Like most things from Tom's Hardware, this "review" has a number of mistakes, typos, inconsistencies and of course, an overwhelming tone of self-importance. I swear it's practically empty enough to be featured on Cnet.
Hitachi (formerly IBM) Travelstar have been known for a long time as the gold-crown of portable hard drives. A 7200 RPM drive isn't going to lose to a 4200 or 5400 RPM model so the drives used in this shout-out weren't selected on a level-enough playing field. The bottom line (which they didn't make a point about) is that the difference in speed among the top selections is marginal.
What's left really boils down to the other factors they didn't talk about. Total storage capacity, manufacturer's support of its products and of course price.
There are a bunch of 80GB drives that hit a very sweet spot right now. But I think the fact that Seagate stands behind their storage products with a 5 year warranty speaks volumes - along with having the best balance of speed and capacity. With a notebook you're generally limited to a single drive. An extra 20GB can make a difference.
I also hope to see a few other top manufacturers (like Hitachi, Fujitsu and Maxtor) increasing their warranty coverage soon. It's been a long time since I've seen a 5 year warranty on a drive. Good to see (though not a reason to stop making backups
)
BTW, the thermal differences between these drives is likely very negligible. I believe another site has previously done some measurements in an Apple PowerBook when the first 7200 model hit the street.
Bruno
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