On paper, the 640GB Deskstar looks like far better value than the 500GB model, with an extra 140GB of space for a mere £6. The cache on this drive has dropped to 16MB, though, and the range of features is limited.
Performance was in the same disappointing league as the smaller 500GB Deskstar, despite this model using two 320GB platters rather than three 166GB disks – evidence of the half-sized cache levelling the playing field. Both our read and write results sat in the bottom third of the table, with the 640GB Deskstar achieving 82.3MB/sec and 66.1MB/sec respectively.
Read and write access times of 17ms and 4ms and an average sequential burst speed of 86.5MB/sec are also average in this company.
The price is where the Hitachi comes into its own: at £42, it costs a mere 7p/GB – that’s the lowest price of any drive we tested this month. So, while the performance may not wow, budget buyers may consider it.
Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 640GB |
| Hard disk usable capacity | 595GB |
| Hard disk type | Mechanical |
| Cache size | 16MB |
| Spindle speed | 7,200RPM |
| Seek time (ms) | 17ms |
| Cost per gigabyte | 7.0p |
Noise and power | |
| Idle power consumption | 7W |
Performance tests | |
| HD Tach burst speed | 241.0MB/sec |
| HD Tach random access speed | 17.1ms |
| HD Tach average sequential read speed | 86.5MB/sec |
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