Guys I need your help!! I'm in truble to decide which HDD buy. I know that Maxtor units are far to get damaged in short times but the last families (Diamond Max Plus 9) aren't so fast (is this right?) than in the "old" (DiamondMax Plus D740X) and than other discs from other companies (IBM, Western Digital, Seagate). But all the people I ask told me that other's companies models are not good drives. And what do you think? Ciottano

I will have to buy a new one pretty soon, too ...

It's really not that easy to choose, but that's just because the differences are not too big these days. I think nearly every harddisk manufacturer reduced the warranty from 3 years to just one year.
Exceptions are the "Special Edition" from Western Digital with "JB" (=8MB Cache) in the name and the 8MB cache model(s) from Seagate with 3 years warranty.

The Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120GB (ST3120024A) makes a good impression, especially because it has one of the lowest temperatures and it's ultra silent. Except for the read perfomance it's a really awesome drive. In contrast to the poor read perfomance it's write perormance is top of the notch again.

Don't know too much about Maxtor drives like the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB, 8MB Cache (6Y120P0), but a friend of mine is pretty happy with it, it's also pretty silent .... only one year warranty, though.

Another good one IMHO is the Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB 120GB Special Edition ... fast, silent and 3 years warranty (as mentionend above)

The prices are almost the same: +/- 4 € difference ... approx. 140 €

Then there are two new giant drives (250 GB), Tom's Hardware has taken a look at them.

Right now my favourite one is the one from SEAGATE, but it might be another one tomorrow

Only hard disk which has died on me was an old Western Digital 609MB drive...
got bumped up too much

I have tried Seagate Barracuda, Quantum CX (quite slow... 5400 RPM), Samsung...
They're still running.

<edit>
These are 'normal' HDDs, quite small (40GB - 3yr warranty)... the fastest is that Seagate,
which I'm using right now writing this to you from Linux.

ATAPI HDD compatibility is a non-issue now.
</edit>

I'm looking for a 80 Gb drive. My secondary HDD is nowaday a Seagate 40 Gb 5400 and I'm happy with it. I read on an Italian hardware site (www.hwupgrade.it) that the Maxtor drives have different performances using different firmware (but same mechanics). On the site there are many istograms (so you can read the values if you don't speak Italian), here the links:

http://www.hwupgrade.it/articoli/767/1.html

http://www.hwupgrade.it/articoli/803/1.html

I found Maxtor drives at about 90 € plus vat (is this correct ?!?!?), Seagate are more expensive and very dificult to find. Bye

Then you might want to check the Western Digital Caviar WD800JB 80GB Special Edition. It has all the features of the 120 GB model (8 MB Cache, fast, 3 years warranty), just less space. You can get it for a little bit more than 100,- €.
IMHO worth the extra money compared to 90,- € ... Good luck with your decision

If you're like me - casually browsing the internet, doing some office tasks, and listening to music - then any current 7200rpm model is fast enough. You wouldn't even need the 8mb cache models.

However, I'll still buy an 8mb cache version because prices aren't that much higher, and booting up faster is worth the extra, every day again.

Also, I'll either opt for 80gb or 120gb. Expressed in cents per gb these sizes are optimal at the moment (this holds only for now - probably in half a year 160/180gb will be most attractive).

My thoughts on current 7200rpm IDE drives:

• Western Digital is not yet employing oil bearings. There lightning fast in benchmarks, but I'm not willing to stand the noise they bring along.
  
• IBM/Hitachi 180GXP is an interesting series. Almost as fast as WDs but much more quiet. Reportedly so quiet that you'll never complain about noise, but somehow I still see people complaining in some fora... Yet, it seems the best combination of speed and comfort.
  
• Maxtor DM9+ seems good too, but I dislike them for using different platter sizes under the same type numbers (this is an aesthetic argument for nerds like me only ). There are 60gb, 68gb and 80gb platter sizes around. They're not as fast as IBMs and slightly louder, but also cheaper.
  
• Seagate BarracudaV is still my choice. Not fast at all, but 8mb cache helps somewat in that. Most importantly, it's ultra-quiet. Never seen a complaint about noise on this one...

(If you didn't check yet, go to storagereview.com->database->sort by noise/speed/whatever).

Check http://www.storagereview.com/

Don't be alarmed that all models have several "disk died too soon" entries. Hard drives don't like shocks or heat - people are not always respecting that. I have personally lost a 30 Gb disk due to excessive heat -- but the warranty covered it. The manufactures should really put a special labels on the drives that permaently changes colour at some temperature.

The 8MB is a special version, only available with 120 GB (ST3120024A, standard version is ST3120023A). But you're right, it's a great drive. I have two 120 GB Cuda V's, they are very quiet with acoustic mode set to silent (default). I don't hear them at all, because i'm using some rubber suspension.

Some people (mostly those who are into making ultra-low-noise PC's) have been complaining about the 180GXP's buzzing noise which happens every 10 minutes or so. But otherwise, it appears to be quiet and fast.



I'll probably be buying a Seagate 7200.7 80 GB (single-platter) drive myself soon.

ff123

My choice for the last 2 HD´s which I bought was Samsung´s "SV 120 4H" 7200 rpm, 2 MB cache, each with 120 GB capacity (formatted only 114). The cheapest choice at the moment: costs only 114,- €. All other manufacturers (including Maxtor) are still 15 to 20 % more expensive. And to be honest: A 8 MB-cache sure is a "nice to have" - but is it really worth the higher price? Of course, the performance is a little better. But 7200 rpm are quite enough.

And I wouldn´t buy Maxtor´s 120 GB 7200rpm-HD at the moment, as it got bad test-results in "copy-inside-the-harddisk". It´s very slow there. Also 2 of my 8 Maxtor HD´s were already corrupted after less than 1 1/2 years. Thank god i still had this 3-year-warrantry, so I got them exchanged by the customer-service. But now they shortened the warrantry-time to only 2 years (among the other manufacturers - except Samsung!).

And the best relation between price/size offer meanwhile the 120 GB´s-drives, no more the 80´s.

I second Quellcore's suggestion. I have that WD Special Edition 80GB drive with 8MB cache, it's fast and relatively quiet.

I own a couple of Samsungs(average of 3 years old) and never had any problem or fault.
On the same period, one "much younger" WD died on my hands...
Both Samsungs are installed in one single machine wich has high disk activity and stays "on" for long periods of time.
IMHO Samsung makes high quality HDs.
LIF

@CiTay: 8mb cache is available for the 80gb BarracudaV as well (and for all SATA versions). Btw, I really don't understand why they have 80gb instead of 90gb drives, since they have 30gb per side of the platter...

@ff123: the 7200.7 is not an improvement of the BarracudaV. Rather, it's going to be a cheaper to produce alternative. There's only one thing in which it does better than BarracudaV: sequential transfer rates. Unless you wan't to do massive multitrack recording, it's not a nice drive. According to Seagate specs it is noisier than BarracudaV, and still it is slower in all benchmarks (except STR benches but they are silly). Also, it doesn't feature the SeaShield.

I'm also a happy user of Samsung HD. I bought V60 120 GB drive a month ago. Works fine (feels fast, I don't know how it compares to other HD's) and it's nearly silent. 3 years warranty and cheap price aren't bad things.

It took me 10 minutes to find out that I had to Google for SV1204H

But sorry, that is a 5400rpm drive. No go for me.

Yes. Indeed. .... And I always wondered about the low price. I thougt it would be 7200 rpm drives. But all in all, there isn´t such a big difference between 5400 rpm-drives and 7200´s. In contrary, 5400´s have some advantages: They are more quiet and don´t get so hot. But I can remember: Samsung´s 5400 rpm 80 GB-drive was in a computer-mag testet against 7200 rpm-drives - and believe it or not: In some cathegories it was faster then some of 7200 rpm´s ! ....I beg your pardon for the spaces in the description!

I own a 4.3 Gb Samsung model (I'm using it now on my computer while I'm waiting for the new disc). It is about 5 years old and it has never given me problem. The problem is that where I live Samsung hard drive are difficult to find (also Seagate). Probably I'll choice a Western Digital Caviar WD800BB (no special edition). If some one can tell me were to find samsung models (whit specifications compared to WD model) I'll be happy.

There is one area where it's improved: the single platter goes up to 80 GB instead of 60 GB. So the 80 GB 7200.7 without a SeaShield might be about as loud as a Barracuda V 80 GB with a SeaShield (I don't know for sure).

According to Dru's review on SilentPCReview.com, it should be quiet enough, anyway.

ff123

i've read that some people use the built in S.M.A.R.T. monitoring to let them know if their drive is about to fail...does this feature impair performance at all if its enabled? what is you guys experience with this feature?

I don't think that S.M.A.R.T. reduces performances if eneabled...and I've never read about this.

Very happy with my WD 800JB 80gb which i obtained after the recommendation from http://www.storagereview.com
The WD JB series have been the top recommended for the past few months.

I'm on my third WD and never had a single problem with any of them. Its a 120 gig special edition with 8mb buffer and 2ms seek time or whatever. I would use my old 60gig but its only 5400 rpm. My first one is now powering a music ftp in Sweden.