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[DarthWoo]

I know this question is often asked, but for every person saying that one brand is the best, another says they had one of those crash and hates it and that another brand is instead the best. Then the cycle repeats. I've had good experiences with Maxtor for the most part, but I've heard that they did have a bad batch at some point, although that problem has been alleviated. I know Seagate is supposed to be very reputable, but the drive I'm looking to replace due to impending doom noises is that very brand.

Basically, what is really the most reliable brand of 80-120GB HDD? (I have a 160GB, but the mobo doesn't support >137GB and I don't feel like going through the hassle necessary to make it do so.)

 

[Error Macro]

I would say that the best large IDE drive right now is Western Digital. The worst is Maxtor, though to be fair, they have improved somewhat since the abysmal drives of a few years ago.

 

[LinesInTheSand]

I've had the best experiences with Maxtors and the worst with WD's.

 

[ced]

I think for the most part they are all the same.

Ill just say this, in my work experience Ive lost "about" 6 seagates, and 2 of those were on servers, which sucked. Probably have 30 or so seagates. WD has been pretty good, but Ive had several of those go bad, Im not really sure out of how many. Ill just say now I use maxtor for builds and replacements, and Ive had zero problems with them, past or present.

Now this really isnt very good or reliable data, but its better than the "maxtor blows" people like to say.

Anyways, your not gonna go wrong with any brand, get what size and speed you want.

 

[SKluck]

Honestly, probably Maxtor. Seagate typically is very excellent.

So Seagate or Maxtor. I remember my first HD upgrade, a 5.4gig Maxtor. It still runs today. No problems. ~7 years later.

IBM/Hitachi is a no brainer, stay the fuck away.

 

[DarthWoo]

So I guess the majority of people are neutral to positive for Maxtor.

Another quick question for those who might know: Will adding a fourth case fan help cool down my system by any amount worthy of actually going to the effort of adding it, or might it just add to the load on the PSU and add more heat that it will then just have to help vent? My case has one fan in the front bottom, directed into the case; one on the left side, directed in and facing the PCI cards, and one on the back venting out. There are, of course, also the PSU fans, and all the internal fans. The thing has a 430W PSU, so one more fan probably shouldn't hurt it.

 

[The Shadow]

Seriously, what's the purpose of this thread? If you know it's been debated over and over again, what makes you think this thread will change anything?

Everyone has their own story to tell with a particular brand which somehow makes that particular brand good or bad for everyone else. You'll never get a "DEFINITIVE BEST" from the forum. Just personalized stories.

Personally, I'll always recommend Seagate and Maxtor over a WD any day. Just the same, you'll see people poo-poo Maxtors.

 

[DarthWoo]

Well, it's kind of like asking again just for the updated non-concensus, since I'm not sure when it was last discussed. And my post count is so low since the forum move and me being at home on dial-up for the summer and obviously not able to post nearly so often as I once did, even though that still wasn't that much I guess...

 

[SKluck]

So I guess the majority of people are neutral to positive for Maxtor.

Another quick question for those who might know: Will adding a fourth case fan help cool down my system by any amount worthy of actually going to the effort of adding it, or might it just add to the load on the PSU and add more heat that it will then just have to help vent? My case has one fan in the front bottom, directed into the case; one on the left side, directed in and facing the PCI cards, and one on the back venting out. There are, of course, also the PSU fans, and all the internal fans. The thing has a 430W PSU, so one more fan probably shouldn't hurt it.

Proper circulation is much much more important than the number of fans you have. If it fucks up the current, then adding more fans will hurt you a lot more than it will help. One example, I upgraded my PSU recently, and it had 2 fans instead of 1, and installing it actually made my avg temp go up by a couple degrees.

 

[Cauliflower of Love]

Dejavu....


No wait, it's the same fucking thread as yesterday!

 

[Mrbob]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-022&depa=0

Just buy it....

 

[DarthWoo]

Proper circulation is much much more important than the number of fans you have. If it fucks up the current, then adding more fans will hurt you a lot more than it will help. One example, I upgraded my PSU recently, and it had 2 fans instead of 1, and installing it actually made my avg temp go up by a couple degrees.

I'm guessing that the balance of in and out-flowing fans should be balanced as well? I was about to say that maybe I should just add another out fan to the back, since there are two ins, but I guess the PSU fans also act as outs, so adding another one would unbalance it?

 

[Hitokage]

My tip is that no matter what brand you go with, allow yourself to get a slightly less spacious or less fast drive.. because, if my guess is correct, usually by now the company has improved their manufacturing process for those and you'll get more reliability.

In other words, go for a 80gb drive over a 120gb.

 

[teh_pwn]

I've had no problems with Maxtor or Seagate.

I've had 2 friends on my college apartment floor last year that had HDD failures with Western Digital. To be fair, one was definitely caused by power problems and the other one might have been a virus because he used McAfee or some other BS antivirus program.

One time, McAfee created some bogus 100000+ file backup without asking that consumed the entire HDD. Wtf.


I like it when newegg says "limit 9999 per customer."

 

[MoxManiac]

IBM was good before Hitachi stepped in...my 45GB Deskstar has been running like a champ for over 3 years.

 

[The Shadow]

In other words, go for a 80gb drive over a 120gb.

I wouldn't go that far. 120gb have been around for quite a while now.

Though that is good advice relatively speaking. Even if I could save a tiny bit by getting a 250gb HDD over two 120gb HDDs, I'd go with the two smaller 120gb hard drives.

 

[teh_pwn]

Hell, 160 GB SATA HDDs are fine.

They're about to roll out 400 GB SATA HDDs with 16 MB caches any day now.

 

[SKluck]

IBM was good before Hitachi stepped in...my 45GB Deskstar has been running like a champ for over 3 years.

No, no they weren't. They went to shit a couple years before Hitachi bought their storage tech. I remember how highly rated the 75GXPs were. I recommended them to everybody. Well, all of those people that bought them now have new drives because EVERY IBM (5 including mine) failed within the past year (So they had them for 2-3 years or so).

 

[MoxManiac]

I'm not sure if mine is a 75GXP. Might be the generation before, maybe 60GXP.

 

[DopeyFish]

Honestly, probably Maxtor. Seagate typically is very excellent.

So Seagate or Maxtor. I remember my first HD upgrade, a 5.4gig Maxtor. It still runs today. No problems. ~7 years later.

IBM/Hitachi is a no brainer, stay the fuck away.

IBM is one of the best hdd makers out there. WTF.

My IBM 2.5 GB drive has been running every single day (we're talking all day, everyday) for the last what? 8 or so years? I would recommend Seagate and then Western Digital. Stay away from Maxtor and Fujitsu.

 

[MoxManiac]

Dopey, IBM sucks now. According to SKLuck it happened earlier than I thought, but they went to hell.

 

[SKluck]

IBM is one of the best hdd makers out there. WTF.

I'm not going to deny it, IBM used to be the best. Highly rated, fast. Well, right around the 75GXP era, might've been that line, or the one before, I don't remember. Anyways, they were rated highly when they came out, but 6 months/year later when they started dying, it was pretty well known. Most people I talk to agree they went to shit right around then.

I don't know anyone who still has a working IBM larger than 30 gigs.

 

[SickBoy]

I think the mass quantities of Maxtor drives on the market make "Maxtor sucks" pretty common -- because even if the failure rate is average or better than average, their large share means that ultimately more people have had problems in terms of raw numbers.

After three years, the Maxtor drive in my old computer was -- I believe -- starting to die. Still, if the drive was the problem, I don't hold a grudge because at least it didn't just crap out... and it was pretty heavily used.

All in all, I don't think I'm too picky about brand. But I think I'd rather go Maxtor these days in spite of starting to lose one drive. I'm not exactly sure why that is. It's irrational.

BTW, I've heard bad things about Quantum drives, but I've got an old Quantum drive in a 5-year-old computer I just got rid of, and it's still working fine.

-SB

 

[goodcow]

Isn't Maxtor just as heavily used as Western Digital?

 

[Mrbob]

I'm not going to deny it, IBM used to be the best. Highly rated, fast. Well, right around the 75GXP era, might've been that line, or the one before, I don't remember. Anyways, they were rated highly when they came out, but 6 months/year later when they started dying, it was pretty well known. Most people I talk to agree they went to shit right around then.

I don't know anyone who still has a working IBM larger than 30 gigs.

Me.

Well it is a secondary drive now to the Seagate 120 gigger I just bought.

 

[dem]

only hd that ever went on me was a 40 gig ibm

 

[Tekky]

I think if you look at all manufacturers you'll find that they sell "value" drives and also "performance" drives. Usually, a performance model comes out first, and then it gets cost-reduced into a value model. As a result, the value model often sucks, while the performance model does okay.

I don't like WD mostly because they were using ball bearings until only recently. Ball bearing drives are noisy, while fluid bearing drives are silent. Seagate was the first heavy promoter of silent drives, and they're pretty good. Maxtor got into the act soon after, and WD was the last to join up. However, WD failed to give the new drives different model numbers, so there's a period where you can't tell if a drive is quiet or not based on the model.

All major manufacturers have produced both good drives and clunkers. IBM used to be of highest quality until the 75GXP line; they've since sold all their drive operations to Hitachi. Seagate has been around forever, and you'll hear lots of stories as a result. They seem to produce good stuff at the moment. Same for Maxtor and WD, as far as I know.

You might look at warranties. They all used to be 3 years, then they were changed to 1 year, and people complained, so some went back to 3 years, but only for certain models, etc. Look for one with a 3 year warranty.

If it's a current model, 7200 RPM, 8MB cache, 3-year warranty unit, it'll probably be good regardless of what name it has on it.