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Western Digital Scorpio Notebook Hard Drive

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Western Digital has recently introduced its Scorpio 5,400

rpm drives. The 2.5-inch drive that we reviewed had a capacity of 120 GB, and 8

MB of buffer memory. It can be used for notebooks, portable external storage,

GPS systems, tablet PCs, hard disk media players and compact storage solutions.

The drive claims that its power consumption is the same as a 4200 RPM drive,

which results in better performance and higher backup time on the notebook.

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Price:
Rs 9,000 (1 yr warranty)


Key Specs:
120 GB, 5,400 rpm
Contact: Champion Computers, Delhi

Tel: 26214751 E-mail: champion@usa.net

In order to protect it from shocks, the drive comes with

Western Digital's ShockGuard technology. In additon the drive has Western

Digital's DuraStep Ramp technology that locks the head in a secure position away

from the disk when the drive is not in use. The drive also uses a technology

called WhisperDrive and SoftSpeek algorithms that give it quieter operation.

We tested this drive on an IBM R-Series Centrino notebook

with 512 MB RAM.

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The drive  gave 6 MBps in Business Disk WinMark 99 and

18.9 in High-end Disk Winmark 99. 

During the test, the average transfer rate of the drive was

found to be 32 MBps and its access time was 17 milliseconds.

Compared to the 120 GB Seagate  Momentus 5400 RPM

drive we reviewed in November 2005, the Western Digital drive gave similar

performance except in the High End Disk Winmark, where the Seagate scored higher

at 21.5 MBps.

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It has a rated seek time of 12ms and its CPU utilization

was only 61 %.

Bottom Line:  The drive is a good choice for

laptop owners who need more storage space, better performance, and

something that doesn't consume more power so that their battery backup

doesn't change. The drive has an attractive price tag as well.

Anubhav Verma

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