Since this is the first time we here at APH Networks are covering something with the name "Deskstar" attached to it, I have no choice but to go over a bit of history. Back in 1994, IBM launched their Deskstar line of hard drives. This name became infamous to consumers and professionals alike at the turn of the millennium, thanks to the Deskstar 75GXP, which consisted of six models ranging from 15GB to 75GB notoriously known for their unusually high failure rate. In fact, it was so bad, the name "Deathstar" stuck ever since. Two years later, in 2003, Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive division, and since then, they have continued selling under the same name with the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) brand. When Hitachi sold the division to Western Digital a couple of years ago, the Deskstar product line has consistently been hailed by many as some of the highest performance and most reliable hard drives in the storage market. Today, this is no different. With the rising popularity of dedicated network attached storage systems in home and business environments, companies such as HGST, Western Digital, and Seagate took notice. Last week, we have reviewed the Western Digital Red WD40EFRX 4TB, a model designed for low power consumption and competitive performance for a reasonable price. The Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB we are covering in the coming weeks attacks the same problem with a different approach; delivering reasonable power consumption and acceptable performance at the lowest price. This, then, leaves the Deskstar NAS 4TB in a category all by itself. By being the only 7,200RPM drive of the group, the HGST promises pure speed without a whole lot of concern for power consumption. But how do all these factors quantify out on the charts against the competition? With many pages of benchmarking, we have all the results and the answers.