FOR VALUE AND PERFORMANCE, CONSIDER A USED HARD DRIVE

Hard drive prices have risen this past year (2011). The solution is to consider purchasing a used item. The WD6401AALS was a good solution. There is always the risk of getting something that doesn't work, but Ebay has built in security as well as a path for mediation. The WD is one of the top line platter type hard drives that provide exception performance plus value. In this case, it worked perfectly for me. However, in tests on my system, a similar 500GB drive by Seagate performed somewhat better, but the difference was minimal.