Ten months ago there was a single 3TB desktop hard drive available for purchase – the Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB – and it sold for nearly $250. Since then, several 3TB 3.5-inch drives have been released from other hardware companies, and their prices have steadily fallen. For example, the 3TB Caviar Green that was $240 in October 2010 is now $179.
But that’s not the cheapest 3TB on the block – that distinction goes to the Hitachi DeskStar CoolSpin 0S03228. This 3.5” SATAIII drive sells for just $129.
That’s an amazing price when you think about it, given that one of the least expensive 2TB drives will set you back $90.
Before you make the leap to a 3TB drive, be aware that there are some OS restrictions; Mac OS X 10.6+ (Snow Leopard, Lion) and Linux handle these drives just fine, as does 64-bit Windows Vista and 7. 32-bit Windows Vista and 7 can use 3TB drives for storage (i.e. as second or third drives), but not as boot drives.
Check out my article on the two drive solution for Windows.
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