HDDs: Seagate Or Maxtor

[Malladine]

I'm looking at the following three HDDs (from Newegg):

-----------------------------------------------
Seagate 60GB 7200rpm EIDE Hard Drive Barracuda V ST360015A - OEM
Specifications:
Size: 60 Gigabytes
Interface: IDE ULTRA ATA100
Seek time: 9.4ms
RPM:7200
Data Transfer: 100MB/sec
Cache 2MB
-----------------------------------------------
Total: $83

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Seagate Barracuda 80GB 7200RPM ST380011A Hard Drive OEM
Specifications:
Size: 80 Gigabytes
Interface: IDE ULTRA ATA100
Seek time: 9ms
RPM:7200
Cache 2MB
-----------------------------------------------
Total: $89

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Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive 8MB Model # 6Y080P0
Specifications:
Size: 80 Gigabytes
Interface: IDE ULTRA ATA133
Seek time: <9ms
RPM:7200
Data Transfer: 133MB/sec
Cache:8MB
-----------------------------------------------
Total: $106


Firstly the 80gb Seagate...20gb extra for only $6? The 60gb is the Barracuda V. The 80gb is the Barracuda 7200.7. On the Seagate website, the V appears to be comparatively more expensive because it has additional data protection. Can anyone report their own findings on the difference (or likely difference if you're just well up on hardrives) between these two? Is the cuda V worth it or is this 7200.7 the best buy?

Secondly, regarding the Maxtor. Am I likely to find a significant performance increase with the 8mb cache? Is it worth the extra $?

 

[spanky]

i like seagates. my friend has a maxtor that i am RMA'ing for the third friggin' time. thank god back then there was still 3 yr warranties.

 

[Sid59]

as a boot drive? i'd get the Maxtor, not only cause im partial to them, but it also has an 8 MB cache.

 

[Markfw]

The Maxtor. It is the new 8 meg cache version and also has the fluid bearings. I have a house full of Maxtors, and one Seagate, and it is quiet, but not as fast as the Maxtor. I have only had one maxtor die on me, and that is a 240 meg drive (don't think that counts as bad after 10 years of working before it went)

 

[Thraxen]

If you want the faster drive, get the Maxtor. If you want one that is quiet, get the Seagate. I use Seagate drives myself. I'll take a second or two longer loading times here and there over constant noise.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
If you want the faster drive, get the Maxtor. If you want one that is quiet, get the Seagate. I use Seagate drives myself. I'll take a second or two longer loading times here and there over constant noise.

What noise ? Have you used the new Maxtors ? I have, and I also have the seagate, and I can barely hear a difference. I can notice the spped difference though.

 

[Malladine]

Thanks all. I will probably go for the Maxtor as I currently own 2 and they're perfectly reliable. I hope this next one will be much faster/quieter though.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

I've had way more luck with Maxtor's than seagates. I've had to RMA one seagate (for a friend). I used to run seagates back when 2GB drives were high capacity. Also, the 8MB cache and the ATA133 is nice. It's worth spending the extra $$$.

 

[dcdomain]

Love my Maxtors. Currently 1 45gb 7200rpm, 1 80gb 5400rpm, 1 120gb 5400rpm, 1 80gb 5400rpm (rebadged Quantum), and receiving a 120gb 7200rpm 8mb cache drive tomorrow.

Maxtor is the bomb!!!

 

[dcdomain]

Love my Maxtors. Currently 1 45gb 7200rpm, 1 80gb 5400rpm, 1 120gb 5400rpm, 1 80gb 5400rpm (rebadged Quantum), and receiving a 120gb 7200rpm 8mb cache drive tomorrow.

Maxtor is the bomb!!!

 

[Malladine]

All good to know!

Maxtor 6Y080P0 it is.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Thraxen
If you want the faster drive, get the Maxtor. If you want one that is quiet, get the Seagate. I use Seagate drives myself. I'll take a second or two longer loading times here and there over constant noise.

What noise ? Have you used the new Maxtors ? I have, and I also have the seagate, and I can barely hear a difference. I can notice the spped difference though.

See this is bizarre. Today my 160gb 7200/8mb maxtor arrived from staples ($109 courtesy of hot deals), and after reading the comments here, was seriously considering taking my wd1200jb out of the mix entirely and getting another one of these "what noise" maxtors...

So it came as quite a suprise that the maxtor still sounds like a maxtor! Fluid bearings and all, the thing still sounds like a little woodchuck whenever it writes signifigant amounts. At idle, the maxtor is quiet. I can't hear it at all. The WD sounds like a small fan. When writing, the maxtor, as described above, makes a pronounced woodchuck sound, while the WD sounds the same as it does at idle.

So in response to the first quote, I think I prefer the constant but close to inaudible fan noise of the WD to the intermitent nature sounds of the maxtor.

Sound aside, the maxtor is f*cking fast!!! To be honest, the 1200jb has disappointed me a little. It never gets the kinda speed that THG posted. In contrast, in initial tests with the maxtor I've gotten steady mid thirties and peaks in the upper 40mb/sec area in write performance. w00t

 

[pillage2001]

What noise is right on the money.

CAn't hear a thing with my maxtor.

 

[Dug]

What isaacmacdonald and Markfw900 have mentioned is an indication of what Maxtor is shipping.

You just don't know.

Search through any "quietPC" forums and you will see there is a huge difference between supposedly like drives as far as noise goes. Some say quiet as Seagate/ Some say noisier than WD.
I just got a 120G Maxtor retail box, recent manufacturing date, and it's louder than any drive I can remember.

The 7200.7 drive you mentioned is newer than the V from Seagate. The seek times aren't as advertised, but the throughput is amazing because of the new larger platter + the noise is the same/ slightly less than the V.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

Originally posted by: pillage2001
What noise is right on the money.

CAn't hear a thing with my maxtor.

I can't believe that. You NEVER here anything at all? Do you have other audible fans and such in your box? I've gone to great lengths (modding PSU, using 80mm fan for ti4600, etc) to cut down my computer's noise, so maybe I'm just particularly sensitive. I'm absolutely certain this isn't specific to this particular HD. I've had 4 other maxtors, and they all sounded like this...

Just ran sisoft, and this maxtor killed my 1200jb.

 

[SpocksBrain]

Malladine,

I'd recommend the Maxtor, but of course I'm a little biased now...

I just ordered one from Staples.com.

$109.94 -$20 coupon -$30 mail-in rebate + $4.50 sales tax to MA
(FREE shipping, BTW) *grin*

= $64.44!!! (Assuming they get that rebate check back to me in 6-8...)

Not bad, eh?

Regards,

P.S. Oops...forgot to mention, that $20 coupon was from use of a Business Rewards card...so unless you have one, tack on another $20, sorry!

SB

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: isaacmacdonald

Originally posted by: pillage2001
What noise is right on the money.

CAn't hear a thing with my maxtor.

I can't believe that. You NEVER here anything at all? Do you have other audible fans and such in your box? I've gone to great lengths (modding PSU, using 80mm fan for ti4600, etc) to cut down my computer's noise, so maybe I'm just particularly sensitive. I'm absolutely certain this isn't specific to this particular HD. I've had 4 other maxtors, and they all sounded like this...

Just ran sisoft, and this maxtor killed my 1200jb.

I have 80mm fans on my pc of course. I tried putting my ear a few inches away from the hdd and I don't hear a single thing. I do hear seeking sound from the WD SE though.

 

[BFG10K]

Seagate all the way. In my experience they're the finest HD vendor around and I have not had a single drive of theirs fail, ever. In contrast I've had a few Maxtors fail at work.

I've just bought a nice 120 GB Seagate Barracude V and it works great.

 

[Jeff7181]

Here's my personal experience... read it... take it for what it's worth... just don't take it as a flame (like the one from yesterday)

I had a 40GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 60 7200 RPM... about 6 months after I bought it, that spontaneously combusted one day, literally, started smoking and one of the micro chips on the bottom was burned... a couple "legs" were melted off and flug up on top of the micro chip where they perminantly welded themselves.

I replaced that with a Seagate Baracuda IV 40 GB 7200 RPM drive... it had their fluid bearing... nice and quiet... but I wasn't satisfied with the performance. At the time I was building my brother a computer for his wedding present... and he's not a power user, so I gave him the quiet Seagate.

I replaced the Seagate with a 60 GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 7200 RPM. I was downloading Red Hat 8.0 when I heard a clunk and the drive spin down... then the computer rebooted... SMART reported the hard drive "Bad, Backup and Replace." Windows would boot, but when I tried to access data on other partitions, it said the drive couldn't be read from.

SOOOOOO... now I have a Western Digital Caviar SE 80 GB. I can't hear any difference in noise, I do notice a performance difference. Games load faster... Windows boots faster... Windows doesn't thrash the hard disk for as long after the desktop pops up on the screen... and benchmarks all confirm it's faster.

I sent the 60 GB Maxtor back to them after getting an RMA#... about 2 weeks later, an 80 GB DiamondMax Plus D740X arrived on my doorstep. I'm going to send the other Maxtor back soon. But the replacement I got from Maxtor is working just fine in my 2nd computer. That computer has been up and running 24/7 for over 2 weeks... so no problems with that drive so far. And the WD has been running 24/7 in this computer since August... minus a couple weeks when the family went out of town for my brother's wedding.

*EDIT* Oh yeah... I have an 80 MB (yes, MB) Seagate from 1991 that still works... and a 250 MB Western Digital that still works, and a 12 GB Quantum Bigfoot that still works, and a 3.2 GB Fujitsu that still works.

 

[stultus]

Seagate, hands down, if you care about noise. People who claim Maxtors are as quiet as Seagates are usually running a delta and umpteen case fans, so to them they DO sound the same.

 

[Jeff7181]

Aside from all the brand loyalties, noise, and size... if you're looking for performance, an 8MB cache really does help. Whether it's a Maxtor, Seagate, IBM, Western Digital, Fuji, etc. you will notice the difference between an 8MB cache and a 2 MB cache if you do anything that's hard disk intensive.

*EDIT* On a side note... arguing which piece of hardware is better, CPU's, RAM, video cards, hard drives, floppy drives, CDRW drives... unless you're looking for personal experiences, it's better to look at the benchmarks and professional reviews yourself. Look at the benchmarks that are important to you, whether that's noise and temperature, or performance in games, or performance is server applications, or performance in business applications. There is no BEST solution for everybody... when it comes to computers, you have to figure out what your needs are, consider your wants, and choose hardware that meets your needs and gives you what you want.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

I disagree about the review thing. I think the synthetic tests are frequently not representative of what your experience will be. I'd try and find unbaised opinions from people who have the products and have the same basic goals (speed or noise or integrity).

In the end I vote maxtor, but it's because of performance. The thing is not silent.

 

[pukemon]

i'm going to say what everyone else is saying, if you want quiet, get the seagate, if you want performance, go with maxtor. if you want performance and don't care about noise, go with western digital.

point is, if you want quiet, you have to work at making sure all the other components are quiet too. as someone else mentioned, people who think that certain maxtors are quiet more likely than not will have 3 or 4 case fans, a powerful cpu fan for their overclocked cpu, and other factors that would make the drive sound quiet in which case it will. also if you buy a retail boxed maxtor you're not guaranteed a specific model/family with fluid bearings, just the capacity and rotational speed. ... okay that's not entirely true, i mean people in the hot deals forums will tell you to ask the guy at the counter to pull out 10 boxes so you get the one with the right label... etc. etc. etc..

 

[Malladine]

Well, considering I have already bought a nice Lian Li case w/4 fans, I think i'll go all out and grab that Maxtor

Although a Seagate would lessen the overall noise level somewhat...

Lol, decisions rule.

Thanks for all the input!

 

[thorin]

Ok here's what we have so far:

Seagate -- 4
Maxtor -- 7
WD (SE) -- 2

Thorin