Looking for a new 200Gb hard drive

[PanzerKnight]

Looking to get a new 200 gb but not sure what to get. For starters, should i get an SATA hd? Remember awhile back ppl saying they were not worth it as a new sata format was coming out. So is it worth investing in one now or just sticking to a normal ide drive? As its a 200Gb hd will be keeping it for quite a few years.

Also, what make? Currently I thinking of either a seagate or western digital, but unsure. tbh they all seem similar.

Thanks for any help.

[skattrd]

I had the same sort of dilema a while ago and decided to stick with ide for compatibility with older systems - I have a few pc's and not all have sata whereas an ide drive (pata) could be used in any of them.
However mine are only used for storage - not boot, so there was no advantage for me going the sata route.

I've got a couple of 200GB WD caviar's SE (3yr warranty 8mb cache) and can thoroughly reccomend them.

[r1zeek]

I agree, WD Caviars are excellent, the new WD Raptors (SATA) are excellent but they only come in 2 flavours at the moment, 36.7 Gb and 74Gb, they might be bringing out some bigger versions by the summer but i'd recommend a WD SATA Caviar if you need it quickly. 7200Rpm, 8Mb Cache, OEM, £107.08 from overclock.co.uk

[Korky]

wat size is that £107.08 hd though ?

[subucni]

that is the 200gb version, the same hdd is on scan for £103.11 inc vat and doesn't look OEM. only a small saving but still a saving

[PanzerKnight]

cheers for the replies So looks like I'll get a WD caviar SE. Cheapest i've seen is down ebuyer but will keep my eyes peeled. I take the non oem one will come with screws and stuff?

Cheers peeps

[Richie]

I cant fault the Maxtor DiamondMax 9 drives.

Have 2 * 120 IDE and 2 * 200 SATA drives and they are fantastic

[TooNice]

The WD are good, I have the 120GB version.

But according to the comparaisons at storagereview.com (check out the site, its got a very nice feature where you can basically select a couple of drive and see a side by side comparaison based on their standarised benchmarking), the Hitachi 7k250 is even better. I got the 160GB version.

I can't benchmark them, since, they are on different machines.

The interface shouldn't make a major difference, most SATA drive still uses a built-in IDE to SATA bridge anyway. I've gone for the IDE version for both drive, I find the main advantage of SATA is the cabling.

[LayZeh]

Samsung are the fastest & quietist but i don't think they do a 200GB model... yet, may be worth waiting a month to see if they announce one at the moment the largest they do is 160GB.