I still like my deal with my WD1200JB for two digit cheap! No not $99 or $79.99. A lot cheaper.
At storage review with the WD1200JB vs all three of the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160 gig Hard drives (each with different platter sizes) WD wins on the I/O tests at the bottom straight through just about. Except for two i know.
http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchm ... 2&devCnt=4
I think i use my drive the hardest when it comes to I/Os because i like to do more thing at once. Like virus scanning, defragging my hard drive, downloading and using my computer a lot all at the same time! Sometimes i do more than that at once. When i had my Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120 gig (which i returned because i didn't think it was fast enough in my opinion plus a little loud during seek time in my opinion like when i would virus scan and defrag.) Plus I was able to get the WD1200JB a whole lot cheaper so why not save some money. I have nothing to lose. I can tell though that the WD1200JB to me seems a lot faster in my opinion. Espically when virus scanning, defragging my hard drive, downloading using my computer a lot, etc all at the same time!
Plus some of the scores i got in Winbench are higher than in Storagereview's benchmarks for my WD1200JB. Though i am sure thats because of my system specs.