Price Guides, March 2005: Storage

Parallel ATA Hard Drives

In each guide edition, we take special notice at the difference in price between PATA and SATA as a whole. Aside from what motherboard manufacturers would have us think, Parallel ATA drives aren’t going anywhere in the near future, and we only need to look at the number of MaXLine III and 7200.8 drives as proof of that. Obviously, there are no NCQ benefits on PATA, but for drives that cost anywhere between 5 and 10 cents less per GB than their SATA counterparts, the lack of advanced SATA features might be worth the trade off.

Product	Size	Approximate Cost (Mar '05)	Cost Per GB
Hitachi ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 2MB Deskstar 7K250	160	$83.00	$0.52
Western Digital ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	200	$103.90	$0.52
Maxtor ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	200	$103.95	$0.52
Western Digital ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	200	$104.00	$0.52
Hitachi ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K250	250	$131.50	$0.53
Maxtor ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 16MB DiamondMax 10	250	$134.00	0.54
Maxtor ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB MaXLine Plus II	250	$134.50	$0.54
Western Digital ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	250	$137.00	$0.55
Samsung ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 2MB SpinPoint P	160	$87.99	$0.55
Western Digital ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	160	$89.99	$0.56
Western Digital ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	160	$89.99	$0.56
Seagate ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.7	160	$91.76	$0.57
Samsung ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB SpinPoint P	160	$91.99	$0.57
Maxtor ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax 10	160	$92.00	$0.58
Maxtor ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	160	$92.00	$0.58
Seagate ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.8	250	$144.99	$0.58
Seagate ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.7	200	$117.13	$0.59
Maxtor ATA100 250GB 5400RPM 2MB DiamondMax 16	250	$148.00	$0.59
Maxtor ATA100 300GB 7200RPM 16MB DiamondMax 10	300	$178.75	$0.60
Maxtor ATA100 250GB 5400RPM 2MB MaXLine II	250	$151.00	$0.60
Western Digital ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	250	$154.99	$0.62
Western Digital ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	120	$75.49	$0.63
Seagate ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB Barracuda 7200.7	120	$75.62	$0.63
Maxtor ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB DiamondMax Plus 9	120	$76.00	$0.63
Hitachi ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB Deskstar 7K250	120	$77.50	$0.65
Seagate ATA100 300GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.8	300	$194.99	$0.65
Western Digital ATA100 320GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	320	$210.00	$0.66
Samsung ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB SpinPoint P	120	$79.99	$0.67
Maxtor ATA100 300GB 5400RPM 2MB Maxline II	300	$204.99	$0.68
Western Digital ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	120	$82.00	$0.68
Hitachi ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 180GXP	120	$83.14	$0.69
Maxtor ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax 10	120	$83.50	$0.70
Western Digital ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	80	$56.00	$0.70
Maxtor ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	120	$84.00	$0.70
Samsung ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB SpinPoint P	120	$84.99	$0.71
Seagate ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.7	120	$85.72	$0.71
Hitachi ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB Deskstar 7K250	80	$57.50	$0.72
Maxtor ATA100 300GB 7200RPM 16MB MaXLine III	300	$218.00	$0.73
Western Digital ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	80	$59.00	$0.74
Hitachi ATA100 400GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K400	400	$298.00	$0.75
Samsung ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB SpinPoint P	80	$62.54	$0.78
Maxtor ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB DiamondMax Plus 9	80	$63.50	$0.79
Maxtor ATA100 320GB 5400RPM 2MB MaXLine II	320	$255.00	$0.80
Seagate ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB Barracuda 7200.7	80	$65.00	$0.81
Maxtor ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	80	$67.50	$0.84
Seagate ATA100 400GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.8	400	$349.00	$0.87

There are a lot of choices to sift through when determining the best hard drive choice. Like with many things in computers, you’re penalized for considering older (but not obsolete) hardware, such as the 80GB and smaller drives. The 40GB and 60GB drives actually have worse price per gigabyte ratios, and one would have to be mad to buy an $80 60GB hard drive over a $60 80GB one.

Last generation’s DiamondMaxs, Caviars and Deskstars top our cost per Gigabyte charts for March, but surprisingly, the 160GB and 200GB marks are the sweet spots for PATA compared to the 250GB sweet spot for SATA drives. All PATA drives under 250GB are cheaper than their SATA counterparts, but the differences are now measured in one or two dollars compared to the 20% difference from a year ago.

We still don’t recommend going all out on 300GB or 400GB drives just yet, although the price has come down considerably (more so on the SATA variants).