you've just upgraded your ancient PC-got the fastest processor, truckloads of memory and the best graphics card on the market. But before you can really enjoy the power and speed of your new PC, you will wake up to the realisation that there is hard¬ly any space left on your mod¬est hard drive! Games, music, movies, HD clips, e-books-all this eats into that precious real estate. Most people buy hard drives as an afterthought ("Hmm ... I have so much money left over, so I'll buy the biggest drive that fits")-we don't give them as much love as we do processors or RAM. Fortunately, higher capacity drives are now getting much more affordable.

A couple of years ago, 40 GB was the standard across most PCs, but today we see the momentum shifting towards 160 and even 250 GB. Rightly so-for nearly the same price, these drives offer better features and significantly higher performance. Last year a 750 GB hard disk retailed for Rs 14,000; today you can get a better-performing 750 GB drive for just half the price!

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Recent developments such as Perpendicular Recording have vastly improved storage density. Hence, fewer components (plat¬ters and heads) are required to manufacture drives. Seagate has introduced single platter drives with capacities ranging from 80 GB to 250 GB. Fewer moving parts mean better speed, lower heat generation and hence lon¬ger life. Western Digital has in trod uced energy-efficient drives labelled "Green Power" or GP. These drives intelligently manage power consumption through smart control of rota¬tion speed (RPM) and head actu¬ator movement. They claim to shave off 4 to 5 watts of power, without any significant perfor¬mance hits.

In this test, we see the industry also aligning itself toward higher capacity drives. For instance, out of the 17 drives we've tested, the bulk comprises of 500 GB, 750 GB and 1 TB drives. In contrast, last year we had just one each of 750 GB and 1 TB, with 500 GB drives making the bulk. Back then, 320 GB drives were the newest thing in the market, and 500 GB were for the "elite". Higher capacity drives now offer better value to the customer-at an asking price ofRs 7,500, a single 750 GB drive makes more sense than three 250 GB or two 500 GB drives.
We put these drives through their paces to see which of them fulfil their promises.