Price Guides, May 2005: Storage

Parallel ATA Hard Drives

The differences between SATA II and SATA may be minimal, but SATA still beats PATA hands down with the occasional exception of price. Things have changed a lot over the last couple of months and there are still deals here and there, but SATA is becoming more predominant everyday. As you'll notice below, except for the first few drives, the cost per GB (particularly on larger sized drives) is the same or better on SATA.

Product	Size (GB)	Approximate Cost (May '05)	Cost Per GB
Maxtor ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB MaXLine Plus II	250	$117.00	$0.47
Western Digital ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	200	$97.00	$0.48
Hitachi ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K250	250	$123.00	$0.49
Maxtor ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	200	$99.86	$0.50
Samsung ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 2MB SpinPoint P	160	$82.00	$0.51
Maxtor ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 16MB DiamondMax 10	250	$126.50	$0.51
Seagate ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.8	250	$127.99	$0.51
Maxtor ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax 10	200	$102.00	$0.51
Maxtor ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	160	$82.74	$0.52
Western Digital ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	250	$130.00	$0.52
Western Digital ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	160	$83.00	$0.52
Hitachi ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 2MB Deskstar 7K250	160	$82.50	$0.52
Western Digital ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	200	$103.90	$0.52
Seagate ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 2MB Barracuda 7200.7	160	$83.95	$0.52
Maxtor ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 2MB DiamondMax Plus 9	160	$85.25	$0.53
Western Digital ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	250	$133.00	$0.53
Seagate ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.7	160	$87.00	$0.54
Seagate ATA100 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.7	200	$108.00	$0.54
Maxtor ATA100 300GB 7200RPM 16MB DiamondMax 10	300	$165.49	$0.55
Maxtor ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax 10	160	$87.50	$0.55
Hitachi ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K250	160	$89.00	$0.56
Seagate ATA100 300GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.8	300	$171.00	$0.57
Samsung ATA100 160GB 7200RPM 8MB SpinPoint P	160	$92.94	$0.58
Western Digital ATA100 320GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	320	$189.00	$0.59
Maxtor ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB DiamondMax Plus 9	120	$72.86	$0.61
Seagate ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB Barracuda 7200.7	120	$75.51	$0.63
Western Digital ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	120	$75.49	$0.63
Hitachi ATA100 400GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K400	400	$253.99	$0.63
Samsung ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB SpinPoint P	120	$76.99	$0.64
Western Digital ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	120	$77.90	$0.65
Hitachi ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 2MB Deskstar 7K250	120	$79.00	$0.66
Maxtor ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	120	$79.00	$0.66
Seagate ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.7	120	$80.99	$0.67
Maxtor ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax 10	120	$80.99	$0.67
Maxtor ATA100 250GB 5400RPM 2MB MaXLine II	250	$169.45	$0.68
Samsung ATA100 120GB 7200RPM 8MB SpinPoint P	120	$83.00	$0.69
Western Digital ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	80	$55.50	$0.69
Maxtor ATA100 300GB 7200RPM 16MB MAXLine III	300	$205.50	$0.69
Western Digital ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	80	$57.75	$0.72
Maxtor ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	80	$58.55	$0.73
Hitachi ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB Deskstar 7K250	80	$58.25	$0.73
Maxtor ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB DiamondMax Plus 9	250	$187.00	$0.75
Seagate ATA100 400GB 7200RPM 8MB Barracuda 7200.8	400	$299.00	$0.75
Samsung ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB SpinPoint P	80	$60.99	$0.76
Maxtor ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB DiamondMax Plus 9	80	$61.50	$0.77
Seagate ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 2MB Barracuda 7200.7	80	$63.99	$0.80
Western Digital ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	250	$216.00	$0.86
Samsung ATA100 80GB 7200RPM 8MB SpinPoint P	80	$70.95	$0.89
Maxtor ATA100 60GB 7200RPM 2MB DiamondMax Plus 9	60	$53.99	$0.90
Maxtor ATA100 40GB 7200RPM 2MB DiamondMax Plus 9	40	$50.00	$1.25
Western Digital ATA100 40GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	40	$51.00	$1.27
Hitachi ATA100 40GB 7200RPM 2MB Deskstar 7K250	40	$53.00	$1.32
Samsung ATA100 40GB 7200RPM 2MB SpinPoint P	40	$53.50	$1.34
Western Digital ATA100 40GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	40	$54.55	$1.36
Seagate ATA100 40GB 7200RPM 2MB Barracuda 7200.7	40	$59.00	$1.48
Western Digital ATA100 20GB 7200RPM 2MB Caviar	20	$51.00	$2.55

It's starting to get hard for us to list prices on certain drives (such as the sub 80GB units) since the cost ratio is so poor. In fact, buying any sub 80GB PATA drive seems quite silly since every unit costs the same anyway, but the 80GB drives obviously pack more space. We may consider phasing these drives out in the next iterations of the price guides.

The old adage used to be that you bought a PATA drive if you just wanted space, and didn't care about the speed. Things have changed a bit over the last year, although occasionally, PATA is cheaper for purely raw data storage. 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). Seagate's 7200.8 [RTPE: Seagate 7200.8] series and Hitachi's 7K400 [RTPE: Hitachi 7K400] series stand together as the only real 400GB solutions right now, and the price per GB is not great either. Prices have been on the decline - it just makes more sense to spend the extra few dollars on the NCQ-ready SATA versions of both of these drives. Below, you can see the price details on the Hitachi 400GB Deskstar [RTPE: HDS7240KLAT80], which dropped almost $50 in price since our last guide:

Hitachi ATA100 400GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K400

At this point, it really only makes sense to buy a PATA drive when the cost per GB is lower than that of SATA by a significant amount. At the time of publication, only a few of these drives really fit the bill, such as the Maxtor 250GB MaXLine Plus II [RTPE: 7Y250P0]. However, you'll notice from the price trend that this drive only recently jumped into the limelight and it may be a good indication that the drive will be phased out soon in favor of the next generation:

Maxtor ATA100 250GB 7200RPM 8MB MaXLine Plus II

Below, you can see the unabridged details of all Parallel ATA drives in our Real Time Price Engine. The Hitachi 7K250 [RTPE: Hitachi 7K250] drives are, on average, a little bit more competitive than Seagate, WD and Maxtor right on Parallel ATA, but this changes quickly (last month, it seemed as though Seagate had the edge).