Needing a new hard drive...

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2005-05-25 03:04am

Well my current drive, a 40gb barracuda is failing, maybe it's because I like to take it out of the computer and put it in this cartdridge which I then take to work with me.

Which one of these drives should I buy? The prices are nearly identical, the Seagate is a bit cheaper.

-Maxtor DiamondMax+10 200GB 7200rpm
-Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 200GB ATA

Post by **Beowulf** » 2005-05-25 03:23am

I like my Seagate Barracuda. The 5 year warranty is nice too.

labrat · Post by **labrat** » 2005-05-25 09:53am

Not sure about the seagate but the Maxtor should have the fluid dynamic bearing motor (at least the DiamondMax plus 9 does) which is surprisingly quiet and it also features NCQ. Other than that find out the difference in seek times and thats all that is really important in IDE drives.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-05-25 11:25am

Maxtor now has drives with 16 megs of cache, which supposedly make them competitive with WD's Raptor drives while still being big drives and without needing to run at 10K RPM.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-05-25 12:25pm

DO NOT GET MAXTOR.

Maxtor was the brand that shipped out with my computer, straight from the factory. And it died after six months. Maxtor is shit.

Whereas Seagate offers a 5 year warrenty, something no other hard drive manufactuer offers. Frankly, if they're willing to stand by their product for so long, that really says something about the quality.

There is no question about which hard drive to buy. You will get the Seagate.

BTW, how much is is? I got my 200GB HD for $165.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2005-05-25 12:52pm

The Maxtor is $129, the seagate is $128

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-05-25 02:46pm

Buy it.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2005-05-25 04:16pm

labrat wrote:Not sure about the seagate but the Maxtor should have the fluid dynamic bearing motor (at least the DiamondMax plus 9 does) which is surprisingly quiet and it also features NCQ.

Seagate's had fluid bearings since at least '98, and I believe all of their current drives use them. They were the first to use fluid bearings and they've got things nailed down. No complaints about reliability, I still have their 1st generation 7200rpm fliud bearing drive from '98 and it's still working perfectly. Never had a Seagate fail on me, can't say the same about Maxtors, WD, Quantums or any other drive.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2005-05-25 04:20pm

Well my seagate is failing, I am thinking it got one too many bumps from being moved from computer to computer, I really thought it could take that though.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-05-25 04:54pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:DO NOT GET MAXTOR.

Maxtor was the brand that shipped out with my computer, straight from the factory. And it died after six months. Maxtor is shit.

Whereas Seagate offers a 5 year warrenty, something no other hard drive manufactuer offers. Frankly, if they're willing to stand by their product for so long, that really says something about the quality.

There is no question about which hard drive to buy. You will get the Seagate.

BTW, how much is is? I got my 200GB HD for $165.

NO NO NO NO NO

DO NOT LISTEN TO DPDP

DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO SAYS "X" BRAND IS BAD.

The ONLY exception to this was the IBM Deskstar (lol more like Deathstar am i rite?) 60 and 75 series which had known manufacturing defects.

Anyone who says "lol Maxtor sux" or "Western Digital sux" because they've had a few fail on them is speaking purely from anecdotal evidence and their experiences are not representative of the brand as a whole.

FURTHERMORE, the Maxtor Maxline series of hard drives (some of which, by the way, are the 16 meg cache drives I was talking about) come with five year warranties, as do the Samsung Spinpoint P80 hard drives.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-25 05:11pm

So who makes the best hard drives, period?

Jew · Post by **Jew** » 2005-05-25 05:12pm

I agree with Uraniun235. Maxtor, Seagate, Samsung, Western Digital, and other major brands are fine despite anecdotal claims of failure. I have owned Western Digital and Maxtor drives and they've served me well. I have a Hitachi drive which appears to be failing, but I think that's because I ran it too hot for several months. (Note to self: computer cases need airflow.)

Given the choice between Maxtor and Seagate I'd take the Seagate unless the warranty on the Maxtor was better.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2005-05-25 05:48pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:So who makes the best hard drives, period?

Define "best."

HyperionX · Post by **HyperionX** » 2005-05-25 06:13pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:So who makes the best hard drives, period?

In terms of reliability there is absolutely no such thing as "best." Today, all harddrives have a high rate of failure (usually within 5 years) and the curve is a very flat distribution in my experience.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-25 06:44pm

phongn wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:So who makes the best hard drives, period?
Define "best."

Yup, pretty much.