Tom's Interactive 3.5" Hard Drive Charts compare low-level as well as application performance of more than 40 popular hard drive models. The charts include all popular 3.5" desktop drive manufacturers such as Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital. They list UltraATA and Serial ATA interfaces, 7,200 and 10,000 RPM drives, and capacities between 36 GB and 1000 GB. 15 individual benchmark categories analyze read and write throughput, interface performance, average access time, Windows startup performance and several I/O access patterns that are imperative for server and workstation scenarios. Two comparison features make our Hard Drive Charts unique on the Internet: The Cost per Gigabyte calculation and the Price/Performance Index, which relates performance, capacity and cost. Prices are updated daily using the latest price information provided by TG Stores.

Tom's Interactive Enterprise Hard Drive Charts compare high-end server/workstation hard drives used in enterprise-class systems. The 15 benchmarks we used as a testing platform are the same as the ones featured in the other HDD Charts, but the interpretation of the data is different in the enterprise segment: Servers often depend on maximum I/O performance rather than on raw throughput. Of course, you can also check various other criteria: read and write throughput, sorted by average, minimum and maximum, access time, interface performance and four I/O benchmark patterns. You will find most of the popular enterprise hard drives made by Fujitsu, Hitachi and Seagate; all using either Ultra320 SCSI or SAS interfaces. Then there is the price/performance index which helps you select a particular drive, as it relates performance and capacity to cost of drive. If your company requires a large number of hard drives, this feature will enable you to make an informed and budget friendly decision.