This review comes to a good end, as all three drives perform pretty well. Fujitsu was able to surprise us with excellent transfer rates, quick access time, low noise level and 'cool' operation. Quantum is offering the drive with the lowest access time right now, making it the perfect choice for database applications and other software with a large number of random accesses.

The most balanced drive comes from Maxtor. Good performance (second best access time and data transfer) in combination with attractive prices has always been a strength of this company.

Most people won't be able to differentiate between those three hard drives in real life. The more you are aware of what kind of applications you are going to run, the more important becomes the choice of the right hard drive.

People who want a quiet drive that does not produce a lot of heat should take the Fujitsu MPG3204AH-E with liquid bearing. Systems for database applications will run best with the Quantum drive.

If you are interested in a different size than the drives we tested, you can of course choose other models within the same series, usually between 10 and 60 GB. The bigger the capacity, the more platters will be used, leading to slightly more heat due to higher friction.