Two Hard Drives to Consider; Depending on Your Wallet

Summer is almost upon us, even though it doesn't feel like it in good ol' Indiana. If your hard drive is already full, getting a new one should not be a problem for most users anymore, because hard drive storage capacity is cheaper than ever.
At this point, you can buy a simple hard drive for as little as $40, and even high-capacity 500-GB drive prices are falling below $100.
At this point, the mainstream and sweet spot for most hard drives still are somewhere between 160 and 200 GB, and 160 GB still is plenty of storage space for your operating system and an average amount of data.
Outside of the quick "band-aid" solution of getting a super-cheap Hard Drive, lies the high capacity hard drives. Most people define drives over 500 GB as high capacity. Only Seagate and Hitachi offer hard drives with over 500 GB of capacity, but it is only a matter of a few months until other hard drive makers will follow with larger capacity drives.
If price is no object, Hitachi's Deskstar 7K1000 currently is the world's largest desktop hard drive. Its five platters spin at 7,200 RPM and the drive carries as much as 32 MB cache memory. Hitachi uses a Serial ATA/300 interface with Command Queuing to communicate with the host system. The drive's performance is excellent, although it is not the undisputed performance champion. Other 7,200 RPM drives perform similarly well, and there still is Western Digital's 10,000 RPM Raptor drive, which delivers a much quicker access time.
At $450, this drive is extraordinarily expensive, which can be justified by its uniqueness. If you're looking for maximum storage capacity, there is no alternative to the 7K1000.
But more than likely, cost is an object to people who also have to buy gasoline in the states. My recommendations for a lower price but nice quality drives is the Western Digital - WD1600AAJS. It is interesting because it offers 160 GB storage capacity on a single platter. This ensures very low heat dissipation, quiet acoustics and little moving parts that suffer from wear and tear. It has 8 MB cache, uses a Serial ATA/300 interface, supports Command Queuing and spins at 7,200 RPM. In addition, this drive starts at only $50 and has a three year warranty.
That my friends, is a great solution at an excellent price!