Best SATA HD for around £50

[zaphox]

Hi, I'm after a couple of HDs and I'm wondering which are the best in terms of:

1st priority: Reliability
2nd priority: Speed
3rd priority: Size

I'm hoping to spend something in the region of £50 per disk.

[Blitzen]

All pretty much the sameness really...its just personal preference.

Most 500GB units will now be around £50. I bought the Samsung Spinpoints 500GB for under £50 and i like them.

Like i said though, there is very little in it and its difficult to make the wrong choice.

[aidanjt]

The only thing I can say negatively about Samsung HDDs, is they in particular have gotten a bad reputation for dying before their time.

[Blitzen]

The only thing I can say negatively about Samsung HDDs, is they in particular have gotten a bad reputation for dying before their time.

Thats a batch issue rather than a sweeping problem i think.

[staffsMike]

HDD's are obviously a very subjective thing. I will only buy Western Digital where ever possible having never had a failure and am currently running various sizes of the AAKS models.

The 500GB is around £50 and there is a new very fast 640GB version at around £60. (samsung also have one in this size )

They are ultra reliable in my expereience and as silent as I have heard, in-audiable in my antec P182

[rufeo]

I've got 3 samsung hdds and they're all working great, no problems so far (touch wood). they're quiet and fast. i'd recommend the 640gb hdds from either western digital or samsung at that price range.

with the reliability issue, i think sometimes its a bit down to your luck. people often only buy drives from a certain company because they've had bad experiences with other companies etc. there's been quite a lot talk about the samsung drives having a higher failure rate, but mine haven't yet. on the other hand i bought a WD raptor a few months back and was DOA, would have thought that an enterprise drive from WD would be of good quality..... it hasn't put me off WD though (RMA service is excellen btwt....), would still buy from them in the future.

i honestly don't think it's worth the hassle deciding between companies. like Blitzen said, its going to be hard to make the wrong choice..... if you really don't have a preference though, you could flip a coin to decide.....

[zaphox]

ok brilliant thanks. I'll go with WD this time, had far too many Maxtors fail on me now.

[dave87]

I've got both WD Maxtor Seagate and Samsung drives in various rigs, and none of them have failed, yet.

However, with Samsung I believe they have a pretty good RMA service, so if you should get a dodgy drive, they are meant to be one of the better people to RMA to.

[Kanpai]

I don't really think it makes much difference which brand you get but personally I would stay away from Maxtor. I've got a 500GB and I find it to be very noisy whenever I use the drive.

[shadowmaster]

However, with Samsung I believe they have a pretty good RMA service, so if you should get a dodgy drive, they are meant to be one of the better people to RMA to.

I'll second that, I've dealt with Samsung HD RMA, its very good.

[llololloy]

The 500GB is around £50 and there is a new very fast 640GB version at around £60. (samsung also have one in this size )

I've seen these new 640gb drives cropping up on price lists, was wondering why they introduced a new drive size. Are they significantly faster then 500s?
I'm looking at a new boot drive myself, but don't need size as I run a file server, are these 640gbs worth it?

[staffsMike]

I beleive it's due to them use just 2 320GB platters. Makes them very nippy