SATA HDD, Which one to get?

[Animal_Mother]

Hey hey all,

Im looking to get a new HDD and thought about going for a SATA one since they seem better and people say they are,

BUT!

Which one to get?

Ive been looking on Ebuyer.co.uk and overclockers.co.uk

and ive found three that look like good possiables, they are:

Maxtor 120GB SATA 8MB cache 7200rpm - OEM (6Y120M0)

Seagate 120GB SATA Barracuda 7200.7 - OEM (ST3120026AS)

Western Digital 120GB SATA 150 7200rpm 8MB Cache - OEM (WD1200JD)

With these HDD i take it that they are all ATA 150 and have a 8MB cache.
with the seagate whats with the 7200.7? why .7? and what does it mean?

Since that these are all OEM i take it that i need a SATA power converter, since that i dont have one on my PSU.

Which one would be the best to go for, and anything to avoid with them.

Cheers

--Pete--

[Midknyte]

The .7 is just the 7th generation of barracuda drive. it has no relation to performance.

I would get the WD personally. you can compare the drives at www.storagereview.com

[scottluebke2003]

They are all similar in speed. Seagates are quiet, I have read lots of bad feedback on WD's. However, I had a 20gb from WD for 4 years and it never had a problem. But thats 4 years ago also. My current seagate 120gb 8meg cache, 7200 rpm is very quiet, no noise at all. some say that Maxtor is loud, but good quality. Seagate is a good purchase. fast, quiet, not too much heat. all good

[tantone]

Seagate or WD. Both are quality drives and reliable. Seagates tend to be quieter, while some claim WD's are faster. In the end, unless you pay close attention, you probably won't notice the difference between them anyway.

[tasty danish]

i hate to make your decision harder but ive bad things about seagate from my bro who works with sprint, but good things from the online community.
what i am sure of about seagate is that they arent quite as fast as the other two.

i personally use a maxtor 120gb sata and it is fantastic.
based on what ive heard about the WD i probably would have got that, but it was a little too expensive for me.
use pricewatch.com

[Bizkitkid2001]

From what i ahve heard, seagate is suppose to be best at sata and scsi. Although WD isn't bad themeselves. Personally, i would pick the one with the best warranty.

[tasty danish]

gonna have to argue with you on seagate being best sata, ive seen same results in other places as well

sata test results (http://www.hardavenue.com/reviews/maxtor200sata2.shtml)

[darrenw1967]

I've got a seagate & maxtor 80 gb sata drives not noticed any difference between them, both good stable drives.

[tasty danish]

youre probably like me, wouldnt be able to tell the difference anyway: not that critical.
but technically, the maxtor is faster.

[rainman202]

I have

1, maxtor wd 80gb 8m cache ( Master)
2, seagate 40gb 2m cache (slave)

And i think that the seagate is a lot better, faster and quieter than the WD and wish id spent the extra and gone for say a seagate 120hd 8mb cache or even bigger drive,
And i find the maxtor gets pretty hot in my case ...

:t

[tasty danish]

the seagate may very well be quieter, but in terms of speed, numbers dont lie.

and what is a maxtor wd?
two different companies.
also, are these all sata drives?

[dajogejr]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the rockin' Raptor from Western Digital.

Yes, I know they are a bit pricey, and currently offer 36GB, (no fear...a 74GB model is on the way)

But...man, do they smoke!

With 10K RPM, 8MB Cache...they blow the rest of the SATA crowd out of the water, at a cheaper price then the SCSI crowd.

And...a 5 year warranty from WD.

I used mine for OS and apps, and my trusty ol 60GB IDE drive for data, backups, etc.

*Edit*
Oh, and no special power adapter is needed, they use the standard molex adapter. You will need a special SATA cable, but...that is the case with any of these drives. Any newer mobo that has built in SATA support will come with the cable.

[tasty danish]

i didnt mention the raptor because i think it is a poor choice.
i seriously looked at one when i was building mine, but it is not worth it.
it does not "blow everything else out of the water" sure it is a bit faster, but not very noticeable unless you are sitting there with a stopwatch. and the price is about 3usd per gig, i paid less than 1usd per gig with my max' drive.
oh and the 74gig drives are on pricewatch and last time i checked it was 300usd...:rolleyes:

[dajogejr]

That's too bad, Tasty...
I had a Maxtor 60 GB IDE running my XP pro, and I switched to my Raptor.

Without a doubt, a HUGE difference.
Everything from loading games, to loading apps...everything inbetween.

I'm not talking synthetic bechmarks...etc.

I'm talking seat of your pants, day in day out operation.

But...I fully agree, they are bucks per GB.
Cheaper than a SCSI setup...but, still...pricey.

If you load a drive up pretty full, I can see where it'd break you.

But, out of my 36 GB, I have 20 free. I use my 60 GB for data, mail, backups, etc.

In my opinion, and we all get those here, it truly blows the 7200 RPM setup out of the water.

I can't see how you can say it's not worth it...unless you have one or have tried one.

You are very, very far off with the sitting there with a stopwatch, I can assure you.


Then again...hardware is really only as good as the person and/or company setting it up.

Tasty...not razzing you...I'm just talking from everyday experience with one, that's all!!
:D

[tasty danish]

well, truthfully i really really wanted to have one, but it was too small and expensive for my needs.
i spent my money on the video card and figured that having to wait a little longer for the game to load was worth the extra detail.

on the speed, i have to admit, ive seen benchmarks of those things raided and that was scary. but from what i saw of just using it as a regular master drive (don't have enough green for two), it wasnt worth it for my needs. i have more than 40 gigs of games alone.

if you are really conservative with your hard disk space then im sure they are great as you probably already are prepared to spend about 100usd on a hard drive, and if you wont even use all of 36gb, youre better off not paying for a 120gb like i did.

money and space my friends, money and space.

if you are like me, poor, and need quite a bit of storage space, i highly recommend the maxtor diamond max sata 120gb.

got her for about 100usd, quite a bit faster than my old laptop 4200rpm 11gig:D

[dajogejr]

I couldn't agree more, TD.
Money versus space...very, very true.

I'm not a hard core gamer, only play a few here and there. Maybe 5 or 6 total. I save all my game data on that second drive too.

You have to justify those performance numbers versus size versus what you want to spend.

That last is the most important, and the Raptor does lose there, no doubt!!

But, I paid 200 clams retail for mine, I'm gonna get another OEM from newEgg to RAID 0 it.

We'll see 'er really rip then!
I'm gonna wait till after the new year to get a 9800 Pro...that'll just about complete the package!!

[Thundershaft]

I am one of the dumb people that brought the 2x Raptors..
:rolleyes: with Raid 0...
Windows and linux don't stand a chance trying to lag =)

[dajogejr]

I'm on the same boat...getting my second Raptor for RAID 0 after X Mas...can't wait to get it rolling.