Roundup : 13 IDE Hard Disk Drives

At first, we planned to carry out the performance comparison for three Western Digital HDDs with the large cache-buffer (WD800JB, WD1000JB and WD1200JB). A comparison like that could show us how WD hard disks with different storage capacity and the same cache-buffer perform compared with one another. But all these tests couldn't answer the most urgent question: what the slowest member of the JB family looks against the background of its competitors from other manufacturers (of the same capacity, but with a 2MB cache-buffer). Moreover, as I applied the new testing methodology and used new benchmarks to test the WD800JB, I found myself in the already familiar situation when there's nothing to compare the new disk drive with…

In the end, a small article about a better value WD800JB with smaller storage capacity nevertheless being as fast as both WD1000JB and WD1200JB, turned into a comprehensive roundup of hard drives with IDE-interface. It comes on the threshold of the invasion of new HDDs. Let me remind you that we expected new HDDs with 60GB platters, new interface, etc. to arrive in the end of the summer or the beginning of the fall. But all's for better and the results of this test session will serve us at least twice: for this roundup and to compare today's HDDs with the next generation ones.