40GB Roundup Vol 1 - Page 1

Time to upgrade your HD!

- Introduction

The need for increased storage capacity is becoming evident day by day. As broadband Internet is now a reality, more and more people are able to download large amounts of data. The size of Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems also require larger hard disk drives. Games and applications are increasingly consuming more and more space as well.

Most users wishing to upgrade are looking for the best size, price and performance when they spend their hard-earned cash. With ever increasing hard disk capacity, the 40GB hard disk drive has almost become the entry-level standard for disk drives. In this test we will be putting five 40 GB hard disks through their paces.

- Features

In this roundup we have tested the following 5 models

- WD Caviar WD400BB

- Fujitsu MPG3409AH-E

- IBM Deskstar 60GXP (IC35L040AVER07)

- Seagate Barracuda ST340824A

- Maxtor 740DX (6L40J2)

All drives include 40GB formatted capacity, 7200 rpm rotation speed, ATA100 connection interface, 2MB of cache, the same number of heads and slightly different dimensions/weight. All of these drives are priced between $85-135.

The Maxtor 740DX is the newest drive in this roundup and supports not only ATA100 but also ATA133, which promises even higher performance. However for our test, we used the Maxtor 740DX drive running on an ATA100 connection interface since only few current motherboards support the ATA133 interface.

The Seagate Barracuda ATAIII series arrived in a plastic case, which Seagate names as "SeaShell". SeaShell is a unique, integrated PCB cover that enhances handling protection, reduces returns and lowers service costs. Seagate says that with the "SeaShell" protects and reduced returns of broken drives at 30%! Anyway it is a good storage case for transportation.