[mrmister]

Shipping now through TransIntl.

http://www.transintl.com/store/categ...?Category=2300

Post your opinions, benchmarks and wild speculations here.

[silverghost]

I've been waiting for this HD to ship, but I think i'll wait till they(hitachi) offer a bigger HD at the 7200 speed.

But still thats cool speeds of a desktop HD in a laptop.


aloha

[DeathMan]

How long till we can get one in a laptop and preserve our warranties? I hope apple jumps on these. Attack one of the main bottlenecks right there.

[silverghost]

Originally posted by DeathMan:
How long till we can get one in a laptop and preserve our warranties? I hope apple jumps on these. Attack one of the main bottlenecks right there.

what do you mean? im sure it wont screw with your warranty, do you mean installing a HD would cancel your warranty?

i only say this because they show you how to replace your HD in the powerbook manual. now why would they do this if it'll void the warranty.


aloha

[Scooterboy]

IBM has already announced a Thinkpad which will feature this new hard drive. I hope Apple is on the ball and gets these suckers in the PowerBooks ASAP!

[mrmister]

Fvck Apple--somebody buy it and stick in your PowerBook NOW. I just did the same with the 80 gig Travelstar, so I'm not up for it, but I really want to get speed/heat/battery life notes on this one.

[ptoomey3]

Originally posted by mrmister:
Fvck Apple--somebody buy it and stick in your PowerBook NOW. I just did the same with the 80 gig Travelstar, so I'm not up for it, but I really want to get speed/heat/battery life notes on this one.

Ask and you shall receive:


Product name Travelstar 7K60
Model name HTS726060M9AT00
Configuration
Interface ATA-6
Capacity (GB) 60
Sector size (bytes) 512
Recording zones 16
Data heads 4
Disks 2
Max. areal density (Gbits/sq.inch) 50
Performance
Data buffer (MB)1 8
Rotational speed (rpm) 7,200
Latency (average ms) 4.2
Max. media transfer rate (Mbits/sec) 518
Max. interface transfer rate (MB/sec) 100MB/sec Ultra DMA mode-5
16.6MB/sec PIO mode-4
Seek time (ms)
Average (typical) 10
Track to track (typical) 1.0
Full stroke (typical) 18
Reliability
Error rate (non-recoverable) < 1 per 1013 bits transferred
Load/unload cycle 300,000
Power
Requirement +5VDC(�5%)
Dissipation (typical)
Startup (max. peak) 5.5 W
Seek (average) 2.6 W
Read (average) 2.5 W
Write (average) 2.5 W
Performance idle (average) 2.0 W
Active idle (average) 1.3 W
Low power idle (average) 0.85 W
Standby (average) 0.25 W
Sleep 0.1 W
Power consumption efficiency (watts/GB) 0.014
Physical size
Height (mm) 9.5
Width (mm) 70
Depth (mm) 100
Weight (g) 115
Environmental characteristics
Operating
Ambient temperature 5� to 55� C
Relative humidity (non-condensing) 8% - 90%
Maximum wet bulb (non-condensing) 29.4� C
Shock (half sine wave) 200G/2ms
Vibration
Random (RMS) 0.67G (5 - 500Hz)
Sine wave 1.0G (5 - 500Hz)
Non-operating
Ambient temp -40� to 65� C
Relative humidity (non-condensing) 5% - 95%
Maximum wet bulb (non-condensing) 40� C
Shock (half sine wave) 1,000G/1ms
Vibration (sine wave) 5.0G (22 - 500Hz)
Acoustics (A-Weighted Sound Power (Bels))
Idle (typical) 2.7
Op (typical) 3.3
Idle (maximum) 3.0
Op (maximum) 3.5

[darkmatter]

Hi,

Which one has better price/performance relation?

Toshiba 60GB GAX 5400 RPM and 16 MB cache for $275.00

Hitachi-IBM Travelstar 7K60 7200 RPM but only 8 MB cache for $349.00

Kind Regards

[blot]

I bought the drive and installed it in my 17" PB.

Here are some comparisons using Xbench (17Gb partition on both drives):

Original PB drive (Toshiba 60Gb, 4200rpm)
--------------
Results 55.31
System Info
Xbench Version 1.0
System Version 10.2.6
Physical RAM 1024 MB
Model PowerBook5,1
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.00 GHz
Version 7455 (Apollo) v3.3
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 256K @ 1000 MHz
L3 Cache 1024K @ 200 MHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card GeForce4 MX
Drive Type TOSHIBA MK6021GAS
Disk Test 55.31
Sequential 64.76
Uncached Write 53.46 23.33 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 56.43 22.96 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 147.46 23.23 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 53.88 23.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 48.28
Uncached Write 42.89 0.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 49.19 11.29 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 54.83 0.36 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 47.67 9.34 MB/sec [256K blocks]
-----------

The new 7200rpm drive (Hitachi-IBM 60Gb 7200rpm)
-----------
Results 79.61
System Info
Xbench Version 1.0
System Version 10.2.6
Physical RAM 1024 MB
Model PowerBook5,1
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.00 GHz
Version 7455 (Apollo) v3.3
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 256K @ 1000 MHz
L3 Cache 1024K @ 200 MHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card GeForce4 MX
Drive Type HTS726060M9AT00
Disk Test 79.61
Sequential 91.85
Uncached Write 91.73 40.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 86.61 35.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 115.10 18.13 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 80.56 34.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 70.25
Uncached Write 51.02 0.77 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 77.83 17.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 77.50 0.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 86.30 16.91 MB/sec [256K blocks]
----------

I also tested both drives in an external firewire casing. Results shown below:

----------
Results 53.10
Drive Type TOSHIBA MK6021GAS
Disk Test 53.10
Sequential 55.63
Uncached Write 53.99 23.56 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 56.56 23.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 58.32 9.19 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 53.89 23.25 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 50.79
Uncached Write 42.93 0.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 50.39 11.56 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 53.80 0.35 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 58.70 11.51 MB/sec [256K blocks]
----------

Results 70.66
Drive Type HTS72606 0M9AT00
Disk Test 70.66
Sequential 66.45
Uncached Write 68.18 29.75 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 70.40 28.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 52.95 8.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 80.39 34.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 75.45
Uncached Write 59.76 0.90 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 83.70 19.20 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 79.54 0.52 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 85.01 16.66 MB/sec [256K blocks]
----------

Overall, I noticed a 3% decrease in battery life.
The drive runs extremely silent .... can hardly hear the drive arm or hear it spin.
It also does not seem to run any hotter than the original stock drive.

[silverghost]

thanks ptoomey3 & blot,

great to know that battery life is'nt effected that much, then again i got 3 batteries so thats cool.

does anyone know if something larger is in the works? maybe something like 120gig with the 7200rpm. now that would rock as i would be able to edit my dv files without carrying my external drive when im out and about, not to mention the faster speed would be great as a scratch disc for photoshop, and maybe help with the rendering of my 3d work.


aloha

[mrmister]

Nice, nice, nice.
How's the drive in real world situations--can you tell that there is faster I/O in app launches, stuff like that?

[blot]

Originally posted by mrmister:
Nice, nice, nice.
How's the drive in real world situations--can you tell that there is faster I/O in app launches, stuff like that?

I didn't do any real world timings, and as I've already swapped drives, I probably won't be doing any comparisions. However, any drive access is noticeably faster and it's really silent.

Oh yes, I forgot....I did one "real world" timing - startup is 16% faster.

Cheers!

[urrl5201]

Wow blot, I guess you figure you can always swap the origional HD back into the 17" if you ever have to send it in for warranty service. Where did you get the expertise to swap those HD's? I may want to try it, since I have done it with the 15". You report shows quite an improvement, on paper at least.

[blot]

Originally posted by urrl5201:
Wow blot, I guess you figure you can always swap the origional HD back into the 17" if you ever have to send it in for warranty service. Where did you get the expertise to swap those HD's? I may want to try it, since I have done it with the 15". You report shows quite an improvement, on paper at least.

Yes to the first part.

I could not have done it without help from Karim's post and this Japanese site that has been translated.

Removing and putting back the [palm rest and keyboard top plate] - was the trickiest part. Replacing the HD in the 15" TiPB is much easier compared to the 17" PB.

[mrmister]

I just upgraded to the 80GB drive, which tests below this one in performance, but above the stock drive--when the 7200rpm drives have more capacity I will be in like Flynn.

[RooneyX]

I don't see the point of such a minor HD upgrade. I'll wait until they are 100+GBs.

[Mac Zealot]

having a 1.4ghz 17" powerbook with 7200rpm 100gb hard drive would be a NICE machine ^_^

*continues to drool and dream*

[Karim]

Well while were at it lets go for a 2GHZ Dual CPU Powerbook 17" with 100GB 7200 RPM drive, and fuel cell battery pack with integrated isight camera.

[RooneyX]

Originally posted by Karim:
Well while were at it lets go for a 2GHZ Dual CPU Powerbook 17" with 100GB 7200 RPM drive, and fuel cell battery pack with integrated isight camera.

Let's be more realistic! 2Ghz G5 Powerbook with 120GB HD and NO built in iSight (I would hate a built in camera, it's so tacky looking).

By the way, I bought an iSight the other day to go with my 17 and it's cool. I just a long list of friends with the same stuff.

[SEkker]

xlr8yourmac.com has some benchmarks and real time comparisons of this drive in an external FW800 case. It is about 10-20% faster than the previous hd speed demon, which was also 20-30% faster than the stock Apple drive.

I find it hard to believe, but I am seriously considering replacing the hd in a top of the line PB17 less than 4 months old! What WAS Apple thinking -- the HD speed is the main bottleneck in their PBs.

[blot]

Bearfeats has also done some tests.

[Eug Wanker]

Does it run fine off of Firewire power? I suspect it wouldn't work so well off of USB 2.0 power.

[blot]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Does it run fine off of Firewire power? I suspect it wouldn't work so well off of USB 2.0 power.

It ran fine from the firewire 400 port of my 17" Al. I did not test it off any USB ports.