Looking to start a new Gaming PC build - £2.5k- £3k budget - advice needed!

[kalniel]

That was a very unfair dismissal of seagate as not all drives were kept in the same housing and conditions, with seagate being kept in worst and guess which were being kept in the best.

Agreed, that was a very flawed study from what I remember.

[jim]

In addition what Bonebreaker77 said, the Hitachi HDDs have an excellent lifetime. Just take a look at this statistic of Backbaze.

Sadly their data is pretty unreliable. They're not comparing like with like.

That article got them a huge number of hits, so it's good news for them, but I really wouldn't rely on it for checking HDD reliability.

Furthermore, if Seagate's drives really were that unreliable compared to the competition, they would've gone bankrupt by now.

[Bonebreaker777]

Sadly their data is pretty unreliable. They're not comparing like with like.

That article got them a huge number of hits, so it's good news for them, but I really wouldn't rely on it for checking HDD reliability.

Furthermore, if Seagate's drives really were that unreliable compared to the competition, they would've gone bankrupt by now.

Not unless they can handle repair costs well
Seagate drives are usually the cheapest for every capacity (that ensures sales alone even with limited warranty) - limited warranty additionaly ensures sales once the warranty expires and the drive gone to silicon heaven.
They don't have to agree to every RMA request (or can find excuses as they please, like I had a Seagate I needed to return to the manufacturer. Took them 18 weeks to come back to me and tell me that I can have some of my money back).

If all the drives from different manufacturers would have pretty much the same reliability and performance, what difference there would be between they product lines?

[jim]

Not unless they can handle repair costs well
Seagate drives are usually the cheapest for every capacity (that ensures sales even with limited warranty) - limited warranty ensures additional sales once the warranty expired and the drive gone to heaven
They don't have to agree to every RMA request (or can find excuses as they please, like I had a Seagate I needed to return to the manufacturer. Took them 18 weeks to come back to me)

If all the drives from different manufacturers would have pretty much the same reliability and performance, what difference there would be between they product lines?

That's not my point. Every firm who buys disks in bulk will have a reasonable idea of their reliability. If one firm was significantly worse than the others, they wouldn't buy them any more.

And there isn't much difference between product lines.

[Shivy011]

You should get a Crossfire/SLI setup for that money, or maybe watercooling?

[Wa1lock]

Don't forget, to build a fully watercooled computer is a lot of work. As a watercooling owner myself I have to say, if you want to upgrade your computer in the future more that once in a year then you maybe should not get a watercooling. Furthermore you have (to clean and) change the water.

@jim Oh okay. I did not know this, I just remembered this article of Backbaze.

[DanceswithUnix]

That's not my point. Every firm who buys disks in bulk will have a reasonable idea of their reliability. If one firm was significantly worse than the others, they wouldn't buy them any more.

And there isn't much difference between product lines.

Some PC makers don't seem to care directly about reliability, only if it impacts their profitability. If the drive is going into a machine with a 1 year warranty, then it is the poor punter's problem if the drive dies after 18 months. The person who bought the machine will probably refer to the drive as "memory" and will have no care as to who made it, any more than most people know who made the gearbox in their car, if a component fails they just blame the overall maker of the machine.

If a drive manufacturer wants to sell into that market then good luck to them, but I will be checking for warranty length as I want no part of it.

[Sacred]

Thanks for all of the advice, I was very tempted by a R9 290 however with the EVGA GTX780 SC being knocked down to £371 on SCANs today only I really can't pass up such a nice price reduction.

Having looked at the cases as much as I would have liked the corsair 550D I think I'm going to go for the Fractal Design R4 instead. Saves a few £'s and it looks like its going to offer just as good sound proofing. My only concern is the front door of the case as due to its location (my case sits at a 90 degree angle which is great for a side window but awful for opening a CD drive) and it doesn't seem as though this can be changed.