Best HDD for $50-75?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Simple: I have this:

• Field Value
  ATA Device Properties
  Model ID Maxtor 6L200M0
  Serial Number L40DR9TG
  Revision BANC1G10
  Parameters 387621 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector
  LBA Sectors 390721968
  Buffer 8 MB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead)
  Multiple Sectors 16
  ECC Bytes 4
  Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
  Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
  Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
  Unformatted Capacity 190782 MB
  
  ATA Device Features
  SMART Supported
  Security Mode Not Supported
  Power Management Supported
  Advanced Power Management Supported
  Write Cache Supported
  Host Protected Area Not Supported
  Power-Up In Standby Not Supported
  Automatic Acoustic Management Supported
  48-bit LBA Supported
  Device Configuration Overlay Supported
  
  ATA Device Physical Info
  Manufacturer Maxtor
  Hard Disk Family DiamondMax 10
  Form Factor 3.5"
  Formatted Capacity 200 GB
  Physical Dimensions 147 x 101.6 x 26.1 mm
  Max. Weight 630 g
  Average Rotational Latency 4.17 ms
  Rotational Speed 7200 RPM
  Average Seek 9 ms
  Interface SATA
  Buffer-to-Host Data Rate 150 MB/s
  Buffer Size 8 MB
  
  ATA Device Manufacturer
  Company Name Maxtor Corporation
  Product Information http://www.maxtor.com/en/products/

I want to know how much hard drive I can get with this: to .

[Dominus Atheos]

Your post makes no sense, so I'm just going to answer the title.

There's next to no difference between HDDs. The only things you should look for is gigabytes for dollar, and reliability.

For under $75 bucks, this would probably be one of the best hard drive you could get. 5 year warranty, 320 gigabytes, SATA connection (The same as those specs listed in the OP), and has won a customer choice award from Newegg.

[Phantasee]

I think his is an ATA drive. A 20GB one, at that.

[Resinence]

It's a 200GB SATA drive. SATA is ATA. Serial ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment).

Clearly you should stripe the new drive with the old one and then complain when you lose everything because you didn't do backups and one of the drives died.(rant)

Also Ein, your sig appears to be broken.

[Phantasee]

Where the fuck does it say serial? All I see is ATA, nothing implying it's SATA. And I see where I went wrong, I misread the unformatted size.

[Dominus Atheos]

Where the fuck does it say serial? All I see is ATA, nothing implying it's SATA. And I see where I went wrong, I misread the unformatted size.

It's near the bottom.

[Stark]

Clearly you should stripe the new drive with the old one and then complain when you lose everything because you didn't do backups and one of the drives died.(rant).

But this is cheaper, somehow, in a world where $100 gets you 500gb! DON'T YOU SEE???

[Xon]

Where the fuck does it say serial? All I see is ATA, nothing implying it's SATA. And I see where I went wrong, I misread the unformatted size.

• Field Value
  ATA Device Properties
  Model ID Maxtor 6L200M0
  Serial Number L40DR9TG
  Revision BANC1G10
  ....
  Interface SATA
  Buffer-to-Host Data Rate 150 MB/s

Great reading comprehension there.

You also fail at using the ctrl-f key combo followed by typing "SATA" too.

But this is cheaper, somehow, in a world where $100 gets you 500gb! DON'T YOU SEE???

A local computer shop in Perth has 500gb WD for $94 AUD.

[Resinence]

But this is cheaper, somehow, in a world where $100 gets you 500gb! DON'T YOU SEE???

Don't forget that striping = DOUBLE THE SPEED. ALL THE TIME. Regardless of what the people who actually know how raid works say.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

I hear the difference between raid 1 and raid 0 is that's if you'll get your files back if a drive fails, encoded in raw binary.

[Lisa]

All i know is this. 3 of my last 4 hdd failures have been seagate, the 4th was maxtor which seagate bought the company and apparently the rights and ability to fail. the seagates were all this year. anecdotal yes, but 2 friends have also had their seagates fail as well, i don't personally know anyone else that has had a hdd fail this year that wasn't using seagate.

seagate also has a crappy replacement policy, you pay shipping to them then they ship back to you instead of cross shipping with a credit card like they used to do. it's replaced with a refurb which is some one elses failed drive. a drive fails enough times and you could have bought a new one.

western digital and hitachi are my drives of choice these days.

[Hawkwings]

geez, you guys and your annual hard drive failures. Not once has any hard drive in any of my family's computers ever failed. I think we bought western digital and maxtor.

[loomer]

Maxtor man here, never had a failure. I do recommend you splurge, Einy, and just skip on buying another gun for a few months to make up the difference.

[Executor32]

Your post makes no sense, so I'm just going to answer the title.

There's next to no difference between HDDs. The only things you should look for is gigabytes for dollar, and reliability.

For under $75 bucks, this would probably be one of the best hard drive you could get. 5 year warranty, 320 gigabytes, SATA connection (The same as those specs listed in the OP), and has won a customer choice award from Newegg.

I have to second your opinion here. I have two of these myself, and I've never had any issues.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Had WD, watched 'em crash and burn (this was in 2k1 through 2k5ish when I was still stuck in NOLA pre-Hurricane). Then started running into Maxtors post-Hurricane and have no complaints. IDK about Seagate, however.

[Kitsune]

What is the best cost anyone has seen on an IDE laptop drive of around 120 Gigs? Any places better than New Egg?

[Uraniun235]

I've seen one of every brand die, I guess that means you should shoot yourself in the head or something

[[R_H]]

I've seen one of every brand die, I guess that means you should shoot yourself in the head or something

Aren't the failure rates pretty much the same for all of the brands?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Maxtor man here, never had a failure. I do recommend you splurge, Einy, and just skip on buying another gun for a few months to make up the difference.

Eh, I got my gun kick out anyway, spent barely over 60% of my gun budget anyway, and all I need now is to arrange a ride to a computer store to get a hard drive. No, the Radio Shack just down the road has none; the damn thing is a failboat.

[Uraniun235]

I've seen one of every brand die, I guess that means you should shoot yourself in the head or something

Aren't the failure rates pretty much the same for all of the brands?

yeah this is basically what I was getting at



On another note, there are performance differences between some 7200RPM drives. For example, newer drive models with the densest platters tend to have an edge in performance. I think these are drives that come in multiples of 320GB (i.e. 320GB platters), but I could be wrong.

[phongn]

Aren't the failure rates pretty much the same for all of the brands?

yeah this is basically what I was getting at

There may be some reliability differences between OEM and retail drives due to packaging. Retail-packaged drives stay in their box with all the padding until the customer opens them; OEM drives get physically handled at various points in the warehouse (take out of the foam container, move around by not-so-well-paid-workers, put in new foam container, put/toss in box, etc.)

On another note, there are performance differences between some 7200RPM drives. For example, newer drive models with the densest platters tend to have an edge in performance. I think these are drives that come in multiples of 320GB (i.e. 320GB platters), but I could be wrong.

The Samsung Spinpoint F1 (which uses three platters) has very good performance: it's pretty much the top of the 7200RPM drive for general desktop performance (the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 edging it out for heavy multitasking loads).

Of course, then there's the new VelociRaptor 300GB 10K drive, which apparently crushes all comers.

[[R_H]]

On another note, there are performance differences between some 7200RPM drives. For example, newer drive models with the densest platters tend to have an edge in performance. I think these are drives that come in multiples of 320GB (i.e. 320GB platters), but I could be wrong.

The Samsung Spinpoint F1 (which uses three platters) has very good performance: it's pretty much the top of the 7200RPM drive for general desktop performance (the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 edging it out for heavy multitasking loads).

Of course, then there's the new VelociRaptor 300GB 10K drive, which apparently crushes all comers.

The newest drives with the densest platters being the 640GB drives, like the new Spinpoint F1, the Samsung HD642JJ?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Moar failboat rides: Circuit City has crap selection for craptacular megabyte/dollar ratio. 160GB for $80? Maybe the 750GB for $140 was a better point on that curve, but I wasn't interested in paying that much for a hard drive.

Another thing to consider is I put The Word on Dave: Internet Shopping. Yes, I'm finally pulling him kicking and screaming over the bridge to the 21st century. I told him if it's good for Boss Man to order a fucking Minn Kota trolling motor for his pirogue at work, it's good enough for us!

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Okay, I've narrowed the field to two choices. Both have a highly-advantageous gigabyte/dollar ratio of about 5.5. There's a ten-dollar diff between the two, but Newegg has a seven dollar shipping charge on the cheaper one, making the diff effectively three bucks: completely trivial on the ass-end of a ~$80-$90 price.

I now want to move onto reliability concerns, but it appears this'll be a case of using the extremely rigorous scientific methodology known as Eenie Meenie Minie Moe.

EDIT: I sprung for the Barracuda drive, I think. I'm wondering if NoScript didn't eat the order yet; I'll look on newegg tomorrow.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Got the Barracuda yesterday, did prep work before the install, then realized something: I can't actually install the bloody thing until I get a damn SATA drive data cable, and one didn't come with the drive! Gagh.