Affordable and Reliable 80 and 160 GB Hard Drives

Samsung P80 Series / SpinPoint SP1604N

The SP1604N offers a high capacity of 160 GB. Even if many manufacturers now offer drives that are 50% larger, you can still get by with this capacity. The sweet spot demand-wise lies somewhere between 80 GB and 120 GB.

The 1604N performs well in practically every benchmark.Only with data transmission speeds does it appear to outperform itself. But the data transfer diagram solves this mystery: clear peaks are the result of unusual mapping. If you interpolate the peaks into a useful curve, the maximum transfer rate is just under 60 MB/s - which falls in the standard-to-very-good range.

While it has no remarkable features at all to speak of, the Samsung enters the race as a secret favorite, since this 160 GB model generally costs exactly the same as other manufacturers' hard drives with only 120 GB.