barracuda vs raptor

I haven't messed with disk specs for years but couple of things I recall are:
1. Is access time measured the same - apples to apples.
2. Increased access speeds are sometimes acheived by increasing the number of heads - more moving parts equals lower MTBF.
3. Access time is a marketing ploy that's used because it's easy for consumers to grasp. Equally important is how fast can it lift data off the disk and pump it out onto the system bus. Getting to the data location is only half the battle. Getting the data from the location is the other half.