Here are the major hard drive brands:
* TOSHIBA - Toshibas tend to be on the slower side and are one of the two brands that frequently get packaged in less expensive notebooks. Toshiba, however, was first on the market with a 120GB notebook hard disk, currently the largest capacity available.
* FUJITSU - Fujitsus are the other brand, and these also tend to be slower than other drives at the same speed.
* SEAGATE - I like the brand personally. They're about middle of the road in terms of performance, but virtually unmatched in reliability. Their drives tend to run cool and last a while, and they sport a very impressive five year warranty. They're also easy to find in retail, and they're the only other manufacturer offering 120GB drives. The trade-off is that as far as notebook hard drives go, these are the most expensive by far. And remember, these aren't the fastest in their class.
* HITACHI - These are. Hitachi is generally considered the overall best brand of notebook hard disk. Their 5400rpm drives offer performance that approaches 7200rpm levels, and they're reasonably priced. Where they fall short, however, is in heat output, as they do tend to run a bit hotter than the Seagates.
* WESTERN DIGITAL - Western Digital tends to be sort of an unknown as far as notebook drives go. If their desktop drives are any indication, I'd steer clear. Their desktop drives tend to run very middle of the road, excepting their stellar Raptor series drives. Western Digital hasn't really penetrated the notebook sector very effectively and for now, I'd just as soon avoid them.
Click to expand...
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
