Best 250G SATA II Hard drive

[Phlab]

Which is the Best 250G SATA II Hard drive? The WD2500ks seems rather good right now.

 

[imported_Phil]

Western Digital = Most of the drives I've seen develop a high-pitched motor whine after a while.
Hitachi = Noisy, if I remember correctly. Fast, though.
Maxtor = Although I've never had any problems, they "seem" to have a higher failure rate.
Seagate = teh win.

 

[Phlab]

Are you absolutely sure? Can I blame you if I go out and buy a bad susystem?

 

[PleasurePaulie64]

Generally Hitachi are one best for performance and their noise level and heat etc. Seagate have a 5 year warranty, but one of the slowest.

Yes, IBM had a problem with 1 particular model of HDD a few years ago. However, that was years ago, and Hitachi have taken over since then, and their new drives have more then proven themselves.

I've had 4 Hitachi Drives (2 of those were IBM) and they have all been great. I had 2 Seagates, and one of them needed replacing. Most people will tell you Seagate are the most reliable, I personally like Hitachi as their newer models remain quiet even when reading, and performance is almost the best. - You notice a fast HDD!!

 

[KoolDrew]

Maxtor MaXLine III's are the fastest.

 

[Maluno]

Lol, I don't think you can blame him for suggesting it. _You_ are the one that needs to do the research, and thus, here you are. I also suggest the Seagate, but because of their 5 year warranty. You can't go wrong with something like that.

From my experience, I wouldn't get a maxtor. My sister and dad both got big externals from Maxtor that crapped out after a little bit. Then they both RMA'd, but my sis was unlucky and her new one died too. None of us will buy from that company again.

 

[KoolDrew]

I also suggest the Seagate, but because of their 5 year warranty. You can't go wrong with something like that.

The Maxlines do too.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

I also suggest the Seagate, but because of their 5 year warranty. You can't go wrong with something like that.

The Maxlines do too.

Indeed they do. However:

As much as I like Maxtors (and I really, really do like them, I have several and they're great), at work we get a startling amount of returns on the Maxline, even when we don't ship a whole lot of them. We definitely see more returns than of the Seagates, of which we ship almost four times as many drives.

It's a shame, because Maxtors used to be the drive to have, and it's sad that their quality control is going a bit downhill.

If I hadn't seen the shelves of drives waiting to be returned and noticing the enormous numbers of Maxlines, then I'd probably have one myself.

Instead, I have a 200Gb 7200.7 8Mb cache Seagate. It's silent, fast (69Mb/sec top speed on HDTach), and although the seek time is 1-2ms more than Hitachi's drives, I prefer them.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: PleasurePaulie64
Generally Hitachi are one best for performance and their noise level and heat etc. Seagate have a 5 year warranty, but one of the slowest.

They're not the slowest- until recently, Samsung held that dishonourable crown. Their seek times are higher, granted, but the raw STR is high with the Seagates.

Yes, IBM had a problem with 1 particular model of HDD a few years ago. However, that was years ago, and Hitachi have taken over since then, and their new drives have more then proven themselves.

True. However, Hitachi introduced (and later fixed) the Hitachi "meow" problem (Google for it).

I've had 4 Hitachi Drives (2 of those were IBM) and they have all been great. I had 2 Seagates, and one of them needed replacing. Most people will tell you Seagate are the most reliable, I personally like Hitachi as their newer models remain quiet even when reading, and performance is almost the best. - You notice a fast HDD!!

Seagates are the most reliable drives. You had one fail, and none of your Hitachi's, but that is not a fair comparison. See my post above this one for my personal experience with, for example, Maxtor drives.

 

[13Gigatons]

http://www.storagereview.com/

 

[aidanjm]

isn't there a Samsung 250 GB sata ii drive just out?

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: Phil
Western Digital = Most of the drives I've seen develop a high-pitched motor whine after a while.

4 of my 3 years old 80GB WD had none of those problems. Quiet and fast.

 

[Phlab]

so which one do I friggin get? I <i>do</i> want sata ii, 8m cache or more and quietness and speed

 

[Promethply]

AFAIK, most current HDs are considerably quieter than the last generation, as they use Fluid Dynamic Bearing, which cuts down noise, and increase their longevity.

Performance wise, it's either the new Hitachi, or the Maxtor HDs.

 

[amheck]

Those Seagate 7200.8 ad 7200.9's look nice.

 

[SVT Cobra]

IMO becuase of whatn i always go with, i would get the WD...most people have never had their raptors...so they get jeleous and say that they are loud and noisy...thats pretty much BS....they do have a dsitictive sound, but they are not any louder, there distinctive sound is more of an echoing effect...not neccesarily high pitched.,,,

at any rate i cannot even hear all four of mine over my radiator fans...so dont let your choice be decided by sound...

 

[fstime]

I like Western Digital.

Decided to try out one of these AWSOME SEAGATES people talk about.

FAILED, in less then 2 months.

 

[MobiusPizza]

I love WD as well. Used to be performance leader, quiet and runs cool
Not sure how their new Cavier SE SATA-II perform. No benchmarks yet

 

[gobucks]

i'm pretty sure the only SATAII drives that are actually available are the Hitachi T7K250 and the Samsung Spinpoint. I think Hitachi is better for load times, and Spinpoint has a bit better of a transfer rate. Both have gotten excellent reviews (and i love my Hitachi, btw). Seagate's 7200.9s look great, with low seek times, 16MB buffer, SATAII, and a 5 year warranty, but I don't know when they'll actually start showing up, and what they will cost when they do.

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: gobucks
i'm pretty sure the only SATAII drives that are actually available are the Hitachi T7K250 and the Samsung Spinpoint. I think Hitachi is better for load times, and Spinpoint has a bit better of a transfer rate. Both have gotten excellent reviews (and i love my Hitachi, btw). Seagate's 7200.9s look great, with low seek times, 16MB buffer, SATAII, and a 5 year warranty, but I don't know when they'll actually start showing up, and what they will cost when they do.

Samsung's drives are completly silent....

 

[KamiXkaze]

I have both Western digital and Seagates so far only one WD has failed and none of the seagates (I have a seagate that is 8 years old and still running)


KxK

 

[Phlab]

Western Digital SE16 are SATA II, as are its WDxx00JS Series.

So are MaXline III and 7200.9 series

Which ones are good?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Phil

As much as I like Maxtors (and I really, really do like them, I have several and they're great), at work we get a startling amount of returns on the Maxline, even when we don't ship a whole lot of them. We definitely see more returns than of the Seagates, of which we ship almost four times as many drives.

It's a shame, because Maxtors used to be the drive to have, and it's sad that their quality control is going a bit downhill.

If I hadn't seen the shelves of drives waiting to be returned and noticing the enormous numbers of Maxlines, then I'd probably have one myself.

Instead, I have a 200Gb 7200.7 8Mb cache Seagate. It's silent, fast (69Mb/sec top speed on HDTach), and although the seek time is 1-2ms more than Hitachi's drives, I prefer them.

I have a Samsung Spinpoint 160GB P series PATA UDMA 8mb Cache and it's almost completely silent. Seek time is 8.5ms and in HD tach, I blow yours out of the water Undefraged and Almost Full at 93.2mb/sec forgot if that is average or top speed but wow seagates are slow.

get a samsung spinpoint.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/index.htm

 

[PleasurePaulie64]

Head over to www.storagereview.com and read there. They are the only HDD site I would trust with reviews. Others show far to many faults.

Although I like anandtech, when they show Seagate drives, and others beating the WD raptors (10K RPM) and Hitachi drives in lots of tests I start to wonder..dispite every other review showing quite the opposite...

Most people will recommend seagate, but I'm here to say they are just plane slow, and it doesnt look like each generation is even getting faster. People say they are more reliable, well you're going to take a risk with any drive you buy as its a moving part. And seagate are not more quiet then other drives such as Hitachi drives, they are louder when reading, and hotter as well.

The fastest 7200RPM is the Hitachi 7k500 with 16mb Cache. Fastest IDE drive is WD Raptor. You will not regret getting a fast drive, as the HDD is one of the major bottlenecks in any system.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: Phil

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

I also suggest the Seagate, but because of their 5 year warranty. You can't go wrong with something like that.

The Maxlines do too.

Indeed they do. However:

As much as I like Maxtors (and I really, really do like them, I have several and they're great), at work we get a startling amount of returns on the Maxline, even when we don't ship a whole lot of them. We definitely see more returns than of the Seagates, of which we ship almost four times as many drives.

It's a shame, because Maxtors used to be the drive to have, and it's sad that their quality control is going a bit downhill.

If I hadn't seen the shelves of drives waiting to be returned and noticing the enormous numbers of Maxlines, then I'd probably have one myself.

Instead, I have a 200Gb 7200.7 8Mb cache Seagate. It's silent, fast (69Mb/sec top speed on HDTach), and although the seek time is 1-2ms more than Hitachi's drives, I prefer them.

Same here at my work sorta.... a lot of the PCs here came with Maxtors or WD's. The Maxtors have been absolute crap.