Which Hard Drive?

[Goose]

Hi,

I'm looking to invest in a new hard drive from 320GB-400GB, budget up to £60 (but i would obv prefer less).

Are there any recommendations people have?

Appreciate any help.

[amjedm]

Have a look at Samsung and WD drives (Caviar SE16 - the ones ending in KS are quiet) - they both have 3 year warranty. Seagate are noisy but have 5 yr warranty.

Maxtor have a bad reputation with failures at the moment.

[Fire_Storm]

I've been looking at the Samsung Spinpoint drives, they perform well in benchmarking but are hard to find anywhere in stock right now.

[Defenestration]

The Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB model's are great (fast, quiet, cool), but slightly out of your price range at £73.50 on Scan (about £71 when on today only).

The 320GB version (WD3200AAKS), which is effectively the same drive but with one less platter, can be had for £58.24 with 5 day supersaver delivery on ebuyer, or £48.24 if you pay via Google Checkout.

There is a 400GB (WD4000AAKS) model available as well, which Scan have for about £68, and oddly ebuyer have it for about £120.


The Samsung SpinPoint drives are pretty good as well.

[acrobat]

Maxtor run hot in my experience too.

I have a bunch of Seagates and I'm happy with the speed and temperature of them. Wish they where a bit quieter, but its not too bad anyway. It was mainly the vibration causing noise for me, so I've sat the disk cage on foam and now its pretty quiet.

A few people here have said they have had a few break on them though. But I think that happens with all brands really.

If it wasn't for the Seagates, I would probably get the WD Caviar SE16 (the ones that say 24 hour reliability preferably).

[hibby]

Another vote for Seagate, they've always been quiet enough for me plus they come with that 5 year warranty.

I just checked the prices on Scan today, and 400Gb looks like the best Price/Gb in the Seagate range.

[acrobat]

Yeah I forgot the mention the warrenty. Big bonus. I also thought it gives an indication of its build quality, but that might not be true. Either way, its nice.

[IAmATeaf]

Another vote for Seagate here although I have had 1 noisy HD from them but luckily that died around 9 months later and the replacement it quiet.

[saltynay]

320gb Seagate mine isn't noisy or maybe thats because my zalman makes a racket. Its fast, reliable and with the warranty hard to beat

[5aboy]

i have 2x320gb seagate 7200.10's in raid0 in coolermaster cooldrive 6's. i dont think the extra cooling is needed by scan had them at a good price so i thought i should.

i have dealt with seagate rma with my 160gb drives that went bad after 2 years of the 3 year warranty. took them 4 weeks to return my refurb drives, and they have been running great ever since.

i dont think id ever purchase from another manufacturer except perhaps a raptor (but i dont have that kind of money).

ebuyer have them for about £50 right now, and if you do two seperate orders (if buying two) with the googlecheckout it wont come to too much.

[Goose]

I think i'm gonna go with the Samsung Spinpoint because of the quietness

[wmsteele]

The Samsung Spinpoint drives are VERY quiet, perfect for media center use. Scan usually have them in stock, very well priced too.

[kalniel]

Samsung for quietness, seagate, WD or Hitachi for speed. Can't go wrong with either of them

[IntaCepta]

samsung spinpoint,

i think its the hd321 model with 320gb, 9ms, 16mb. Very quiet and a decent performer and all for 50£ from scan i'm not going to complain.

[saltynay]

Samsung for quietness, seagate, WD or Hitachi for speed. Can't go wrong with either of them

I thought the seagates were faster.....

[just_laze]

Hi,

This is a good read:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2007/0...rive_guide_uk/

laze :-)