SATA/150 - 7200 rpm - 8 MB Buffer - 3.5" - MPN: HDS722525VLSA80
Strengths: Fast. Very, very quiet.
Weakness: None that I've discovered yet.
So far, I'm very satisfied! I got a chance to compare this drive head-to-head with my existing 40GB Western Digital special edition - the Deskstar is definitely quieter and noticeably faster at transferring data than the WD.
BTW, Pricegrabber was absolutely a life-saver when it came to researching prices for all the parts in my new home-built PC.
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TopStrengths: Fast, Affordable, Easy to Install
Weakness: No Documentation
The product was delivered on time (Free, Fedex 2nd day), was as advertised, Very good price. The only bad feature was no instructions and no warranty information sheet. Although it was simple to figure out how to install, someone who hasn't installed drives before would likely have trouble.
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TopStrengths: very fast
Weakness: none
this drive has some big storage man!!!! this hard drive can do anything, i stored a whole bunch of games and fileson this baby and it is still fast. plus hitachi makes awesome hard drives that last.
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TopStrengths: Installation a breeze.
Weakness: None - so far.
Purchased the IBM Deskstar 7K250 250GB and serial cable. Installed the drive as secondary drive. Primary drive is 160Gb so I did not use RAID configuration as I didn't want to lose the ~90Gb due to the size difference.
After install, activated 2nd SATA in the BIOS, rebooted and drive was recognized with no additional drivers (XP o/s). Formatted drive and moved ~80Gb from primary drive to the Deskstar. Works great so far.
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TopStrengths: Was cheap at the time relatively fast
Weakness: Deskstar name
Years ago under the IBM name, the Deskstar line gained notoriety with the 75GXP line of Deskstars that'd later be known as the Deathstar for their extremely high failure rate. Even the later 60GXP (strangely smaller number) were questionable at best Overall, things weren't so good over at the IBM storage division. It wasn't long before a class action lawsuit followed causing IBM and other makers (Notably Western Digital) to start shipping HDs with 1 year warrenties and later IBM to sell off its storage division to Hitachi.
Like many others I was burned when my 45 gig 75GXP kicked the bucket after 3 months (being one of the early buyers wooed by the performance) and stayed away from the Deathstar line for years.
I was still uneasy but it still went ahead and bought it. Over at storagereview.com there isn't much reliablity feedback on the Hitachis, I assume because of the long standing fear. So far its been good to me, its one of 3 SATA HDs in my G5 along with two older ATA drives. Part of the decision to buy the drive was the 3 year warrenty. Its good to see HD makers slowly putting faith back into their products. Seagate really pushed this slapping 5 year warrenties on some of their drives (the 7200.7's stability is legendary, enough to get me to buy a 7200.8 just on its predecessor alone).
Its been long enough to make this review accurate enough for me to give a 4 star rating but nothing above and beyond what I'd expect from any other HD. Now it lasts as long as the Quantum 6 gig HD that is in my junker PC that shipped with my G3 back in 1999 has, then its worthy of 6 stars.
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TopStrengths: decent price, fast, sata, reliable, good warranty
Weakness: none yet
I like this hard drive, the SATA interface is great. Makes things less messy inside a computer. SATA drives are also technically faster than IDE and newer generations of SATA will be more noticeable.
I sometimes read Hitchai (old IBM) drives are flakey. I have had nothing but good luck from Hitachi drives plus they give a decent 3 year warranty. I've had bad luck with Western Digital, decent luck with Maxtor and Seagate.
The drive is very quiet, at least for me.
Computer recognized it instantly, as long as you have SATA support. Check your motherboard/operating system.
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TopStrengths: best hd period
Weakness: none
for a storage hd (not speed) this is the best. very silent, very reliable, and covered by the great ibm/hitachi service. pair it with a low-capacity 10k rpm drive and you're good to go. i would recommend the drive (or any hitachi drive) to anyone. I have had no drive problems from hitachi, and this is my 4th drive.
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TopStrengths: Quiet. Cool. 3 Year Warranty
Weakness: Not sure.
Seems like a nice drive. Purchased 2 for a Raid mirror setup. Not sure about how fast it is versus other drives because I have not worked with a Raid config before.
Like the 3 year warranty at a time that a lot of other drives only have a 1 year warranty.
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TopStrengths: capacity, value, speed, 3 year warranty
Weakness: N/A
The 250 gb capacity is perfect for storing all my data and backing up my files. One thing I like the most is its 3 year warranty. If anything happens to it, I would just have to send it back to the manufacturer. It is also quiet and very easy to install. It is a great product for its price.
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TopStrengths: Great Price and Quiet. Has a long Warrenty
Weakness: Brand Name
This harddrive is affordable and easy to install. While other brand name harddrives has 1 year warranty, this has three which is great so whatever happens Hitachi can replace it. It comes with a nice red box and packaging. It is also quiet. Some harddrives when it load stuff, it makes a loading sound, this doesn't. I would recommend this harddrive especially if you looking for a big, affordable one.
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TopStrengths: Bang for the buck when on sale. 3 yr warranty.
Weakness: None
A great value when on sale; the cost per gigabyte is dirt cheap. The 3 year warranty is an added plus. What more can I say.
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TopStrengths: Extremely quiet, very fast
Weakness: price
I have used this drive for about one month now, on my system with 3.2E 1Gb RAM. I am impressed by how much faster this drive is vs. my old 80Gb ATA 133 7200rpm. The noise level is also very impressive, much different from my last Deskstar a couple of years ago. Highly recommended.
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Hitachi Deskstar HDS722525VLSA80 250 GB Internal...
Strengths: Good Performance Fairly Quiet No Reliability Issues (so far)
Weakness: Slightly Higher Cost
I ordered 2 of these from Zipzoomfly.com for $137.50 each. When I ordered, these drives were the most expensive 250gb drives other than the 16mb cache Maxtors, but only by a couple dollars (Seagate $135, Maxtor $132, WD $132). I purchased it somewhat on performace test numbers because I'm like that. I figured if the prices are similar, why not get the best performing. I really had not found comparisons of drive noise, temp, or reliability, which as I explain are probably more important.
I have the two Hitachi drives in Raid 0 (two more, and I can set up Raid 5), connected to the dedicated Silicon Image raid controller built into my motherboard. Installing the drives physically presented no problems. The drives were shipped drive only (not OEM), so they have a 3 year warranty, but didn't come with screws, cables or a manual. No problem though, because the drives installed fine with some screws that came with my Chieftec case and the standard SATA cables that came with my mobo. The drives have the old standard Molex power connector as well as the new SATA power connector, so you can use which ever one suits you. I connected my drives with the Molex connector. When installing it, I noticed that the build quality of the drive seemed good. It was equal to greater than the quality of the two 120gb western digital drives I have (one SATA, and one ATA/100). These are the only other two drives I have used, so they will be the basis of all my comparisons. Although the build quality and weight of the drive don't directly relate to the reliability, it gives me some peace of mind that the Hitachi is a little heavier than either Western Digital. I am aware that the Hitachi has 3 platters and the WD only has 2, so that may account for the difference.
It was simple to get them set up in Raid 0. I just followed the instructions in my mobo manual, and let them format for about an hour. After that I was set. I spent an hour or so transferring about 150 gigs of stuff from my other two drives, and I noticed the performance of the drive. When copying from the WD SATA drive to the raid array, it was stuck right at 51mb/s, which is as fast as the WD drive can sustain reading. Transfering back the other way was stuck around 35mb/s. Not that I should be comparing a raid array to a single drive. From all the reading I have done (TomsHardware and other places) the main point about performance is probably that any major company drive with 8mb cache and 7200 rpm speed will make you happy with performance. Unless you are doing some major video editing you will probably not notice a huge difference. I suggest you do a little reading, and don't just take my word for it. You will probably find round-ups at different sites doing similar tests but the performance results will be in a different order. There will be a couple drives that consistently come ahead in certain tests (which one is the Hitachi), but no drive just blows away the competition in general. My opinion is that it should come down to what you want as far as noise, reliability and service, although all of these are more difficult to compare than access time and transfer speeds.
I can say that the Hitachi is a better sounding drive than my WD drives. At idle, the Hitachi makes slightly more noise than the others, although all are mostly drowned out by my power supply. When accessing data, the western digitals make the standard hard drive raspy clicking/crunching noise loud enough to easily be heard across a fairly quiet room. The Hitachi drives don't really make that noise. Instead they make a much quieter smooth clicking sound, which I think is much more pleasent to the ears, and can only be heard from 1 or 2 feet from the case.
Six weeks is no time to comment on reliability, but I of course have had no problems yet. If I had, then all you have read so far would be ranting about the crappy drive that broke after a few weeks. I have not had to deal with Hitachi customer service at all, and hopefully never will, nor have I dealt with WD service. I do have friends who swear by western digital drives because they have had such good experience with their service and/or such bad experiences with other companies. Take that for what it's worth.
So in conclusion, although I believe the reviews that say these are the best performing drives in their class, I doubt it is reason enough for their purchase, because few will ever notice the difference. I would still recommend these drives, if prices are similar, on their low noise and good build quality.
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