[Brian]

While SSDs are taking the spotlight when it comes to ultimate performance, many people still prefer the much lower cost per gigabyte of traditional hard drives. For whomever wants to pick up 320GB (or more) of storage for $100, SSDs simply aren’t an option.

Full Review

[Brian]

Thanks for the review Phil. I think most notebook people just assume the 7K500 is superior, and it is in many/most cases. But it's good to know that there's an alternative that may work better for some.

[Phil]

My pleasure Brian.

Some people might wonder why the HDTune transfer rates seem low. It's because I did the HDTune benchmarks in Safe Mode to ensure minimal disturbance from background processes. This limits performance somewhat.

I did the HDTune benchmarks in Safe Mode to ensure minimal disturbance from background processes. This limits performance somewhat.

Here's in normal mode:


Very impressive at almost 110 MB/sec at the beginning of the drive.

[[ETA]MrSpadge]

Thanks for the nice review, Phil!

Just 2 comments:
- The screen shots are hard to read due to them being scaled down. I either have to strain my eyes or right-click and choose "view image". Would be nice if the native resolution just popped up upon clicking them.

- Noise: personally I find the noise of my WD320 Black disturbing, just as much as the previous drive (Hornet 160 GB 2 platter 7.2k rpm I think). It easly dominates the sound from my main PC (see sig) running BOINC 24/7 at probably around 250 W. It suppose it's due to coupling the HDD to the notebook chassis (Thinkpad T61 with some rubber around the HDD) and coupling the notebook to a wooden table. When I had both drives running outside the notebook I couldn't hear them at all. Not sure what to take away from this for a review, as the mounting will vary for different notebooks, though.

MrS