Toshiba MKxx56GSY: MK5056GSY, 500 GB

This is a representative of the fast HDD series from Toshiba. It has two 250GB platters, a spindle speed of 7200 RPM, and 16 megabytes of cache memory. That’s everything it may need to be competitive in our tests. By the way, Toshiba has announced a new 61 series of HDDs based on 320GB platters but we have not got them yet. Hopefully, they will have arrived to us by this fall.

Seagate Constellation ES: ST3500514NS, 500 GB

An ordinary 3.5-inch drive with a spindle speed of 7200 RPM is going to serve as another reference point in our comparison. This is a 500GB model from Seagate’s new Constellation ES series. Its 1-terabyte cousin did very well in our recent HDD roundup, restoring Seagate’s reputation somewhat. Perhaps we are not quite correct in taking a server series drive, but such HDDs are popular among end-users. So, why shouldn’t we take it if it is among the fastest?

The following table shows the firmware versions of the HDDs:

You should keep it in mind that the same models of HDDs may perform differently with other firmware.