250GB hard disk roundup

As of this writing, the 250 gigabyte capacity point represents a sweet spot at which consumers receive the most space per dollar spent. All five major SATA manufacturers offer a 250 GB model with a street price that hovers around $100.

All drives in this roundup feature two or three platters and incorporate a native SATA interface running at either 1.5 or 3.0 Gb/sec (remember, however, that this figure represents a ceiling rather than achieved rates). Some manufacturers outfit their budget-oriented drives with 8 megabytes of buffer while two have doubled cache to roomier 16-megabyte standard.