hard drives

[Hicks12]

well im planning on buying a new hard drive in the next month(around the 2nd of july)and was wondering what one i should get, i currently have the 250AAKS from WD but i find it loud and it seems to be ok on speed, not great. Looking for either a 250 or a 500gb, unsure as the 500s are not much more, i hear alot of recmmendations of the F1 series from samsung, are they really good? the price is very low with the 250 at £31 and 500 at £45. Now the 250 looks good for the price but how does the seagate compare http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=816357 has more cache etc, does cache really matter? any other recommendations?

Sorry for the long post but want to know what hard drives are the best value/performance, small budget i have which is <£50 for 500gb, 250 will need to be <35

Thanks.

[crazyfool]

I have 2 500gb samsungs, not the new ones but the older t-series?... great drives... super quiet... gonna invest in one of the newer 500gb ones soon... in performance tests they perform well in terms of speed but the main thing for me is how quiet they are... i would say go for that

[Blitzen]

I have 2 x 500GB Samsung Spinpoints and they are very good.
Fast
Quiet
Excellent value
Good RMA service with England (if required)

[Hicks12]

sounds like id be buying the F1 then, think its worth paying &#163;15 more for a 500gb? not sure on how it can effect performance, the 500gb is dual platter? so would a 250gb be faster?(only really use it for gaming.)

[kalniel]

sounds like id be buying the F1 then, think its worth paying £15 more for a 500gb? not sure on how it can effect performance, the 500gb is dual platter? so would a 250gb be faster?(only really use it for gaming.)

Nope - if 500gb is dual platter then that means it'll have 2x250gb platters, so same speed all else being the same.

[Hicks12]

i dunno if its dual platter xD, id expect it to be though.

[dc72]

Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB SATAII Hard Drive 16MB Cache - OEM

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130454

&#163;39.99 today only.

However...read back through ALL the reviews, and you will find quite a lot of people complaining about these disks failing, and they only come with one years warranty.

I'm also looking for a new HD and I'm going to pay the extra for a Seagate with 5 years warranty.

Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130826

Or the Maxtor model is made by Seagate, comes with a three year warranty and is therefore a little cheaper.

Maxtor 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141471

Shop around and you will possibly be able to find the Seagate and Maxtor drives cheaper, or take your chances with the cheap Samsung and the one year warranty. I know I'm certainly not, but it might last you years and be very reliable. *shrug*

[Hicks12]

yeh i remember about the failure rate with the samsungs being bad but thought they had 3-5year warranty. im guessing this 250gb seagate is the same just different size?http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=816357
only 11pence more, is the drive quiet and fast?.

[TheReaFireblade]

If you're going to go for a Seagate, I'd suggest one of the newer 7200.11 (32MB cache) models - i.e. this 500GB (<&#163;50)

It would definitely be worth paying the extra for

[Dreaming]

Maxtors are very noisy fwiw.

I tend to stick to WD because it's the old 'tried, tested' thing. Samsungs are apparently good but I don't have any trouble with mine so I don't see why I should gamble on something else right now. Currently, 2 WD1600YS and 1 WD5000AAKS and they're all fantastic performance wise. I have them mounted with rubber/silicon grommets so the vibrations are minimal really.

But as I said my second choice would be the samsung.

[Koolpc]

Samsung or WD are both superb makes. I always go for one or the other.