Hitachi travelstar z5k500 / 500gb notebook slim hdd / sata 6.0gb/s / 2.5inch 7mm

Hitachi Z5K500-500 Specs

HGST Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E680 (0J38065) 500GB 5400 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive - OEM

•Interface: SATA 6Gbps

•Capacity: 500GB

•Sector Size: 4K Advanced Format

•Areal Density (max): 636 Gbit/sq. in.

•Data Buffer: 16MB

•Rotational Speed: 5400RPM

•Latency (average): 5.5 ms

•Seek Time (average/typical read): 13 ms

•Physical Height: 7mm

•Weight: 95g

•Power consumption (W):

•Startup peak (max): 4.5

•Seek (average): 1.8

•Read/Write (average): 1.6

•Performance Idle (average): 1.5

•Active Idle (average): 0.8

•Low Power Idle (average): 0.55

•Standby (average): 0.2

•Sleep: 0.1

•Hardware Platform‎: Laptop, PC, AIO

Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500-500 Review HTS545050A7E680

With 7mm ultra-thin hard drives all the rage, Hitachi aims to blast one out of the park with its new 500GB single-platter Z5K500 – that’s right, 500GB on a single platter. Getting to this higher capacity in such a slim package has been a big deal for drive manufactures, since in the 7mm drive space you are limited to a single drive platter, instead of two in a 9.5mm drive or three in a 12.5mm drive. While capacity might be the biggest selling point of this drive, it is also important to see how well it does in the performance category, which we dive into in this review.

With 7mm ultra-thin hard drives all the rage, Hitachi aims to blast one out of the park with its new 500GB single-platter Z5K500 – that’s right, 500GB on a single platter. Getting to this higher capacity in such a slim package has been a big deal for drive manufactures, since in the 7mm drive space you are limited to a single drive platter, instead of two in a 9.5mm drive or three in a 12.5mm drive. While capacity might be the biggest selling point of this drive, it is also important to see how well it does in the performance category, which we dive into in this review.

Let’s talk about some benefits of having a single-platter hard drive. First of all, there is less power consumption; the motor only has to spin one platter around. Combined with their thinness, this makes 7mm drives very attractive for use in ultraportable notebooks such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X series. Additionally, the 7mm drives produce less noise on average since there are less moving parts. And last but not least, 7mm drives also weigh a tad bit less than a standard 9.5mm drive.

Aside from its monster 500GB single platter design and 7mm z-height, the Z5K500 has little in the way of uniqueness. It does use the new 4K Advanced Format, which increases the age-old 512b sector size by a factor of eight; theoretically this improves performance and reliability by a small amount (though in our testing, the difference is quite small). Rounding out the specifications, the Z5K500 has a standard 5400RPM spindle speed and an unremarkable 8MB cache. The Z5K500 is also available in 250GB and 320GB versions (HTS545032A7E380 and HTS545025A7E380, respectively).