Which Hard Drive

[RichDem]

I am looking to bu a new hard drive and would like some advice. Is it better to go for a 7,200 RPM drive ATA 66,(I have a KT7 Non Raid) or a 5,400 RPM Drive. The reason I ask is I have been checking the prices of drives and it does seem to vary a great deal. I have found some 7,200RPM drives cheaper than 5,400 ones.

I currently have two ATA33 drives on the same channel and a Yamaha CD writer as secondary master. Wich would be the best way to set the new drive up, would it need to be on it's own. If it is on the same channel as a slower drive would it be slowed down to the speed of the second drive.

I currently have Maxtor drives which I am quite impressed with so I was considering a Diamond Max +45, but if an of you guys have any advice on which brand I would love to hear from you.

Regards

Richard Carter

[big_block_buick]

three letters for you.IBM 75gxp(i think). from all reviews i've read by members here.they are the best.and if you can you want it on it's own channel or it will run slower.i'm not sure how you should set it up.maybe list all the devices you will have once you buy it.how many drives do you want to keep on your system?

[awwall]

I vote for the IBM also, have 3 of them running right now. The newest is a 30gig 7200 rpm and the other 2 are 10gig 5400. Have had the 10gig drives for about 2yrs now with no problems. The 30gig is about 3months old.

aw

[Dave2]

It is better to go with a 7200rpm hard drive since they have faster sustained transfer rates. IBM 7200 rpm IDE hard drives have the fastest sustained transfer rates for IDE. Connecting an ATA 66 hard drive on the same cable as an ATA 33 hard drive will not slow the ATA 66 hard drive down to ATA 33 if your IDE controller supports independant device timing. I tested that out by connecting by ATA 66 hard drive on the same cable as my ATA33 CDRW (set as PIO mode 0) and my HD Tach still gave me a burst rate of 29.6 MB/s as it did when my CDRW was set as UDMA 2. This is on the on-board IDE controller of my Asus P3B-F. Only expect a slow down when you do data transfers between 2 hard drives on the same cable since one IDE channel can only access 1 device at a time.

[Starmaster5]

Yes, The IBM 75GXP are great drives and will probably be the fastest you will find non-scsi. However, most hard drives from Maxtor and WD have good performace too ( I have one from each and each work great) and they are a cheaper.

[capybara]

I started a thread awhile back
'hard drives which keep going and going'
nothing outlasts seagate and quantum...
except the energizer bunny. =)
Also, consider scsi, much faster than
ide, both in rpm and in transfer rates.
And its just as easy to setup, the adaptec
scsi card autodetects the drives you
hook up to it.

[Mungla]

SCSI is not a good alternative for those who are on a budget. SCSI hard drives are for those who have an endless, or almost, budget. The IBM 75GXP's are Ultra DMA/100 (compatible with 33/66 as well).

I have been running a 30GB & 75GB 75GXP since each of these were released, and I have had zero problems. At times, my FSB has been as high as 155MHz and the IBM's took that with no concern. If noise is a factor, the IBM's are practically quiet, even thou they are 7200RPM. From the reviews that I have read, the 75GXP's are one of the quietest 7200RPM drives on the retail market. Even with no acoustic settings enabled, you cannot hear them click. I vote IBM all the way!

[FrozenLiquidity]

Yes yes yes! Those IBM 75GXP drives are blazing fast!

I have an older IBM Deskstar drive, 7200RPM and 13.5 Gigs, and it is extremely fast. I can play games like Half-Life on a LAN and also have people copying huge files from my hard drive at the same time and I don't even notice!

Definetly a good buy. 7200RPM all the way.

FrozenLiquidity

[Dave2]

I have a Maxtor 27.3 GB ATA 66 7200 rpm hard drive and it's way below 33MB/s sustained transfer rate when running at ATA 33. HD Tach gives me 24MB/s max sustained read in ATA 33 mode. Only the IBM 7200 rpm IDE hard drives break the ATA 33 barrier and on what I see they reach 37MB/s max sustained read. Go for the IBM.

[RichDem]

Nice one you guys,

Well what can I say thank you all for taking the time to reply. I certainly find this bulletin board invaluable in getting good advice.

My home built Athlon 850 is going like a dream. Only the hard drive and Geforce 2 GTS left to go and I will be happy (for at least six months!!!!)

Richard Carter

[Mungla]

30GB 75GXP benchmark, taken last night by HD Tach.

<IMG SRC="http://www.mystick.com/images/HDTACH30GB.jpg" border=0>

Check out that burst transfer when using the Ultra100 controller. Nuf' said.

[Warthog]

IBM all the way!

I have the 45gb 75GXP model. Paid $150 for it w/free shipping. Quiet and reliable.

Go get it!

Warthog