Next best HD after the WD Raptor ?

[SaracenUK]

Can't really justify the expense of the WD Raptor drives so was wondering what's the next best for a RAID 0 setup.
I read good things about the IBM/HGST Deskstars but put off by previous problems.

Noise is also an issue to me.

[MSIC]

The IBMs had some really rubbish issues with (from memory) the 40GB / 60GB drives about 3 or 4 years ago since loads of them failed, but all seems well since then.
I personally love the 250GB samsungs as they reasonably good speed and excellent noise profile.
I actually use a Maxtor 10 series with 16MB cache, SATA1 and am happy with that for speed.

[darrensen]

In Custom Pc they recommend the IBM Deskstar

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=226863

It's SATA 2 so it's pretty quick. You just need to makre sure your mobo can handle SATA 2 otherwise it'll default to SATA 1.

[Lee H]

In all honesty I think its down to personal preference but a lot of people have been reporting that the Samsung spinpoint series are quiet in operation.

I personally have Seagate & maxtor and in my main rig, and a Raptor with a Samsung in the portable gaming rig and they are all fairly quiet.

[SaracenUK]

Here they get a 10 out of 10

http://www.cluboverclocker.com/revie.../T7K250/p3.htm

And yes I was one of those effected by the "Deathstar" fiasco hence the caution.

[mikmo]

I'm a Western Digital fan but not much to choose between the top dogs these days

[RavenNight]

Well I've used quite a wide range of drives and the best performance wise are the Hitachi Deskstars, the Samsungs are dead quiet though.

[TooNice]

In terms of performance, the Hitachi usually follows the Raptor.

The Deathstar fiasco is quite a long time ago...

[koocha]

taken from http://www.storagereview.com/article...P2504C_1.html:

While it delivers decent performance in basic productivity applications, the Samsung SpinPoint P120 stumbles when it comes to high-end editing software and contemporary entertainment titles. Particularly disappointing is the unit's gaming performance- its attractive price likely places the P120 on the short list for those looking to build an inexpensive rig. In Samsung's defense, we should note that the P120 has been available for the better part of this calendar year and does not enjoy the performance benefits sometimes delivered by the monstrous capacity of a Deskstar 7K500 or Caviar RE2. The firm has recently announced a 3-platter, 400 GB design that may perform competitively against these larger drives.


Here and now, however, the SpinPoint P120 does excel when it comes to acoustics. Taken on its own, the drive itself is an extremely quiet design. Further, thanks to its low power dissipation scores, the SpinPoint radiates less heat into its environment and thus requires less potentially-noisy cooling. As a result, the P120 may warrant consideration where acoustics and cool operation outweigh sheer performance and capacity.

there are other things it isn't good at though. I've ordered the 250gb spinpoint from scan

EDIT: The pictures worked in the preview...changed it to the conclusion text

[TooNice]

^ I think you missed something there hehe.

Come to think of it, I didn't read that the original user wanted to do RAID-0 (which I wouldn't personally, but meh).

To me that says Saracen values sequential transfer rate performance more than anything else (it's really the only true advantage of RAID-0). Looking at the storagereview's performance database, the Samsung drives seem to do very well there. Ditto about the noise.

[blinky]

You could always go for the WD Raid Editions (Longer MTBF, designed for 24/7 use)

[mikmo]

my new wd wasn't recognised today an i subsequently ruined my computer fiddling