What makes an Apple hard drive special?

Posted by Michael Shnitzer on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Michael Shnitzer
Published on 2010-02-28T16:33:57Z Indexed on 2010/03/11 20:05 UTC
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hard-drive

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apple

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prices

The Mac Pro has a specific hard drive for sale in the Apple Store for $549.00. The drive has the following specs:

Serial ATA
3GB per second
7200 RPM

Amazon has a hard drive with the ~~same specs~~ for $169.99.

The only difference I can tell is that the Apple hard drive label says it has "Apple HDD Firmware". What exactly is the benefit of this firmware and is there something I am missing that make up for the price difference in these two drives?

Update: My initial comparison between the two drive was unfair. Apparently 2TB drives that are 3 GB/S and 7200 RPM are quiet a bit more than $169.99. Dell has a 2 TB SATA Caviar Black from Western Digital that is $319.99, which is closer to Apple's price.

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