Hard disk: Hitachi Deskstar 7K250

We tested this 250 GB UltraATA/100 drive on an Intel P4 3 GHz system with 512 MB DDR RAM, and Win XP. We used WinBench 99 version 2.0 to test the disk access time, transfer rate and its CPU utilization, and also ran Business Winstone 2002 and Multimedia Content Creation Winstone benchmarks. Surprisingly, the hard drive's performance was not up to the expected level considering its spindle speed of 7200 RPM and 8 MB cache buffer.

We compared it with the 200 GB Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9, reviewed in August 2003 (page 73), which also had similar specs. The Hitachi hard drive's performance was 11% lower in Business Disk Winmark, and 33% lower in High-end Disk Winmark. The Maxtor was priced at Rs

12,500 at the time we reviewed it. This drive is priced at Rs 10,000.

The bottom line: A high-capacity drive, which can mostly be used for information storage.

Ankit Kawatra