INTRODUCTION

   We all know that just like desktop systems are equipped with 3.5 inch mechanical disk drives notebooks/laptops come equipped with their smaller 2.5 inch cousins for two extra reasons (leaving out the obvious size difference) lower power consumption and temperatures. Granted due to their smaller size the 2nd can't beat the first in terms of raw performance but for use in places where size, power consumption and temperatures are of the utmost importance (including server arrays and game consoles) these are a one way currently (at least until the price/capacity ratio of SSDs gets closer). Now 2.5" mechanical drives may not be as fast as their 3.5" cousins but there are still high performance models aimed towards enthusiasts, professionals and gamers and entry level models aimed at consumers who are looking for an affordable way to expand the storage capacity of their notebooks/laptops and game consoles. The latest L200 line of 2.5" internal hard drives by Toshiba is designed for the latter and today we're taking the 1TB variant for a spin to see just what it's capable of.

   Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) is the European electronic components business of Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation. TEE offers a broad IC and discrete product line including high-end memory, microcontrollers, ASICs and ASSPs for automotive, multimedia, industrial, telecoms and networking applications. The company also has a wide range of power semiconductor solutions as well as storage products including HDDs, SSDs, SD Cards and USB sticks. TEE was formed in 1973 in Neuss, Germany, providing design, manufacturing, marketing and sales and now has headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany, with branch offices in France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. TEE employs approximately 300 people in Europe.

   The latest L200 (HDWJ110) 2.5 inch hard drive by Toshiba is a slim (just 7mm thick) single platter SATA 3.0Gbit/s model (currently available in 500GB and 1TB capacities) that features a rotational speed of 5400RPM and comes with a total of 8MB cache (just). In terms of technologies used the L200 packs several including perpendicular magnetic recording (higher storage density compared to the older longitudinal magnetic recording), tunnel magneto resistive recording (increased stability via more robust components), native command queuing (NCQ - increases performance and at the same time reduces wear) and an internal shock sensor complete with ramp load design (both are in place to guard your data against accidents and drops). As for the power consumption "plus" we mentioned earlier for 2.5" hard drives according to Toshiba the L200 doesn't surpass 1.5W while in use a number which is 4 times smaller compared to the 6W+ usually used by even the most power-optimized 3.5" models.