An Energy-efficient But Slow Hard Disk
- 1. Sony Vaio TX-Series Is Extremely Light, Chic, And Blessed With Extensive Power Saving Features
- 2. Feather Light And Gorgeous
- 3. Feather Light And Gorgeous, Continued
- 4. Ports And Connectors: Very Few Wishes Left Unfulfilled
- 5. Some Design Flaws
- 6. (Nearly) Ideal Status Indicator And Instant-on AV Use
- 7. An Expensive, Heavy Duty, High Current Battery Is Standard
- 8. An Adequately Sized Power Supply With A Long Recharge Time
- 9. VGA Output
- 10. Noise Output: Could Be Quieter
- 11. What About Fan Controls?
- 12. 11.1" TFT LED Backlit Display: A Solution For The Mobility Energy Crisis?
- 13. 11.1" TFT LED Backlit Display: A Viable Way Out For The Energy Crisis? Continued
- 14. LED Gotcha: Backlight Bleeding
- 15. Small Display + High Resolution = Lousy Readability
- 16. An Energy-efficient But Slow Hard Disk
- 17. The Optical Drive May Be Turned On Or Off
- 18. System RAM
- 19. A Hobbled, But Power-Efficient Audio Chip
- 20. Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Processor
- 21. Sony Power Manager: Complete Control Over Power Management
16. An Energy-efficient But Slow Hard Disk
The Vaio VGN-TX1XP comes equipped with a 1.8" Toshiba hard disk.
To save both space and energy, Sony equiped the Vaio VGN-TX1XP with a small 1.8" hard disk. This drive holds up to 60 GB of data, but uses markedly less energy than a comparable 2.5" laptop drive. This also has a decidedly positive impact on heat dissipation as well. Under normal office usage, the hard disk's temperature stays under 108°F (42°C).
The price paid is in performance: measuring the speed of this diminutive disk doesn't leave a good impression. This can be attributed to the relatively small 2 MB cache, at least in part: 8 MB cache is now standard on most 2.5" hard disks. But more importantly, as the next two diagrams show, the average data transfer rate for a 1.8" hard disk is much less than that for a 2.5" model. Size matters, and the same issue also holds for access time, where the 1.8" drive lags behind the 2.5".
Data transfer diagram for a 1.8" drive (TOSHIBA MK6006GAH).
Data transfer diagram for a 2.5" drive (TOSHIBA MK6026GAX).
The hard disk in this laptop is also permanently mounted, which has the unfortunate consequence of making a user or third-party drive replacement or upgrade impossible. Any problem with the drive means the laptop must go to a Sony-authorized repair depot. It also takes about an hour to make a complete backup of the entire drive to an external USB or Firewire drive.
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