maxtor or western digital?

[Mainframeguy]

then what isnt for storage? what do u mean server etc...

HMMMmmmmm you mentioned a Ferari -then I'd have to say go for a heavily cached fast drive. Yet on the other hand you seem not to be quite clued up enough to know what your need is - so my top tip is the Hitachi Deskstar 7K259 in it's 160GB version (you can get SATA or EIDE). Then I'd go with a Seagate slave..... if I had the chance to change my primary that's the drive I'd want and I use a Barracuda slave already (cheap and quiet).

This tip is backed by Custom PC mag BTW who scored the drive 90% in their review (2nd and 3rd place went to Samsung and Western Digital)
- so there ya go lots of advice - let us know your decision, huh?

 

[scriptasylum]

Or... get one of each!

Seriously, you're gonna have tons of different opinions, so I'll give ya mine:

Maxtor: Had two quite new (less than 6 mos old) seperates drive burn up recently, but I suspect the problem in my case is with my PS and standby. My other two maxtors (80GB and 160GB, both IDE and 7200rpm, but the 160 has the 8mb cache) are pretty good. THe newer ones seem to be faster. In Atto, the 80GB one gets ~45MB/sec, and the 160GB gets ~65MB/sec. With the exception of my two burnt drives (which I don't think had any fault on their own), Maxtor has been good to me.

WD: I have/had a 2.5GB (yes, you read right), 60GB, two 120GB, and two 36BG Raptors. The ancient 2.5GB still works, although hellaciously slow . The 60GB model in the wife's PC works fine. The two 120GB models (both 7200 rpm, 8mb cache, installed seperately) died within a short time of installation, not sure why. The Raptors dies on me recently, but I think that was related the the PS/standby issue I had with the Maxtor. I'm not too keen on WD because of the mysterious way the 2 120GB drives died (but no other drive was effected), but since the Raptors have a 5 yr warranty, I figured what the heck.

Seagate: I have a 200GB, 7200rpm, 8MB cache and so far works well and quiet. Hard to tell about reliability since it's too new, but performance is right around 60MG/sec in Atto.

IBM: I have a 60GB and it died after about a year, but that was a problem model according to a lot of places online. IBM replaced it about a year or so ago and it still works fine in the kids' system. Have not benched it but seems mediocre.

Quantum: This 30GB drive came with my Gateway system back in 1998ish. It is kinda noisy but still works.

Well I guess that wraps up my experiences and opinions!

 

[Henyman]

wow quite a bit of experience there

 

[falcone]

haha... nice debate my personal choice would be a maxtor.. they last realli long and are real durable.. i have 128MB maxtor from like.. 12years ago? still spinnin' up fine

 

[wolvfj]

I would get the WD. I've had a WD 20GB since 2000, it's been in my computer all that time and it still works, also I have an 80 GB WD 8MB Cache for about 1 year now and it still works, it's quiet and fast.

 

[canadian_divx]

if u want the speed then go with maxtor, they are faster drives and if they are going to die at all soon they will normaly die within the first yaer, WD drivers are a little quieter and cooler but they are only ata 100, and this 8mb cash thing is not that big of a deal because if u got xp the indexing service use about 10-15mb of your system ram to do the same, and in most cases it is faster, seagate drives are only ata 100 but good luck on it dieing, they just dont do it if it is a new drive. but all the drives have a 3 year warrenty and i have found out working int he field that maxtor is the easyest to return to and say it dies about up to a month after warenty, they still cover me. so yea in short i like maxtor and i would go with them, a good diamond max 9 drive is good

 

[ToronadoXP]

I prefer Hitachi(IBM) Drives. But really isnt a huge deal. All companies have bad drives every once in a while. I have tried WD, Maxtor, and Hitachi(IBM). The IBM's are always faster though so I love em (xcept for that certain drive that goes by RAPTOR ) Only thing about Hitachi's is they might not be SUPER QUIET like my wonderful WD 80gig SE 8mb IDE drive. Man that thing is QUIET but slower than the Hitachi. Its up to you but I would probably go with the Western Digital 8mb IDE (Mine is not the Fluid Dynamic Bearings model) if your using this for storage. Dont bother with SATA. The only thing SATA is good for is RAID setups. Its also always good to put a nice cooling fan infront of your drives so you can keep em nice and cool

 

[Kush]

yup just as i thought im probably goin with a maxtor, thanks for your input guys

 

[unknownsoul]

Try looking at the HDs warranties. You might be supprised to find that few support more than a 3 month warranty. I go with WD just because they still(last i knew) had a 3 year warrranty. and i've never had any trouble with them

 

[Xie]

Try looking at the HDs warranties. You might be supprised to find that few support more than a 3 month warranty. I go with WD just because they still(last i knew) had a 3 year warrranty. and i've never had any trouble with them

isn't the good 3yr warranty on both brands on the more expensive models?

 

[chastity]

Yes I believe so. Western Digital Special Editions the ones with 8MB of cache of 3 year warranties and that is the standard pretty much with all hard drive manufacturers. The normal one with the 2MB cache is one year which is the same pretty through the industry. I know Western Digital SATA drives or at least some have 5 year warranties