Which hard drive to buy?

I'm looking to upgrade from my Seagate 5400.5 250GB drive. It's a tad slow for my needs, and it's nearly full. I will be using my current drive as an external after I put it in an enclosure.

I've got it narrowed down to 2 drives right now:

Western Digital Blue 750GB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136392

OR

Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374
AND
Icy Dock MB668US-1SB USB/eSATA enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198042

Which should I go with? I need the extra space, but either drive will be faster than my current drive.

Yes I know that the WD is a 12.5mm drive. My laptop (Asus N50) supports them. I'll use the enclosure that comes with the WD drive, if I get that.

Budget is $175, and I'm open to other suggestions, if there are any.

 

I would wait for the Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM drives. That Seagate really isn't all that fast.

 

I haven't seen any benchmarks of the Western Digital Blue 750GB. It may outperform the Seagate 7200.4 in certain areas. I would opt for the WD.

If you could wait you could get the Hitachi 7K500 which will most likely be faster than those two.

 

How much faster will the hitatchi be, how much will it cost, and when will it be released? I want to buy within 2 weeks.

The WD blue is a 3-platter drive, so the Seagate will be faster than it.

Personally, I'd feel more comfortable with a WD or Seagate drive, after being screwed by the hitatchi deathstars of ~2003, but if they're much more faster for the same price or cheaper, then I might go for it.

 

Well the Seagate 7200.4 isn't really faster than WD5000BEVT so that might be another option. http://techreport.com/articles.x/17010/1

I won't speculate on how fast the Hitachi will be but it will be hard to notice the differences with the other drives.

 

That's really strange how the 7200.4 is nearly the same speed as the WD blue. If that's the case, I might just get the WD blue 500GB because it's known to be as fast as the 7200RPM drive, while costing 25 dollars less, and using less power. But then again, the 750GB drive is also alluring because it's so massive.

I don't know what to get right now...

 

I always say go for the highest capacity, there really isnt a huge speed difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm, plus the bigger the drive, the higher the data density, which means transfer rates increase.

 

Nope. The 750GB drive is a 3 platter drive, and both 500GB drives are 2 platters. So they all have the exact same data density.

 

Ahh ok, didnt catch that, I still say the 750gb, that's my personal opinion, I always crave having more space, thats just me though.

 

That's a good point, but it's nearly 75 dollars more than the 500GB drive... I'd like to save as much money as I can, but still have a nice hard drive.

 

i am getting scorpio blue version afteralll.320 gb 5400 rpm abd be done with it.i nabged my head a lot on this bencmarks and all.

decision iswestern digital blue 320 gb.

500 gb ain available here , need to search it more.