Hard Disc Advice

[Howard]

Planning on getting a 160/180GB drive soon to aid in my storage abilities

Anyway considering either:

Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 160GB drive with 8MB Cache

Maxtor Diamondmax 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache, ATA133

Or the Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache

Few questions:

Is the seagate ATA100 or ATA133? Same with the Western Digital?

How much noiser are the Maxtor and WD than the Seagate? I know they're a bit faster, but if they're a lot noiser then the Seagate it is.

Would you advise using my existing Seagate 60GB as the main Windows drive and the new one for all downloads, media, backup, etc, or vice versa?



Advice appreciated
Thanks

[BoB_DoG]

myh seagate 120MB PATA is ATA100, so im fairly certain the 160 is ATA100 too. Still a fast drive, wih a 9ms response, and the quietest drive Iv ever used (never heard it spinning, just the read head... above my PSU at least (thats noisier than my Case PAPST's and my Volcano 12 @ lowest setting.

Also seagate SATA is only true SATA available ATM

[BoB_DoG]

Just noticed youre using NF7-S... SATA gives a good performance increase if youre not using Nvidia's IDE drivers (for whatever reason)

[Howard]

I'm not sure if I can be bothered with SATA at the moment. And you're right about the Seagates being almost silent; I can't hear mine above all the other noises in my case!!

Thanks for your input though mate I'll probably end up going for the Seagate 160.

[Howard]

Bit the bullet, just ordered the Maxtor 160GB Diamondmax 9