Introduction

Samsung drives have always been warmly received within the StorageReview.com community despite the lack of review timeliness. Until recently, SR didn't have any ties with Samsung of America; it was difficult to get our hands on review samples from the "seventh manufacturer." Fortunately, however, things have changed. These days, Samsung is quite willing to supply us with up-to-date samples of current-generation products. Here we'll take a look at Samsung's current 5400 RPM drive, the SpinPoint V30.

The V30 packs 30 gigabytes on a single platter, matching the density of Western Digital's WD600AB. A two-disc flagship design yields a 60 GB capacity. The manufacturer specifies seek time at a rather modest 9.0 milliseconds. The buffer size weighs in on the small site, a petit 512 kilobytes. A three-year warranty protects the drive.

Samsung's latest entry targets the huge entry-level OEM markets as well as do-it-yourselfers that seek a modestly priced upgrade. This pits the drive squarely against Seagate's U-series, Western Digital's WD600AB, and Maxtor's DiamondMax 80.

The V30 ships exclusively with an ATA-100 interface. Remember, since ATA drives have yet to break sequential transfer rates greater than even 45 MB/sec that ATA-66 (and in many cases, even ATA-33) interfaces will run a drive with optimal performance. Our testbed remains equipped with a Promise Ultra66 controller.

 Low-Level Measurements...