Seagate ST320LM010 320GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5″ Laptop Thin Hard Drive

Pros: *Ultra thin form factor (7mm)
*Faster than your average hard drive
*Outperforms SSD’s in large quantity small file transfers

I decided to do a real world performance test between 3 different hard drives in order to gain a speed perspective. I put this slim drive up again a Force GT 120GB SSD & 1 TB 7200 RPM Constellation Enterprise HDD. The test consists of 3 different types of files: Large Bulk Compressed Software Image, 3 Movie Files, and a Folder with 1000+ Pictures/Files of various sizes.

Results are below

1000+ Pics/Files (2.84 gb):
Seagate Thin – 430 mb/s
1 TB Constellation = 84 mb/s
Force GT SSD – 96 mb/s

Large Compressed File (10 GB):
Seagate Thin – 128mb/s
1 TB Constellation = 150 mb/s
Force GT SSD – 130 mb/s

3 Movie Files (3 GB ea.):
Seagate Thin – 120 mb/s
1 TB Constellation = 125 mb/s
Force GT SSD – 140 mb/s

I can’t explain why the thin drive does so well on large numbers of small files but it was almost instantaneous and 100% reproducible every time with no info loss.

Cons: *Capacity restraint (splitting hairs here)
*Fragile feeling construction

Overall Review: It’s a top tier hard drive just as everyone else is saying. I would definitely recommend this drive to anyone who does not have access to a SSD. I do wish the warranty was longer though as the construction does seem a bit fragile due to the thinness.

Pros: Pretty fast. Very thin. Does what it suppose to do.

Cons: Very thin. Yes I know I put very thin as a pro. But this can be a con for some applications without some type of modification. Perhaps a little pricey. Also I think 2 year warranty is a little short. 3 years would be better.

Overall Review: I did several tests with this drive and compared it to some 3.5″ drives. To my surprise this drive performed as well or better. Than a Seagate 2TB drive and a WD 750GB black drive. In seq read/write. In random read/write this drive was not as fast as 3.5″ drives.
I would recommend this drive to anyone looking for a 2.5″ HDD.
Of course a SSD would blow this drive out of the water. But that’s like apples to oranges.
Newegg/Seagate should not list the “SECURE SELF-ENCRYPTING DRIVE OPTIONS” under features of this drive because this drive does not have this feature.

Pros: This is only an amended review to a previous. The same pros still apply.

Here are updated benchmarks:

Speeds with 512 byte allocation
CrystalDiskMark x64 in Windows 8:
Sequential: 149 MB/s read and 135 MB/s write
512K: 67 MB/s read and 48 MB/s write
4K: 1.08 MB/s read and 0.4 MB/s write

Speeds when reformatted back to Advanced Format/4K allocation
CrystalDiskMark x64 Windows 8 (0% filled.):
Sequential: 142 MB/s read and 137 MB/s write
512K: 49 MB/s read and 29 MB/s write
4K: 0.60 MB/s read and 0.31 MB/s write

Speeds before, at 4K and 88% filled with data:
CrystalDiskMark x64 Windows 8:
Sequential: 90 MB/s read and 68 MB/s write
512K: 47 read and 36 MB/s write
4K: 0.76 read and 0.27 MB/s write

Cons: 1. I’m keeping one egg off for the misleading advertisement.
The obfuscated print says “Self-Encrypting Drives (SED) and FIPS 140-2 Validated drives are not available in all models or countries.”

Keep in mind that though they are advertising these drives all around the internet as having the encryption feature

*****only one of the five drives in this lineup has the encryption feature and that is the 5400RPM/500GB/16MB cache model, no 7200RPM models.*****

If I pull up a listing solely for purchasing a 7200RPM/500GB/32MB cache drive then it will advertise self-encryption. Only clicking through data sheets and PDF files will a buyer realize this is misleading.

2. Also, when this drive fills up it seems to slow down. I have 11TB of [Mostly Seagate] storage in my desktop and some drives are filled. I tested them and the read/write speeds are on par with how they’ve always been. With this drive, however, when it was up to 88% filled the speeds were nearly halved. Just an observation to note.

Overall Review: This is still a solid drive so long as you are not purchasing it for the encryption technology or, as it appears, planning to use it for anything demanding speed when the drive is filled. I also would call into question it’s performance if someone were to encrypt the entire disk. If performance suffers with the drive filled, then preallocated disk encryption would likely cause it to suffer in performance as well but I have not tested this scenario yet, personally.

Pros: Decent Hdd, No errors detected from the start. Runs, works great and no issues installing in a laptop with Windows 10 running.

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: Thinner than most 2.5″ drives however if your laptop uses any type of mounting bracket then it should work just fine. If it relies on fitting into the slot with any bracket, may want to be a little cautious, although you could always put a small folded piece of paper or two to help support if it wiggled any.

Pros: Thinner than a standard 2.5″ drive but without any sacrifices. Speed, storage and no discernible noise.

Drive was tested in an Alienware M17X R3 and a M11X R1 and easy enough to install in both drives. In each system, the drive was rock solid with an average transfer rate of 115 read, 91 write MB/s transfers (average of both systems together). Speedy overall, with constant data transfers.

No complaints for speed and performance, and 500GB is more than enough for most mobile users.

Cons: There are larger drives for the same price or cheaper. It’s pricy for the storage space space, but if you have an ultrabook or system that requires a drive with a reduced profile this more than fits the bill. The ultrabook crowd seems to be this drive’s target market (which is fine).

Overall Review: All in all, the drive was swift and a great performer for a laptop HDD with a reduced profile. Seagate managed to shave off several mm with no sacrifices. It offers a good mix of storage and speed, and while it’s no SSD, it’s a solid performer for a traditional mobile HDD.

The drive ran a bit warm. Not sure if the extra loss size reduces the drive’s heat dissipation, but it never got to worrying temperatures.

Drive was shipped in a thick bubble sleeve that protected it in shipment. Great packaging across the board.

Pros: As it relates to other laptop hard drives, this one is fast. Most hard drives that come with laptops are 5400RPM and slow. This hard drive ups that to 7200RPM and it comes with 32MB cache. All things you normally don’t get with a laptop nor do you get to choose. This hard drive was tested in a newer Dell laptop to upgrade the existing 500GB hard drive that was 5400RPM. I was pleasantly surprised it worked right out of the box and I could noticeably tell the speed difference with transfers.

I also tested this laptop as an auxiliary backup hard drive on my desktop. I mounted it next to my SSD. It again performed flawlessly and had nearly identical transfer speeds as the other Seagate drives in my computer.

Cons: The price is a bit high, but if your laptop has a 5400RPM drive or is smaller than 500GB, then why not? It is only $79. While the sizing is a cool feature, it isn’t really necessary and it probably is factoring into the costs.

Alternatively, if you don’t care about RPM speed and are using a slow laptop, then obviously you can buy a 5400RPM hard drive with more capacity and probably for cheaper…but why would you?

Overall Review: Again as previously stated, if you need a new hard drive, or a faster hard drive, or a more reliable hard drive for your laptop, then get this drive. Seagate is a solid name in the hard drive business and are consistently innovating new and functional solutions for storage.

Pros: This drive preformed well as expected and speeds are on par with advertising. I placed this in my Alienware M18x laptop to use as a secondary storage and amazed at the transfer rate when copying large files. Even loading of games was a lot faster than my older 7200 drives in my desktop. Average read was 120 MB/s and write was 82 MB/s. I am still going to do some tuning but this was transferring from a SSD which I believe helped the transfer speeds a lot. 32MB Cache and 6.0 Gb/s is very welcome on this drive.
This drive stayed pretty warm and of course a lot warmer than my SSD drives but this was expected. I believe it would have no problems placing this in a console such as a PS4 as far as heat issues goes. This was not tested so I cannot say for sure.

Cons: The only con I could find is that you can find larger capacity drives if speed is not an issue. You get what you pay for though and this is the trade off. For me, playing games, I want the fastest speeds I can get so this is definitely worth the extra cost though because I can load up the same game with this drive compared to my desktop 7200 RPM drives that only averagee around 80 MB/s read. The only con I could find is that you can find larger capacity drives if speed is not an issue. You get what you pay for though and this is the trade off. For me, playing games, I want the fastest speeds I can get so this is definitely worth the extra cost though because I can load up the same game with this drive compared to my desktop 7200 RPM drives that only average around 80 MB/s read.

Overall Review: This was tested in an Alienware M18x with a core i7 2820 processor, 8GB ram, 2X2GB graphics cards and an Intel 520 series 120 GB SSD. If you can afford SSDs then you wont be disappointed with them. This drive however is a larger in capacity and still pretty fast. If you are not looking for insane transfer rate, then this drive will keep you happy for years to come.
Just make sure that your device does have a SATA transfer rate of 6.0 Gb/s to use this to the fullest performance. I made the mistake a while back getting a faster drive than my mother board could handle and until I switched it into a new computer it was getting around 40 MB/s less read speeds.
This would be great to place in a laptop and do a raid-0 array which I always recommend. I even use raid-0 on my business machines and have never had a problem. Of course make sure you always back up your data especially when using a raid-0 array.
This is a nice drive at a great price especially for the transfer rates. You won’t be disappointed!

Pros: It is a little bit thinner than the standard, not really noticeable but definitely measurable. It’s also a bit lighter.

It’s fast for a laptop hard drive being 7200 RPM whereas the standard for 2.5″ drives is 5400 RPM. You will notice the difference in transfer speeds. It has a 32MB cache which is double what most drives at a similar price point offer.

Seagate makes good quality drives lately so no worries there.

Cons: If all you care about is storage you can get a higher capacity drive at a similar price point, but you’d likely have to give up some speed.

Overall Review: On the speed vs. capacity spectrum this drive is definitely more towards the speed side. Ideal for laptop gaming if you’re not going to spring for a SSD.