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Best Hard Drive

L

leegroves86

Senior member
So I need a new HDD in the next few days. I would like one that features SATA 2 speeds of 300/mb, NCQ and 16 mb cache. However, until the 7200.9 comes out, there is not a HDD that has all 3 of those features.

Option 1:
HDD with 150/mb transfer (SATA 1), NCQ, 16mb cache: Maxtor Diamondmax 10


Option 2:
HDD with 300/mb transer (SATA 2), 16mb cache: WD Caviar (no NCQ BTW)


Which option is better? Anyone have any helpful hints? And yes my mobo does support SATA 2.
 
The 16 mb cache is not a real difference in performance BTW and the Hitachi 16mb cache is way better than the wd one another btw
 
I will always say WD until their RMA process screws me over. I have RMAd 2 WD drives since i've been building (10+ years) and have had no problems with their warranty. WD :thumbsup:
 
Seagate or Samsung for quietness. Seagates have 5 year warrenties I believe. They're a couple bucks more expensive though, so if you really want to shave off a couple, WD is great.
 
Originally posted by: leegroves86
So I need a new HDD in the next few days. I would like one that features SATA 2 speeds of 300/mb No benefit, NCQ No benefit, hurts performance in some cases and 16 mb cache small benefit. However, until the 7200.9 comes out, there is not a HDD that has all 3 of those features.

Option 1:
HDD with 150/mb transfer (SATA 1), NCQ, 16mb cache: Maxtor Diamondmax 10


Option 2:
HDD with 300/mb transer (SATA 2), 16mb cache: WD Caviar (no NCQ BTW)


Which option is better? Anyone have any helpful hints? And yes my mobo does support SATA 2.
Click to expand...

See my comments in bold. Why limit yourself to those hard drives? The new Samsung Spinpoints are great, and Seagate is always recommened. I'd recommend a Spinpoint.
 
I got a WD320gb (WD3200JD, 8mb, no NCQ, SATA1) drive a few weeks ago and its sweeeetttt
it near the leaders in performance, noise and heat. For 0.43 cents/GB its a great drive
theres a full review on storagereview if your interested in some light reading

mikey c
 
I might ask why you want SATA 2 and NCQ? SATA 1 isn't even nearly badnwdith filled. Meanwhile NCQ has in fact shown to offer performance penalties in it's own implementation and that's ignoring the additional CPU cycles used. Consequently, I'd say stay away from them unless you're doign server/database tasks - certainly if this is for a gaming box there is absolutely no point. Rather I'd suggest getting two reliable and quiet drives with good access times and RAIDing them if you really want that extra performance.

Alternative suggestions:

Seagate 7200.7 because of 5 year warranty, quality and good balance of performance (transfer+access speed) and very low noise (7200.8 isn't nearly as good in this respect - hopefully the 7200.9 will remedy this and provide extra performance). Limited to 200GB.

Hitachi 250/400 series - 3 year warranty but among the best overall performance (fastest 7200 access time which makes up for the below average transfer rates). Pretty quiet but not quite as much as Seagate 7200.7 or Samsung. Still it should be inaudible in a good case.

Samsung - 3 year warranty. Good reliability. The very quietest of all the drives although not massively quieter than the 7200.7. Performance is middle of the road and in it's strengths and weakness the opposite of the Hitachi (slowish access speed but the very highest sustained transfer rates)

Those are the choices I'd consider.

For a single drive that will include the bootable OS I'd go with the Hitachi drives.
For RAID I'd go with the Seagate 7200.7s.
If I was truely a noise freak, using as a media box or else using applications that saw benefit from high sustained transfer rates as opposed to lots of rapid accesses I'd go with Samsung.
 
Originally posted by: arcenite
I will always say WD until their RMA process screws me over. I have RMAd 2 WD drives since i've been building (10+ years) and have had no problems with their warranty. WD :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

N/M
 
newbie:

what is a NCQ?
whats is SATA and the difference between SATA 1 and 2?

all I ever look at is rpm and sotrage space. never knew there was more meaning to a HDD.
 
I wouldn't buy a maxtor if it was 4 times as fast as my 2 74GB raptors in RAID0.

All that would do was guarantee that my data would be gone 4 times faster when the drive dies.
 
Originally posted by: OdiN
I wouldn't buy a maxtor if it was 4 times as fast as my 2 74GB raptors in RAID0.

All that would do was guarantee that my data would be gone 4 times faster when the drive dies.
Click to expand...


Hmmmm.....very interesting point of view. I am not a fan of Maxtor either, but I also wouldn't rave too much about your Raptors.

I myself have two 74GB Raptors as well, I do not have them in a Raid0 though. I would personally not waste money now on buying a Raptor, it's just not worth it over purchasing one of the new Hitachi or Seagate drives.

The reason I felt a comment necesary is becuase you are bashing Maxtor saying that your Raid0 is a much more reliable idea......I hate to tell you, but that is a foolish comment.
 
Originally posted by: arcenite
I will always say WD until their RMA process screws me over. I have RMAd 2 WD drives since i've been building (10+ years) and have had no problems with their warranty. WD :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

just curious, but are you more comfortable w/WD because they have treated you right and you want to stick w/what you know, or because Maxtor has treated you poorly?
 
Neither.

Go with an NCQ drive that offers 300mbps. It's common sense. Why choose one or the other when you can have a drive with both types of technology?
 
Originally posted by: Valkerie
Neither.

Go with an NCQ drive that offers 300mbps. It's common sense. Why choose one or the other when you can have a drive with both types of technology?
Click to expand...

Because neither of those technologies provide any sort of benefit to current hard drives, and in the case of NCQ it may hinder performance?
 
That's strange, I thought the new Hitachi 500GB hard drive had 16mb cache (it does), SATA II (it is), and NCQ (appears it does not).
 
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