Microstorage Hard drive 40 GB

Advantages: Fast and silent
Disadvantages: None

...7 weeks ago i had an IBM hard drive die on me whilst my PC was booting up, it made lots of clicking sounds and failed to load into windows, trying to keep my temper i rushed down to my local PC world to see what i could pick up as i didnt want to be without my PC for more than a few hours. I decided upon buying the Samsung 40gb as it matched the spec of my previous IBM perfectly and my old hard drive was fine for what i needed it for until it packed up somewhat prematurely. The main spec of the Samsung is as follows... 40 gig storage space 7200 RPM 8.9 ms seek time UDMA/ATA 100 2mb buffer It also came with 2 features that my old IBM didnt... Noiseguard Impacguard The noise guard reduces noise output from the drive (makes it quieter) and impac guard means the hard drive is less susceptable to being damaged... Read review

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Advantages: Fast read/write, 7200rpm spindle speed
Disadvantages: Only 2mb data buffer, Only supports upto ATA100

...Having already owned several western digital hard drives before, i knew these would be pretty reliable. Installation was fairly easy - four screws, one data cable, and one power cable connection. The bios on the motherboard recognised the drive perfectly. Once installed and setup, i noticed the difference over my old hard drive straight away. The boot up speed was a lot quicker and i once again had space for all my bits and pieces(after i had sorted windows out). (just for reference my old drive was a 20gb 2mb Cache 5400rpm). For any one not into the techie side of things, the faster the spindle speed and the bigger the cache size, the Faster the drive. Although 40gb doesnt sound very big compared to the other sizes available, you can still hold a lot of information on a drive of this size.... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, high capacity storage. Well built, looks good. 2 year warranty, No fan.
Disadvantages: No fan.

...Freecom before as they've always looked a bit cheap and nasty so this would be an interesting experience. The box did feel reassuringly heavy though, a good start. ############### # What's in the Box? ############### Apart from the drive, the box contained a small light external PSU, a USB lead and a CD with some backup software. The case is made of extremly solid and heavy aluminium with a silver plastic front piece with a sexy blue '400GB' light (yes, you can have sexy lights. Really.) at the front just to prove how big it was. The finish is excellent and I have to say, if this is anything to go by, I'm converted to Freecom. Unlike the picture here, my unit has the aluminium finished in matt black which looks really nice on top of my black PC. It's also surprisingly compact - not that much bigger than a hard drive at 20x11.5x4 cms... Read review

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