Which Hard Drive?...

[retroborg]

Hello,

I’m in need for some extra space, so I’m looking forward in obtaining a new Hard Drive. My M/B doesn’t support Serial ATA & I don’t want to buy a SATA converter, so I’ve come down to choosing one of these three IDE HDs:

Western Digital WD3200 Caviar SE – 7200RPM – 8MB Cache – 320GB – 179 Euros

Sea Gate Barracuda Ultra ATA 7200 – 8MB Cache – 250GB – 125 Euros

MAXTOR 300R0 300GB - ATA133 BULK – 7200RPM - 16MB Cache - 300GB – 135 Euros

I’ve used WD & SeaGate HD before & they’re both very reliable, even though SeaGate is supposed to be a bit more silent.
I’ve never used Maxtor before, but with 16MB Cache, 300GB @ 135 Euros, it looks like a better buy.
Is Maxtor silent like the Seagate & is it reliable?

So which one should I get?

Thanks in advance.

[redwudz]

The Seagate is probably the more reliable, though the other two work well most of the time. The difference in cache size is likely not as important as the hard drive controller. On paper the larger cache is faster, but it really depends on the system feeding it.

[VCDHunter]

I'd go for the Seagate, fantastic drives.

[thevoelk]

Seagate or the Maxtor. I've never had a Maxtor drive die on me, I still have a 10GB that runs like a champ from the mid-90s. WD's quality is hit or miss, it seems certain lines of the drives are flawless while others die in a month. I've only had a few Seagates, mostly stripped out of Dells from work, but they run nice and silent.

[smearbrick1]

Seagate or the WD.

Death to Maxtor!!!

[ROF]

I've gotta say given those choices I'd go with the Diamondmax 10 Maxtor 300GB. I own one and have installed at least half a dozen into customer machines. It's quiet and so far quite reliable and fast.