The 160 GB SATA Samsung drive is the fastest 7200 rpm SATA hard drive in the
group test, scoring 4938 in PC Mark, and a fairly credible 8.1 ms seek time.
The Samsung offering is very quiet, and is comparable with the Seagate Barracuda
in noise level. It is hard to recommend one over the other to the quiet PC enthusiast,
as both drives offer the same cost per Gigabyte of 44p. The drive runs at a
maximum of 45 degrees, which seems to be average for the latest crop of SATA
hard drives. Samsung have been a minor player in the hard drive market (at a
consumer level anyway), but this drive is a very competitive product, and certainly
worthy of consideration.
