Best 400GB Hard Drive?

[Shmee150]

Ok finally needing another storage drive in my computer... going with 400 cos at the moment 500 costs excessively and bigger ones will be around soon, so will upgrade when i build a new system this summer.

These are the choices from Scan;

400 GB HGST (IBM/Hitachi) Deskstar 7K400 , SATA I , 7200 rpm , 8MB Cache £161.75

400 GB Maxtor DiamondMax 11 , SATA II , 7200 rpm , 16MB Cache ,NCQ £135.00

400 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 , SATA II , 7200 rpm , 16MB Cache ,NCQ £167.78

400 GB Western Digital Caviar RE2 , SATA I , 7200 rpm , 16MB Cache ,NCQ £144.98

400 GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 , SATA I , 7200 rpm , 16MB Cache £139.75

I currenlty have a 400gb hitachi drive from about a year ago. Will it be the same? i.e. could raid if I wanted to or different by now? Otherwise I'm presuming the more you pay.. the better the drive. Any views?

Cheers,

ShMeE

[TooNice]

I'd go for the WD YR (RE2). Storagereview have a very favorable review of that drive. If you don't mind not having SATA II (which doesn't really matter anyway).

Apparently, that drive integrate much of the tech found in their own Raptor (obviously not the 10k RPM, but other things).

[mike_w]

Don't forget that Seagates come with a five year warranty.

[Kaine (AoD)]

IMO seagate without a doubt, love them... always will and the warranty is just a bonus

/me throws in 2p

[Shmee150]

Humm anybody able to tell me if this is a worry or not... but I now have the 400gb seagate drive (from Scan's today only at £158 or something) but it is running very hot compared to my other drives, well not that much, but enough to notice. My WD raptor and Hitachi 400gb are both running at 43C, but right now the Seagate is at 53C. No drives have been doing anything but sitting idle for a few hours so it's not anything like it'd been overused.

Thanks,

ShMeE

[scrandman]

Humm anybody able to tell me if this is a worry or not... but I now have the 400gb seagate drive (from Scan's today only at £158 or something) but it is running very hot compared to my other drives, well not that much, but enough to notice. My WD raptor and Hitachi 400gb are both running at 43C, but right now the Seagate is at 53C. No drives have been doing anything but sitting idle for a few hours so it's not anything like it'd been overused.

Thanks,

ShMeE

Are the drives all positioned together? It could be the heat from the other drives is affecting the Seagate (particularly if it is above the other two).

It might be worthwhile installing a cooling fan in front of the drives, if your case has the facility to do this.

My Antec SLK3000B allows me to use a 120mm fan up front. Even at 5V (i.e. very quiet), by single drive stays below 30C about 90% the time.

[Shmee150]

I think you're probably right. It's not higher because it's in a Shuttle case, but it is at the back by the exhaust fans which probably pulls a lot of the hot air from other components out over it... Will have a play swapping them around when I've got more free time later.

Thanks,

ShMeE

[scrandman]

Oops, didn't read your sig first time round. I think your probably right - it's probably hot exhaust air passing over it that's the source of the heat.

Not trying to alarm you, but if it's sitting at 53C idle, I wouldn't wait too long. According to Seagate, the max operating temp is 60C.

Check out the link here:

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/...86,698,00.html

[Shmee150]

I've been load copying files to it for the past 20 minutes or so and it has reached a very constant 56C which isn't too bad. The other drive that I have been copying from has jumped all that way to 48C.

Thanks for pointing that out though, I will certainly be looking more into it and hopefully will get it running a little bit cooler somehow!

ShMeE

[TooNice]

http://www.storagereview.com/php/ben...2=295&devCnt=3

It's worth noting that the YR (and other RAID series) range of drive also come with 5 years warranty.

[randomJ]

my 400gb hitachi is running nice and solid great drives.

[mikerr]

I've been load copying files to it for the past 20 minutes or so and it has reached a very constant 56C which isn't too bad. The other drive that I have been copying from has jumped all that way to 48C.

56C is way too hot, early 40s is as high as I`d feel comfortable with HDD temps.

Oh, and if you're happy with a shorter warranty, the seagate 400gb can be had in external form from PCworld, for £140