Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 (500GB) review

The 500GB Deskstar is the smallest Hitachi drive on test, but it comes with an enticing range of specifications. There's a 16MB cache - more than some rival drives at this price - and the 7,200rpm spindle speed is standard among modern disks.

Alas, those specifications failed to translate into stellar performance; the 500GB Deskstar found itself at the bottom of our results table. Its read speed of 78.9MB/sec was beaten by all but four of the hard disks this month, and the write speed of 65.3MB/sec was equally disappointing.

Access times of 19ms and 15ms for reading and writing files didn't stand out, and the burst speed of 223.8MB/sec was outpaced by most of the other hard disks on test as well.

There's one saving grace - value. At £36 and 7.7p/GB, this is one of the cheapest drives on test. Spend £5 more, though, and you could invest in a faster 500GB or 640GB drive, leaving the Deskstar as one to consider only if your budget is very strict indeed.

Author: Mike Jennings