You see that the fastest model is the 7,200rpm Hitachi 7K60, at least in High-End Disk WinMark. In Business Disk WinMark Hitachi 7K60 was only outperformed by Seagate Momentus, but it proved faster than the rest of the devices. Another new product from Hitachi, the 5K80 drive, is also the second fastest. Hitachi DK23FB-60 was a little faster than the other member of the same family. Hitachi 40GN looks disadvantageous, since it is one of the oldest models with its senile diseases like low data density and spindle rotation speed as well as small cache (2MB).

Of course, we’ve got lower results in NTFS than in FAT32. Anyway, it is Hitachi 7K60 who wins the race. Again, it performs somewhat worse than Seagate Momentus in Business Disk WinMark, but surpasses every other drive. Hitachi 5K80 is again the second. Two devices showed the same High-End Disk WinMark rating: Seagate Momentus and Hitachi DK23FB-60. However, the Momentus drive is overall better as it has a higher Business Disk WinMark rating. The veteran - Hitachi 40GN - is again the slowest.

Of course, the results obtained for a 32GB partition were higher than those obtained for the entire HDD space. We created one 32GB FAT32 partition on each drive to see no dramatic changes in their ranks. Hitachi 7K60 is an indisputable winner, then comes Hitachi 5K80. Hitachi DK23FB drives show similar results, although the 60GB model seems a little better overall. Hitachi 40GN is in the very end of the race.

When we created just one 32GB NTFS partition on the drives, they performed faster than in case the entire storage capacity was involved. However, the ranking remained unchanged, with the Hitachi 7K60 winning the test. Another new product from Hitachi, 5K80, was the second, closely followed by Seagate Momentus. The outsider is again the same – Hitachi 40GN.