2007 HDD Rundown: Can High Capacities Meet High Performance?

Samsung SpinPoint T166 HD501LJ, 500 GB SATA

Samsung's T166 is a brand new top model that replaces the HD401LJ. However, prices might not drop much for the older model, since you can already get it for as little as $130. For the new T166, also known as HD501LJ, you need to shell out about $170. Although this is indeed more money, you will also get better performance: data transfer rates up to 87 MB/s, while staying pretty cool at 46°C (115°F) surface temperature seems like a pretty good deal. The access time of 14.1 ms stays within the right range; since we are mainly talking about data storage in this class, we don't need to pay too much attention to small differences in performance.

Samsung also offers models at 80, 160 and 320 GB; the medium-sized models offer a good alternative pricewise.