Hard Disk Drive (HDD) options can be quite bewildering for a computer system assembler. Even though there are only two major desktop hard drive brands available in Pakistan there is a lot of confusion among new system builders about what HDD to choose.
The two brands available in Pakistan are Seagate and Western Digital (WD). Seagate and WD 3.5″ internal HDDs are divided into three categories:
Green Drives: These are drives that consume less power than other models. They are marketed as environmentally friendly drives and sold under the Western Digital Green Caviar and Seagate Barracuda Green/LP labels. To save power the Seagate Barracuda Green drives operate at 5900RPM while the WD drives have a variable RPM around the 5400 mark.
HDDs in general don’t really consume a lot of power so the savings to be had with the green drives are negligible. But the lower RPM means that the green drives are significantly slower than other hard drives. The WD Green Caviar are among the worst in this regard.
Mainstream Drives: The Seagate Barracuda 7200.xx (xx denotes drive generation) and the Western Digital Blue Caviar are the two brands used in this category. Both are 7200 RPM drives that provide good performance for everyday desktop usage.
Performance Drives: Seagate performance oriented drives are branded the Barracuda XT but they are not widely available in Pakistan. Western Digital Black drives are the only ones in this category that are available here. These are 7200RPM drives which have an access time a few ms less than the mainstream drives. The prices are also higher by about a few thousand rupees.
Recommendation
For the typical Pakistani consumer the Seagate Barracuda 7200.xx or the Western Digital Caviar Blue are the best hard drives. The Green drives are the ones to avoid at all cost and the WD Blacks are not worth the price premium. Regardless of which brand or model you choose make sure you buy from a reputable dealer.
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