This is a comparison of desktop computer 3.5" SATA hard drives. Prices were obtained at Newegg and include shipping and instant rebates where applicable (mail-in rebates not included). All drives shown have a 70% or greater 5/5 egg rating. I consider the ratings to be a good indicator of how many people are receiving drives DOA or are having drive failures. I chose the best priced and rated drive in each size category. The Ratio is the number of gigabytes each dollar purchases, so naturally the higher the better.

Drive	Size	Cache	RPM	Price	Ratio
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10	80 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$42.28	1.89
Western Digital Caviar Blue	160 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$45.28	3.53
Seagate Barracuda	250 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$44.99	5.56
Western Digital Caviar Blue	320 GB	8 MB	7200 RPM	$47.99	6.67
Samsung Spinpoint F3	500 GB	16 MB	7200 RPM	$54.99	9.09
Western Digital Caviar Black	640 GB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$54.99	11.64
Western Digital Caviar Black	750 GB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$79.99	9.38
Hitachi Deskstar	1 TB	32 MB	7200 RPM	$69.99	14.29
Western Digital Caviar Black	1.5 TB	64 MB	7200 RPM	$117.27	12.79
Seagate Barracuda	2 TB	64 MB	7200 RPM	$199.99	10.00

Hitachi continues its trend to offer very cheaply priced drives. While their ratings kept their 1TB and larger drives out of my lists before, their 1TB drive has finally broken through with a 72% 5/5 egg rating. Beyond offering 14.29 GB per dollar, there is a $10 mail-in rebate currently available to make the price even more attractive. The drive has also won Newegg's customer choice award.

If you want a little more space, the 1.5 TB Caviar Black has an excellent ratio as well, and it does have a better track record than the Hitachi (as well as more cache).

You can also see from the above list that buying anything less than 640 GB, at least from Newegg, is a very inefficient use of money.

Series	Hard Drive Cost Charts
Tags	newegg   hard drive