Hard drives

I was planning on buying a new Hard Drive , and I was hoping some of you could give me some suggestions on which way to head. I'm looking for 40GB or 60GB, which seem to be the only ones in my price range right now. (around 50-60 USD)

Anyway, Initial searches turned up these:

• Seagate (EIDE) 40GB 7200RPM EIDE Hard Drive (ST340016A, ST340014A)
• 60GB Maxtor IDE 6Y060L0 7200/133
• 60.0GB EIDE 7200Rpm 2MB,8.9ms

Any suggestions on which ones to buy?

I'd go with Maxtor, their Diamond 9 series have FDB motors and 8mb cache.

I'd have to say out of those three Maxtor is the most ahem respectable of the manufacturers (Based on reliability).

Personally, the hard drive area is the only area that I will lean towards more expensive brands, just of personal experience and taste. Such as, Western Digital is suppose to be okay, but every WD drive I've had has failed horribly, crashed and burned, and massacred all survivors past verification. I now tend to lean towards IBM drives; however, they are no longer manufactured, so I lean towards Hitachi. But, I've used Maxtor before, and they're pretty good, they get the job done, to say the least. However this is one area of my computer that I want to be rock solid (same with the power supply) so I am picky and choosy of whose drive I choose.

But from that list, I'd say Maxtor, I've used Seagate once and it was a LONG time ago. Back when they were used as cheap drives instead of Fajitsu for pre-made computers. I suppose they're better now.

Yeah Maxtor are alright, i've had mine for years with no troubles :smile: Cheap, but reliable!

I have a Western Digital 18.6gig, a Maxtor 6.4gig and a IBM 6.4gig and out of all of them, I prefer the Maxtor. But since its so old (1997) its loud as heck. I dont use it all that much anymore though.

Oh yea, I also have a Seagate (something like 2ish gigs) and a Fujitsu? (something like 500mbs :biggrin: )

Currently, i'm using two seagate drives 20G and 40G. Both worked pretty reliably so far. Anyway, since you all unanimously suggest Maxtor, I suppose they're a good option... Any other brands worth looking at?

Hitachi or an IBM if you can find it. Other then that, Western Digital is no where near worth the money they cost and you've already considered the other options.

WD DOES offer 10 000rpm and 15 000rpm drives though.. Hella fast. But I still prefer the Diamond 9 series from Maxtor. When I get the money, im getting a 80giger. I just dont know whether to go with ATA133 or SATA. My mobo is SATA capable and I have the SATA power connector on my PSU, I just dont know how to setup a SATA drive if you have to install the drivers for the HDD to be recognised, but you need a recognised HDD to install the drivers to. Aye, I'm not getting it :biggrin:

I'm using a seagate 40gb 7200rpm atm, seems fine (and almost completely silent!) My previous drive was a seagate 10gb, seagate seem good, though theyre the only ones I've used over 4gb. Never had a seagate drive fail on me (the Fujitsu (I think) 4gb drive died after about 6 years use, it still works but only half of it is usable).

EDIT: What brand is the 3rd one you listed? 60.0GB EIDE 7200Rpm 2MB,8.9ms

Seagate. I'm an idiot.

without reading all this.. i suggest any hard drive with at least 7200 and as large a cache as possible.. otherwise, i have had virtually every brand, and all have worked to my satisfaction.

I have a seagate now ... no problems ... no heating problems, no noise, ... great :smile:

On the point of HDD's, Eventually, I will need a replacement, A) because mine is getting old (18.6gigs) and B) because I built a second system I am trying to sell and included that hard drive.

Looking at the stats, I have a few questions of my own:

1: I know SATA will become the norm soon so I am thinking of going SATA HDD (I have SATA mobo and will be getting SATA PSU). But is there truly a performance increase in Serial ATA? I mean, ATA133 is 133mb a second and from what I've heard/my own experience HDD's dont transfer anywhere close to that.

2: How do I setup a SATA hard drive. I have a IDE to SATA connector for my current HDD (came with mobo) and I tried to get it working but it never works.

3: 7200rpm or 10 000rpm? Is there truly a difference? Is it worth the extra money?

SCSI (pronounced scuzzi) hard drives are indeed fast, but IMO not worth the extra bucks, just for a gaming PC.

7200 is ample.

I dont know what SCSI is or what it means. :rolleyes:

Look at the average seek time. That's the best indicator of performance.

Yeah, go with the seek time- how fast it spins means next to nothing if it takes the head 12 seconds to get over the data.

And I've actually had a really bad experience with SeaGate drives- I only keep buying them because they're one of the cheapest things that my wholesaler has under warranty (3 years- no questions asked). So, if it weren't for the great service, I'd probably never get one again.

I'm on my third one now, and thats over a period of about 2 years, just so you know.

i have one of Seagate's first 1 gig monsters.. actually, one of the fastest drives i have owned, and it still functions after all this time.. it is currently in an old P1 200 i put together for my niece.

the hard drive is... 6 years old now i guess, i got it before i ever heard of half-life.. i remember thinking "i'll never be able to fill this baby :biggrin:

i originally bought it for my old 486sx

My main advice looking at your list is get a bigger drive than 60 gigs. You get more and more space for less and less price difference. I'm pretty sure that for hardly any increase in cost, you can get a much bigger drive (just looked up maxtor 8MB cache, 80 gig- ?51, 120 gig- ?57!). And remember that eventually, everybody runs out of space :smile:

The smallest drive I have is 80 megabytes (yes).

[edit] Double check the warranty information for the Maxtor drives. When I was buying mine, the 120 gig had a 3 year warranty, but the 80 gig only had a 1 year. That may have changed now, but it's certainly worth checking - I got a drive RMA'd with 2 weeks left of a 3 year warranty, so it's definately worth getting the 3 year warranty if you can :smile: [/edit]

RMA'd?

'Return Merchandise Authorization'. Pretty stupid acronym, it's when something breaks, and you send it back to the manufacturer (the place you bought it doesn't get involved) for a replacement.

I also RMA'd my monitor when it broke and was actually out of it's original warranty - they sent me a replacement (not new, but works properly and is the same model) the next day, collecting the old one when they came! I was well pleased :smile:

Wow, your very lucky Jeff. Well, I am too. Our monitor broke so my parents said f**k it and bought a whole new computer, and I took the existing tower which is now my computer. Bundled with a 17inch flat CRT I already had.