We'll deal with the internal drives first. Certainly not the cheapest of drives, this test showed that as a rule, you get what you pay for. Still, the Mirai wasn't the most expensive drive, yet it's an amazing deal. It's a Direct Hit. Plextor is renowned for its SCSI drives and, while not cheap, a Plextor will give you a reliable, fast and efficient drive in your machine.
External drives are always tricky to test alongside internals, even when in a separate test.
Sony's PC Card external was sleek, sexy, fast and pricey, but on balance, we found the HP was the best of the bunch. It certainly didn't excite, but gave better performance and better software than its USB rivals. Two other drives clearly stood out from the crowd, though they couldn't quite match the Mirai's undeniable quality. Both were EIDE internals. The first was the Sony , where the real selling point was the bundle.