Conclusion
We telegraphed the outcome of this review in our article headline, because we believe Toshiba can do better. They released a new hard drive product with a new interface, yet it does not deliver much benefit over its UltraATA predecessor.
Both the 40 GB and the 100 GB versions of Toshiba's GSX series are down to earth and perform well; access times are nice and I/O performance is at a good level. However, taking a look at our benchmark results, the new drives aren't able to outperform their direct competition.
In particular, Seagate's Momentus 5400.2 pulls ahead clearly, passing the 40 MB/s mark, while the Toshibas remain at 35 MB/s. Given that we are talking about a new product (although based on current technology), we can't help but feeling a bit disappointed. In addition to that, Seagate upgraded the drive warranty to five years with others offering three years. Toshiba offers a rather short two-year warranty, which makes clear that this drive offering is what we first suggested: a way to introduce Serial ATA to the Toshiba portfolio, but without real technological advancement.
