1. Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB Wd20eads

Drive size (GB): 2000GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 32, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.11,

Bottom Line: This drive packs in the bits for 2TB of capacity, but its price remains high, despite its competitive cost per gigabyte.

2. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB

Drive size (GB): 1500GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 32, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.11,

Bottom Line: Great performance plus gargantuan capacity makes this a great drive for storing large media collections.

3. Western Digital Caviar WD1001FALS

Drive size (GB): 1000GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 32, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.13,

Bottom Line: Standard 1TB internal hard drive.

4. Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1000GB

Drive size (GB): 1000GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 32, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.11,

Bottom Line: Solid performance across the board on our tests makes this drive an excellent upgrade choice.

5. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 1000GB SATA

Drive size (GB): 1000GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 32, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.14,

Bottom Line: Gargantuan drive is a fast write performer; carries industry-leading 5 year warranty.

6. Western Digital Velociraptor WD3000GLFS

Drive size (GB): 300GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 10000, Buffer Size (MB): 16, Cost per Gigabyte: $1,

Bottom Line: Super-fast performer, this 10,000 rpm drive leaves the competition--including WD's previous Raptors--in its wake.

7. Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS

Drive size (GB): 1000GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 16, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.14,

Bottom Line: First drive to bill itself as eco-friendly with low-power consumption proves it can stand with the big boys.

8. Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 750GB

Drive size (GB): 750GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 32, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.13,

Bottom Line: This drive was among our fastest performers across our suite of tests.

9. Western Digital WD5002ABSYS

Drive size (GB): 500GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 16, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.2,

Bottom Line: This pricey drive is a good choice for use in write-intensive environments, such as servers.

10. Western Digital WD Caviar SE16 750 GB

Drive size (GB): 750GB, Supported Interface(s): SATA-300, Speed (RPM): 7200, Buffer Size (MB): 16, Cost per Gigabyte: $0.24,

Bottom Line: Top-flight performer posted some of the fastest write times we've seen.

Windows XP retained many loyal users during the dark ages of Vista, but the emergence of Windows 7 may signal the end of an era.

The vast majority of PC users still haven't adopted Vista. Eight years after its release--and months after Microsoft officially discontinued it--Windows XP is more beloved than ever.

So will Windows 7 convince XP loyalists to switch? Instead of guessing, we decided to ask them. In August, we conducted an online survey of more than 8000 people who told us that XP was their primary OS. The top three reasons they haven't upgraded to Vista: They're comfortable with XP, Vista lacks features that might justify an upgrade, and they're concerned about driver and compatibility issues.

Vistaphobia ran high among respondents who had tried Windows Vista (62 percent said that their opinion of the OS was somewhat or very negative) and among those who merely knew about it (81 percent were somewhat or very negative). But most respondents said that were keeping an open mind about Windows 7.

In fact, the 26 percent of respondents who said they had already used Windows 7 were quite enthusiastic about it: 73 percent said that their opinion of Win 7 was somewhat or very positive, and only 11 percent said that it was very or somewhat negative. Also, 56 percent said that they intended to move to Windows 7 immediately or eventually. Among respondents who had read about Windows 7 but hadn't used it, 56 percent said that their opinion of Win 7 was somewhat or very positive, and only 12 percent said that it was somewhat or very negative.

Still, a meaningful minority of respondents have no interest in upgrading: 40 percent said that they intended to stick with XP indefinitely. Which brings up another interesting question: When will it become impractical to keep using XP and spurning its successors?

Supposedly, that date has already come and gone: Microsoft formally discontinued Windows XP on June 30, 2008, and it ended mainstream support on April 14, 2009. But the company has continued to permit PC builders to offer downgrade discs that let XP fans install the OS over Vista. It says that manufacturers can ship Windows 7 machines with XP downgrades for 18 months after Win 7's release or until it ships the first Service Pack for the new OS--whichever comes first. In other words, XP downgrades may be available until April 22, 2011 (assuming that Microsoft doesn't extend the deadline further; it has already granted XP so many stays of execution that refusing to grant any more would be a bit surprising.)

Windows XP's final death knell is scheduled to sound on April 8, 2014. On that date, Microsoft says that it will no longer take support calls and issue security fixes. This doesn't mean that no one will run XP on April 9 and beyond--it just means that they'll be on their own. XP holdouts, you've been warned.

It looks like Microsoft has the advantage -- at least for now -- in its David vs. Goliath legal skirmish with Canadian software developer i4i, which recently won a patent infringement suit against the software giant.

A quick recap: Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis halted the sale of Microsoft’s ubiquitous word processors -- Word 2003 and Word 2007 -- in their current form after October 10. But a federal appeals court yesterday granted Redmond’s request to suspend the injunction. The ongoing battle centers on Word’s capability to create custom XML documents, a capability that i4i says infringes on its patent.

It’s extremely unlikely that Word will cease to exist. If i41 prevails, Microsoft will likely disable the offending feature, some patent experts predict. But what if it didn’t? Microsoft has warned of computer Armageddon if it’s not allowed to sell Word in its current form.

Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer, quoting from Microsoft’s emergency motion filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals, summarizes this dire scenario:

" 'Microsoft and its distributors (which include retailers such as Best Buy and OEMs such as HP and Dell) face the imminent possibility of a massive disruption in their sales,’ Microsoft argued in the motion. ‘If left undisturbed, the district court's injunction will inflict irreparable harm on Microsoft by potentially keeping the centerpiece of its product line out of the market for months,’ the firm's lawyers added. ‘The injunction would block not only the distribution of Word, but also of the entire Office suite, which contains Word and other popular programs.’ ”

Rubbish? You bet. But for the sake of argument, let’s say that Microsoft was forced to halt all sales of Word. Would the computing world as we know it cease to spin? Hardly.

First, there are plenty of alternative word processors out there, most of which read Word files perfectly well. Sure, there might be a few formatting glitches, but that’s to be expected during any file conversion. Microsoft Office users, particularly those who rely heavily on the well-honed integration between Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint, would experience the most problems. But, again, the ban would affect new sales of Word, not existing copies. So users would have time to develop workarounds.

Plus, there’d be one big silver lining to a Microsoft Word ban: A true universal document format could take hold, one that replaces today’s defacto standard -- Microsoft’s doc/docx -- that’s tied too closely to the whims of one software vendor.

Word ban? Sure, why not?

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com.

The highly anticipated follow up to the XPERIA X1 will launch in Q4 with Windows Mobile 6.5

Sony Ericsson has announced its hotly anticipated follow up to the XPERIA X1 smartphone — the XPERIA X2 — will launch in Australia in "early Q4".

One of the first smartphones to be shipped with Windows Mobile 6.5, the XPERIA X2 promises a "best in class" e-mail and multimedia experience. It is a full touch screen smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The XPERIA X2 also has an 8.1-megapixel camera, a 3.2in display, built-in GPS, Wi-Fi and HSDPA connectivity.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 was a well built-handset with a strong feature set, but suffered lag and slowdown that resulted in an overly frustrating user experience. The XPERIA X2 is set to benefit largely from Windows Mobile 6.5, though it includes the same processor and memory specifications as its predecessor.

Among the XPERIA X2's new features is SlideView, providing quick access to frequently used phone applications, including contacts and messages. XPERIA's panel system — first seen in the X1 — has been expanded to include 14 preloaded panels from the likes of Skype, Google and CNN; there are 16 panels available for download.

"The XPERIA X2 brings together best in class technologies for people on the move," said Steve Wilson of Sony Ericsson. "Today more than ever, people need to seamlessly switch between their work and private lives and the XPERIA X2’s unique panels allow them to do this in one touch."

Sony Ericsson also announced the XPERIA X2 will come with a dedicated after-sales support service, called XPERIA Services. In addition to a service that allows handsets to be replaced under warranty even if the user has travelled abroad, XPERIA Services provides walkthroughs and troubleshooting guides for the smartphone's users.