HDD comparison/review:

I've never written a forumal review, so if this sucks, just tell me what to add or negate.

Reason for this review:

SSDs are all the rage, but many of us can't afford them. I currently don't have a job, but needed a new laptop as I am going back to school to work in the field of computers vs doing medical research (long story & not relevant to this discussion).

I spent a good amount of money on a lenovo x200, but needed a larger, faster drive than the 160gb 5400rpm drive it came with. While I could have probably used a 120gb ssd, I couldn't afford the cost vs a mechanical drive.

What will be compared:

1. OCZ agaility 120gb w/ Trim (Firmware v1.4)
2. Samsung Spinpoint F3 500gb
3. HITACHI Travelstar 5K320 HTS543216L9A300 (0A56413) 160GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache
4. HITACHI Travelstar HD20500 IDK/7K 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache

Current Cost of each drive on newegg (just to give a general baseline) in order:

1. $370
2. $55
3. $50
4. $110


I own all of these drives and use them for different reasons:

The SSD is my desktop's OS drive.
The Spinpoint F3 is a drive I use for torrents/IRC and to install games to.
The Hitachi 160gb was my laptop's hdd.
The Hitachi 500gb is now my laptop's current hdd.

Hardware used to test these drives:
(all hardware was tested under windows 7 x64 Pro)

Desktop: (for both the ocz and spinpoint)
The OCZ & Samsung drives were used on a rig with the following specs:
MSI K9A2 Platinum
Phenom II 945 OC'd to 3.75ghz (250x15)
G.Skill DDR2 1000 2x2gb (5-5-5-15)
OCZ agility OS Drive
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500gb drive
WD 750gb drive for storage (slow, not worth testing)
Corsair HX850
GTX260 core216

Laptop: (to test both 2.5" mechanical drives)
Lenovo x200 (clean OS installs)
p8600 (2.4ghz C2D)
Generic DDR3 1066 2x2gb (7-7-7-20)
Either the 160gb or 500gb Hitachi drives
x4500HD intel graphics

BENCHMARKS!

CrystalDiskMark

OCZ Agility 120gb (immdiately after using Wiper OS and everything installed):


Samsung Spinpoint F3 500gb 7200rpm 3.5"


Hitachi 500gb 7200rpm 2.5"


Hitachi 160gb 5400rpm 2.5"



I figured Cyrstaldiskmark would be the most appropriate as we could do sequential read/writes all day with HDtune, but that wouldn't really help too much in real world use.

Windows 7 feels much snappier than it did with the original drive included. This 500gb is supposedly the fastest drive on the market for laptops, size wise, even beating the samsung momentum line of drives in real world apps.

I cannot hear this drive unless I put my ear to it, but that goes for each of these drives.

I don't have any other lapdrives from WD or Seagate to measure these results against, unfortunately.

If you care considering a mechanical drive for a laptop, the Hitachi is a great choice. If you can afford an SSD and are will to drop the money on one, by all means do so. There is a world of difference in access time for random I/O, as well as every other benchmark to be honest. If price is an issue and you need the space, you won't be cheated if you buy this drive.