TomsHardware reviews Toshiba MK2035GSS and Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS 2.5" notebook hard drives
While 2.5" notebook hard drives cannot match the performance and storage capacities of their larger 3.5" cousins, they can still pack a wallop. The 2.5" drive format sits at a sweet spot between undersized 1.8" drives, which target the ultra-portable and consumer markets (think iPOD), and 3.5"-drives, which show up in hundreds of millions of PCs and servers around the world. However, it is the 2.5"-drive segment that has shown the largest growth in recent years.
Hard drive performance still represents the main performance bottleneck for notebooks, as most other components, such as graphics processors and CPUs, match the performance of their PC equivalents. A 2.5"-hard drive is a compromise with its compact dimensions geared for robustness and good battery run times for road warriors. Yet, with Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology that enables more data per square inch, 2.5" drives are becoming increasingly powerful. They won't catch up with 3.5" drives, but any enthusiast should pay attention to getting a fast notebook hard drive...
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