How good are Hitachi hard drives?

[SynthesisI]

I am a loyal Western Digital stalwart, but I would entertain a product equally or even more reliable and speedy. Mainly, I'm looking for reliability and low-noise (out of every ten Western Digitals I order, six are quiet, four are noisy). I've heard Dell uses Hitachi hard drives in some of their systems, or has in the past, and you know anything that goes into a Dell has got to be quiet. So, are Hitachies (?) a reliable and quiet solution that I could depend on?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Hitachi = IBM designs, but IBM has been fine since the previous 120 series. (It was the 75 series that had design flaws)

Check out silentpcreview.com and storagereview.com for more details on performance and noise.

The IBM/Hitachi "chirp" really isn't bad once you get used to it, and only happens a few times a day.

Note though that WD does have the best performance and warranty (on 8 MB) if you can stand the noise.

 

[OverVolt]

I have 5WD drives, not one is noisy.

 

[peter7921]

I have no experience with Hitachi drives, but i know from experience that Seagate dirves are extremely quiet and quite reliable.

 

[SynthesisI]

Well I guess Hitachi is out- even though I might run something like that on a machine of my own, I certainly wouldn't put an IBM design in any of my client's boxes. I'll give them a couple more years before I consider them/Hitachi again I suppose, but I'm also wanting to try out a new Seagate someday. I've heard they're '#2' right behind WD.

 

[Viper96720]

The Hitachi 8mb cache models have a 3yr warranty like the Western Digital

 

[Paulson]

I have 5 western digitals as well and none are noisy...

All work great too