Reviewed: 2.5" Notebook Hard Drives From Toshiba And Hitachi

Benchmark Results: Application Performance (PCMark Vantage)

When it comes to launching applications under Windows Vista, Toshiba delivers the highest performance. However, the others are not far away.

All three 7,200 RPM drives are much more suitable for gaming than the 5,400 RPM models.

Hitachi stands out of the crowd in the video editing test.

Windows Defender file checking is much faster on 7,200 RPM drives than on the mainstream drives.

If you add files to Windows Media Player a lot, then you'll see benefits from the two new drives.

Windows Vista starts quicker on the Toshiba MK5056GSY than on the other drives. WD’s advantage in the I/O tests is gone in this test.

Overall, the three 7,200 RPM 500GB drives deliver the highest PCMark Vantage performance. Hitachi leads, followed by Toshiba.