Good Cheap Hard Drives?

[Perfection]

Hi,

I just recently had my second Maxtor HD drive die on me, and it is about 4-5 years old now so I don't think there is any warranty left.

I'm looking to buy a quality hard drive that is pretty zippy. I am inclined to purchase a 250 GB Seagate with 8 MB buffer for around $130. Is this a pretty good deal, and is going up to 16 GB Buffer worth the extra cash. Also note, this very well may end up being my primary drive (or at least, one of the partitions)

Anyways, thanks. I haven't been keeping up with the tech scene for quite some time now, since I have no money to buy anything usually anyways.

Thanks

- Perfection

 

[Maluno]

Originally posted by: Perfection
Hi,
I am inclined to purchase a 250 GB Seagate with 8 MB buffer for around $130. Is this a pretty good deal, and is going up to 16 GB Buffer worth the extra cash.

There is no way in hell you are going to benefit from a 16 _GB_ buffer. Now 16mb is debatable. Since the only mainstream drives that have the 16meg buffer are maxtors (note this is only my opinion due to numerous bad experiences), and considering there is only a miniscule difference in performance, I would recommend the Seagate. Maxtors only come with a 3 year warranty nowadays, if my memory serves me correctly, while the Seagates come with the longest warranty out there, 5 years. That is reason enough in my opinion to go with the Seagate, however, add that to the fact that they are more reliable than the maxtors, and you have IMHO a great deal.

The Seagate 7200.8 is the newer version of their Barracuda series, and will thus be more expensive. If you are looking to cut some $$ from your costs, I see no reason why you shouldn't go with a 7200.7, the younger generation. They are also quieter than the .8s, though they lack NCQ, (which has been shown to be detrimental to performance in many cases, and not much of a help the rest of the time). Get a seagate.

 

[Arcanedeath]

The Seagate you listed should be fine