Seagate's Savvio 2.5" SCSI hard drive

IN THE STORAGE WORLD, the notion that smaller could be better seems a little odd. After all, hard drive manufacturers have made a habit of pushing "bigger" hard drives that offer ever greater storage capacities. But hard drive size doesn't always refer to storage capacity. When it comes to physical size, smaller can definitely be advantageous for high-density rackmount raid servers, blade storage, and even small form factor and mobile workstations. Of course, size isn't everything for those applications. Performance is always important.

In a bid to shrink proportions without sacrificing speed, Seagate has introduced the Savvio line of 2.5" SCSI hard drives. These diminutive drives are not only 70% smaller than 3.5" drives, they also spin at 10K-RPM and boast lower seek times than their full-size counterparts. Seagate also claims that the Savvio family consumes less power and makes less noise than other SCSI drives.

As a small form factor enthusiast with a soft spot for SCSI, I couldn't let Savvio go unscrutinized. I've run one of these tiny drives through our usual gauntlet of storage tests against five full-size 10K-RPM alternatives. The results are both surprising and inspiring. Read on to see how well the Savvio stacks up.