Samsung SpinPoint S250 HD250HJ 250 GB

The Samsung Spinpoint has, for the past year or so, been the hard drive of choice for those looking for good value. I needed a new hard drive recently, and I had no reservations whatsoever about getting this.
When it arrived, I installed it and was immediately impressed at how much quicker my computer felt to use. Perhaps this was mainly due to the reinstallation of Windows, but nevertheless the hard drive was performing better than my previous ...
...The SATA II interface allows for fast data transfer, and I could copy files about my series of folders with great speed. This model is only 250GB, and so is inevitably not quite as good value as the 500GB model (in terms of £/GB, where it sits at about £0.17/GB compared to £0.12/GB), but I cannot see myself using any more than what is provided, and unless you have an extensive media collection it's probably worth saving the ~£20 and getting this ... more

The Samsung Spinpoint has, for the past year or so, been the hard drive of choice for those looking for good value. I needed a new hard drive recently, and I had no reservations whatsoever about getting this.
When it arrived, I installed it and was immediately impressed at how much quicker my computer felt to use. Perhaps this was mainly due to the reinstallation of Windows, but nevertheless the hard drive was performing better than my previous one (a Western Digital model), and it was quieter too. The SATA II interface allows for fast data transfer, and I could copy files about my series of folders with great speed. This model is only 250GB, and so is inevitably not quite as good value as the 500GB model (in terms of £/GB, where it sits at about £0.17/GB compared to £0.12/GB), but I cannot see myself using any more than what is provided, and unless you have an extensive media collection it's probably worth saving the ~£20 and getting this smaller model.
Furthermore, this 250GB model stores data on just one platter (due to the use of perpendicular recording of data), compared to the 500GB model's two, meaning that the seek time is marginally quicker, on average, for this model. If you can see yourself using over 250GB of data, however, you may as well simply get a bigger drive now, rather than buying another one of these and using RAID 0 (a way to make two drives appear as one) later on, as this will save you money and lose little performance.
Bear in mind that the drive is offered as an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) piece of hardware, so it will not come with any software, screws or cables that you will need. Fortunately, at least one SATA cable should be included with your motherboard, and the screws with your case. Obviously, if you already have a 3.5" (the standard desktop hard drive size) SATA hard drive, you can reuse your equipment from that.
This is a great buy if you're looking for a new, quick hard drive either as a replacement or for a new build, and I would not hesitate to recommend it. 

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