This is a comparison of desktop computer 7200RPM 3.5" SATA hard drives. Prices were obtained at Newegg and include shipping and discounts where applicable (mail-in rebates not included). All drives 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	Price	Ratio
WD Caviar Blue	80 GB	2 MB	$50.28	1.59
WD Caviar Blue	160 GB	8 MB	$43.98	3.64
WD Caviar Blue	250 GB	16 MB	$44.99	5.56
WD Caviar Blue	320 GB	16 MB	$41.98	7.62
WD Caviar Blue	500 GB	16 MB	$49.99	10.00
WD Caviar Black	750 GB	32 MB	$69.99	10.72
Samsung Spinpoint F3	1 TB	32 MB	$59.99	16.67

There were no 1.5TB or larger drives with good enough ratings to make my list. The exception was a Seagate 2TB drive, but it only had 17 ratings which I don't think is a big enough sample to be meaningful. It was also $200, nearly double the price of the lowest priced 2TB drives. It would be better to just go with two of the Samsung Spinpoint 1TB drives right now. Then you'd also have the option of a RAID setup.

Series	Hard Drive Cost Charts
Tags	newegg   hard drive