Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1418




Introduction

Welcome back for yet another edition of our Price Guide. This installation will cover the area of HDD and DVD-based storage and the associated prices and fluctuations. Not very much has happened since the last time we took a look at these two components, as prices have remained fairly stable in both areas, which isn't necessarily a bad thing when high-ticket items such as DDR memory and video cards seem to be all over the charts.

As always be sure to take a look at our RealTime Pricing Engine for the latest prices and deltas before you go shopping.




DVD Burners

With large amounts of data comes the classic dilemma: How do we back up all that data? While CD-R media can be had for a dime a dozen, the capacity leaves a lot to be desired, thus DVD media shows its face to the world. While not a new technology by any means, it has undergone a good number of changes, revisions and tweaks over the last few years to help make it a more viable data backup and transfer option. Now that dual-layer media is finally starting to show up, albeit in a very sparse and costly manner, it makes burning files to DVD all that much more attractive while bringing down the cost of standard DVD+/-R blanks.

This week, the NEC 8X ND-2510A appears to be a solid contender for your hard-earned cash. With full support for all the major media types, including dual layer, it stands out as a great choice for the casual user and enthusiast alike. Alternatively, the 2500A, also from NEC, can save a few bucks while providing essentially the same drive. Activities on many DVD forums show that this drive quite readily accepts and functions with the firmware of the newer 2510A. So, if you feel comfortable with flashing your drive, this becomes a very good option.

One other drive to consider if you prefer slightly faster burn times would be the Plextor 12X PX-712A. As the model suggests, it sports 12X burn speeds that can certainly get your data written more quickly. This comes in handy for anyone who plans to be doing a lot of burning for regular backups or for "mass" duplication of their latest home video creation to send to the family. Keep in mind, however, that this drive does not play nicely with DVD-DL, so don't expect to cram 9.4 gigs onto a DVD without some major compression on your behalf.






Hard Drives: Parallel ATA

With some of the sales and deals that have been thrown around the Hot Deals forum lately, it's easy to become spoiled by prices at, near, or even below $0.40/GB, but luckily, there are still very reasonably priced hard drives out there that don't involve coupons, codes or lengthy mail-in rebates that most would probably forget to send in anyway.

Maxtor leads the way this week with two drives, which are not only priced well, but also very quiet, yet high on the performance ladder. The Maxtor 160GB 7200RPM 8MB drive this week gives a great price-to-capacity ratio while incorporating Maxtor's fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) mechanism to reduce overall noise from the drive while in operation. Anyone who has ever installed a few noisy drives and placed the computer in their bedroom knows how much noise can sometimes matter. Hard drives tend to be one of the biggest noisemakers inside modern day PC's and Maxtor is continuing to do what they can to combat that fact.

For only a few cents more per gig, Maxtor's 250GB 7200RPM drive makes a great drive; its capacity is an important factor. Paired up in RAID 1, these drives can also make for a very nice backup solution to avoid losing those tax documents, that massive MP3 and video collection, and all of those photos that you took with your digital camera on vacation. Of course, HD-based backup is often a preferred method, since it remains very easy to access the data and because hard drives are substantially a matured technology compared to DVDs and CDs, which some tests have shown can deteriorate over time periods as short as a year or two.






Hard Drives: Serial ATA

While PATA drives still dominate store shelves and desktops currently in use, SATA is trying to break through and gain wider use and acceptance among end users and their PCs. This process has been going rather slowly, since most users would require a new motherboard, or at least an add-in SATA controller card, in order to use these newer drives. To top it off, SATA offers no performance gains over PATA drives yet (Western Digital Raptors excepted.) For now, the only real advantage of SATA would seem to be the nice small cables, which can lead to better case airflow and asthetics.

To combat this, many manufacturers have worked to bring SATA prices in line with their PATA counterparts and have been, for the most part, successful.

Right now, Maxtor takes another lead with their 160GB SATA drive, which retails for just a little over $10 more than its PATA sibling. If space and airflow are an issue in your PC and you have the necessary connections, SATA is a good way to bring your computer into the new without spending a lot of money. This drive is identical to the PATA version and differs only in its connection type.

Capacity can still be had with SATA, courtesy of Western Digital's SATA 250GB 7200RPM drive. This HDD is less than $0.01 more per GB than the Maxtor above, yet wields enough capacity for even the most demanding desktop users.

As usual, if performance is the target, Western Digital's Raptor drives are right on top of the mountain, competing very well with even some top-end SCSI drives with a much lower cost.






Hard Drives: SCSI

With drives such as Raptors giving SCSI such a solid run for its money these days, it is often easy to forget that SCSI's real shining occurs when it is being used for server applications, such as databases or large storage arrays. On top of performance, SCSI drives tend to offer the best warranties and support and since they are often used for mission-critical applications, this is certainly a very good bonus.

For this guide, Fujitsu wins the battle for being the most cost-effective among the choices available for 10,000RPM drives. Both their 73GB and 36.7GB Ultra320 drives are available for prices with which most businesses, and even some enthusiasts, should be happy . In the case of 15,000 RPM drives, Hitachi is on top with their 36.7GB drive while Fujitsu strikes again with their 73GB 15,000RPM drive.


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