Bij Tom's Hardware Guide is voor het eerst in haar geschiedenis een harddisk roundup gepubliceerd. Patrick Schmid keek naar 6 IDE schijfjes van Fujitsu, Quantum, Seagate en Western Digital en kwam tot de volgende conclusie:
I think it is extremely difficult to give a recommendation for just one drive. After reading this article you should know now that every drive has both benefits and handicaps. The Seagate Barracuda ATA II is the fastest one, but will likely make your case vibrate as well. The Fujitsu drive is very quiet and provides short seek times, but gets almost as hot as the Seagate drives. Quantum builds a decent drive as well, With only the Windows 98 performance letting it down. Western Digital provides two great drives as well, but performance freaks will complain about their basic performance.
I hope you understand why I'm not going to recommend any particular drive at this time, as choosing the right one depends highly on your personal requirements. If you want performance or capacity in the first place, I'd go for the Seagate drive. But you should spend some money for a hard drive cooling kit as well. Windows 98 users should avoid the Quantum drive, while database applications will run fast with the Fujitsu drive. You should also take either the Fujitsu or the Quantum drive if you want to get a quiet model.
Finally, all users who just don't know what they want may take a look at the Western Digital drives. They are not the very fastest, but come with little CPU utilization, no annoying noises and acceptable temperatures.