Hard Drive Head-2-Head (Seagate Sata2 320GB vs. Western Digital Sata 2 320GB)

Introduction
Well it’s that time again. You have finally filled up all of your available space and instead of backing it up to a cd/dvd, you would rather buy a new harddrive. Now comes the decision as to just what hard drive to buy. Currently, the 4 most popular manufacturers to look into are Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, and Maxtor. In this review, we will be looking at a 320 Gig SATA2 16MB Cache drive from Seagate, and throwing it head to head against its counterpart from Western Digital. Now both of these drives are 320 Gig SATA2, and have 16MB cache, the only difference…..brand. We will be getting down and dirty to see if there is a performance difference between brands or if it is simply user preference. Seagate and Western Digital both being major suppliers of hard drives in the computer world, this is sure to be a close fight.

Closer Look
Upon receiving these two shiny new hard drives, I noticed the difference in packaging techniques used by each manufacturer. The Seagate comes sealed in an antistatic bag with the end of it folded and taped closed. The Western Digital drive, on the other hand, is in an antistatic bag with moisture gathering beads, and the bag is heat sealed on both ends, requiring you to cut the bag open.

Both methods are good, though I had the feeling that the Western Digital drive was a bit safer in the sealed environment along with the silicon beads. Looking at the drives themselves, they are pretty much identical. Labels with all pertinent information on the top of the drive, along with the standard SATA power and data hookups on the back.