[Davin]

The 7K250 is the first Deskstar to be released exclusively under the new Hitachi brand. We've put the serial ATA version of drive to the test to see how it compares to the likes of Maxtor and Western Digital. Has the Deskstar's traditionally excellent performance survived the transition? Let's take a look!

Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 Review

[Prof.Wizard]

The drive rocks! (As I expected...)

Only thing I didn't understand was this: "In the SR Bootup DriveMark, a somewhat unusual case that features the higher-than-normal queue depths generated by Windows XP's boot process, the 7K250 stumbles ever so slightly behind the Caviar by an imperceptible 1% margin." But as the reviewer says, it falls in the imperceptible margin (of error?).

All things considered, a winner! Let's hope now that its reliability is OK too.

[CityK]

I would have liked to have seen a stronger conclusion.

Case in point, during the introduction (which I thought was nicely done) we read how WD "scored a performance coup", "never lost stride", and has "maintain[ed] a stranglehold on ATA performance leadership". Although WD may have never looked back, clearly neither has its rivals. Quite simply, the 7K250 has brought, temporarily at the very least, an end to the succesion of WD drives as leaders in the 7.2K realm. The 7K250 has, if you may, usurped WD from that thrown. Further, in desktop usage, the 7K250 even seriously challenges the performance pulled off by WD's 10K Raptor.

CK

[Eugene]

CityK, on Oct 7 2003, 11:34 AM, said:

I would have liked to have seen a stronger conclusion.

Hmm, you're right- the close somehow didn't convey the excitement I privately shared with a few others about the drive, especially in light of all the flower tossed over WD in the intro .

I've added a sentence to remind readers of the significance of a new 7200 RPM leader.

[CityK]

I would just make one small correction to the addition Eugene:

"Western Digital's three-year run with the 7200 RPM ATA title has finally come to a close"

"At", as it currently stands, implies what Maxtor, Seagate etc would by making (i.e. a run at the title). Whereas "with" in this case would imply possesion of said title (which WD clearly held prior to the 7K250).

Then again, this coming from the guy who spelt throne "thrown"

CK

[Eugene]

CityK, on Oct 7 2003, 12:48 PM, said:

I would just make one small correction to the addition Eugene:

"Western Digital's three-year run with the 7200 RPM ATA title has finally come to a close"

Ok, changed, thanks

[CougTek]

Why isn't the "heat and noise" graph not called the "noise and heat" graph, since the measures are presented in that order?

[warmonger]

The first time I read the review, I was assuming that the Raptor scores were coming from the first sample, and not the third. You know, the kind of thing you'd expect from a THG or X-Bit review .

But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the retail Raptor scores were used, and I just thought I'd say thanks for the great review, Eugene. So, thanks!

[troop]

The Review drive is a sata. What performance does the pata version show ?

[rfarris]

troop, on Oct 7 2003, 04:24 PM, said:

The Review drive is a sata. What performance does the pata version show ?

Who cares? Nobody buys pata anymore! :-) <- smiley