Testing (continued):

HD Tune Pro 3.50:

This benchmark is interesting to say the least. The larger Seagate uses twice as much CPU as the legacy Hitachi, while the smaller Seagate falls right in line between them. Access times are a bit off of the advertised specs, but that is to be expected. What we did not expect was how much they were off. The Momentus 5400.4 was only off by about 12%, but the Travelstar and the Momentus 5400.6 were off a whopping 60%. Average read times here were not unexpected, but the burst speed with the Momentus 5400.4 was 25% faster than the other two drives.



SiSoft Sandra 2009.1.15.72:

Access times for the Seagate drives on this benchmark were certainly not in line with what we saw with the HD Tune scores. Momentus 5400.4 was off 21%, the Momentus 5400.6 was off 35%, but the Travelstar was off 55% of the advertised spec. With respect to the Drive Index, the newer technology of the 500GB Seagate is the winner here.