb/s
• Cache (MB): 16
• Seek Average, Read (ms): <13
• Seek Average, Write (ms): <15
• Max. Sustained Data Transfer Rate OD (MB/s): 100
• Max. Data Transfer Rate (MB/s): 600
• Bytes per Sector (logical/physical): 512/4096
• Load/Unload Cycles: 600,000
• Nonrecoverable Read Errors per Bits Read, Max: 1 per 10E14
• Startup Power, Typical (A): 1.0
• Seek, Typical (W): 1.4
• Idle, Typical (W): 0.48
• Operating Temperatures (C): 0 to 60
• Nonoperating Temperatures (C): −40 to 70
• Shock (Gs)
  • Operating 2ms: 400
  • Nonoperating 1ms: 1000
• Idle, Typical (Bels): 2.0
• Seek, Typical (Bels): 2.2
• Dimensions LxWxH (mm/in): 100.35/3.95 x 69.85/2.75 x 5.0/0.197
• Weight (g/lb) 93/0.205

Build and Design

Ensuring clearance for a standard SATA connector and screw point points compatible with larger drives means that Seagate has to maximize the available dimensions, but apart from its remarkable size for a hard drive, the Laptop Ultrathin offers little out of the ordinary with the design of the chassis.

Seagate describes the assembly process for the Laptop Ultrathin HDD as redesigned from the previous generation to improve reliability while remaining compatibility with 7 and 9.5mm drive enclosures.

At 93 grams, Seagate’s 5mm HDD is more than 20g heavier than WD’s Blue UltraSlim 500GB, which may hurt Seagate with manufacturers that want to compete on weight, but the flip side is that the Laptop Ultrathin’s steel base plate and steel cover design feels durable and brings quite a bit more flexibility in terms of applications and devices.

The Seagate Laptop Ultrathin uses a Marvell 88i1067 controller, Smoth motor driver and includes 16MB of DRAM for cache. Compared to the WD UltraSlim, the Seagate 5mm HDD has a near-identical circuit board as its larger 9.5 and 12mm siblings.

Performance and Synthetic Benchmarks

When it comes to measuring performance of the Seagate 5mm Laptop Ultrathin HDD the two categories of benchmarks that we commonly test all consumer HDDs and SSDs on show strengths in different areas. Our synthetic benchmarks are geared at showing the performance of the drive in an uncached "worst case" scenario, while our real-world traces allow the drive to cache data and better show how the drive would perform during repetitive day-to-day activities. 

Benchmarking Comparables:

• Hitachi TravelStar Z7K500 (500GB, 7mm)
• Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 (500GB, 7mm)
• Western Digital Scorpio Blue (500GB, 7mm)
• Western Digital Blue UltraSlim (500GB, 5mm)

Source:http://www.storagereview.com/seagate_5mm_500gb_laptop_ultrathin_hdd_review