I know this may seem like a no-brainer BUT.... EDIT- DONE! THANK YOU !!!

[dodgybob]

I have a 200gb seagate 7200.7 pata drive which is seriously quiet. Last summer i tried the 120gb and 160gb sata versions and the seek was much noisier. I ended up getting a western digital sata as a replacement as they were that noisy, but i'm fussy about that kind of thing. I think the key with wd drives is to make sure you select one with a fdb motor. My old 80gd wd drive developed a really annoying whine and apparantly it's not that uncommon. Doesn't seem to happen with their fdb drives though. Was a shame as it was very quiet for the 1st few months.

I've looked at reviews of the 7200.8 and they are meant to be a little bit noisier than the 7200.7 series. I don't know if the comparison was with the 7200.7 pata or sata as there is quite a difference in noise level between the two.

 

[MobiusPizza]

Dun worry. As I said they are all good drives. Personally haven't tried Samsung so don't know about it. Segate I never used but people have been saying very good things about it. I personally used WD and I love the performance, low heat and low noise.

You would feel it's easier to let God choose by rowing a dice 😀

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: Fisher999

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: xbassman
If quiet is of importance to you, you may want to consider a Samsung Spinright.
They are probably the quietest drives on the market.

120 GB $80.50
160 GB $92.00

I agree with the above.

Also, the SATA versions of the 7200.7 Seagates are quite noisy, because the AAM (automatic acoustic management) is turned off and you can't turn it back on. The PATA 7200.7s are supposedly quieter cos you can turn AAM on.

But the samsung spinpoints are better than the seagates IMO.

Aidanjm:

Do you know if the same situation applies to the Seagate 7200.8 series hard drives ???

I'm not sure. The people at SPCR don't seem to be too impressed with the 7200.8s, tho.

I'm sticking with Samsung for the time being. They have a new range of 200GB and above drives.

 

[Megatomic]

Heh, well let me throw another wrench into the gears:

I've been hearing good things about THESE drives. They have the fast timings of the Seagates and user-configurable acoustic management settings. $90 for 160GB of storage and it comes with the now standard 3yrs warranty.

🙂

 

[xbassman]

Do you know if the same situation applies to the Seagate 7200.8 series hard drives ???

This is from the 7200.8 manual.

Note.Advanced Power Management (APM) and Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) features are not supported.

Seagate has been involved in litigation in reguards to AAM.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Heh, well let me throw another wrench into the gears:

I've been hearing good things about THESE drives. They have the fast timings of the Seagates and user-configurable acoustic management settings. $90 for 160GB of storage and it comes with the now standard 3yrs warranty.

🙂

OMG, "THESE" = DEATHSTARS !!!

I USED to love IBM (now Hitachi) drives until the 75GXP and especially the 60GXP series came along.

Has reliability returned now that Hitachi has owned IBM's hard drive division for a year or two ???

Originally posted by: xbassman

Do you know if the same situation applies to the Seagate 7200.8 series hard drives ???

This is from the 7200.8 manual.

Note.Advanced Power Management (APM) and Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) features are not supported.

Seagate has been involved in litigation in reguards to AAM.

Well, that affirms what one other poster said about the 7200.8's being louder than the 7200.7's. THANKS xbassman !!! 🙂

Thanks to EVERYONE for your input; as AnnihilatorX said, I've got to have God roll the dice for me although actually I think I'll roll them. lol

No, actually, thiings are looking more and more in Samsung's favor. I hope I don't regret this; every other Samsung item I've purchased has eventually gone to pot.

Thanks again all,

Greg

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
...As for noise...I really can't be of too much help there. Noise isn't that important to me...that is, as long as it doesn't sound like a jet engine about to take off. 😛

TOO funny, I love it ! 😀

 

[Fisher999]

I've read somewhere, and can't remember where it was, that ONE SPECIFIC MANUFACTURER'S HARD DRIVES were having COMPATIBILIBY issues with the nForce4 series of chip like the one on my Asus A8N-SLI which will arrive this week.

I don't why to buy a hard drive that will have compatibility issues with the nFORCE4 chips !!!

Has ANYONE heard of this compatibility issue and WHICH drive manufacturer's hard drives are having compatibility issues with the nFORCE4 series of motherboard chips ???

Greg

 

[Gerbil333]

I'd go with the Samsung. I built a computer with the SP1213C (the 120gb in your post) and it is silent. In fact, I was at my friend's house just 30 minutes ago and I used the computer for a few minutes. It's fast, and it was running at 23C. The house was probably only 23C! Not only that, it was in an Antec Sonata, which isn't exactly the best case for cooling. His drive has now been running for almost a year. It's one of the best I've used. On a side note, someone on here mentioned that Samsung switched motors and the current SP1213C's aren't as quiet as they were a year ago 🙁

I personally wouldn't get the Seagate 120gb drive. I have one of those and it's noisier than the Samsung, but it's roughly the same speed. My 120gb drive emits an annoying high pitched frequency (my 40gb drive does not). I can't stand the sound, yet other people can't hear it at all. So, it depends on your ears. Even so, the Samsung seek noise is silent, whereas the Seagate is slightly audible. However, I must admit that I've had great results with Seagate drives too. I've used three and I've had no problems. One is about 4 years old, and another is about 2. My 120gb 7200.7 is only 1 year old, but it has done fine so far.

The worst option is the WD drive. Those are always the noisiest, and their 7200rpm drives are no faster in real world applications than the Seagate/Samsung offerings.

As for reliability, Seagate and Samsung have been more reliable for me than WD. I've had one WD drive die in the past year and another died about 8 years ago. None of my Seagates have died, and the single Samsung drive I've used hasn't failed either (although that's not much of a sampling).

In my opinion, buy in this order:

1) Samsung
2) Seagate
3) WD

BTW, I'm going to buy a Samsung 120gb drive to compliment my WD 74gb Raptor when I rebuild next month. Even if they have new motors, I'm not going to put up with that dang high pitched noise from a Seagate 120.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
I'd go with the Samsung. I built a computer with the SP1213C (the 120gb in your post) and it is silent...It's one of the best I've used. On a side note, someone on here mentioned that Samsung switched motors and the current SP1213C's aren't as quiet as they were a year ago 🙁 ...

...The worst option is the WD drive. Those are always the noisiest, and their 7200rpm drives are no faster in real world applications than the Seagate/Samsung offerings...

...In my opinion, buy in this order:

1) Samsung
2) Seagate
3) WD

BTW, I'm going to buy a Samsung 120gb drive... Even if they have new motors, I'm not going to put up with that dang high pitched noise from a Seagate 120.

Thanks again Gerbil333 for an informative and well-thought-out post !!! You've helped me tip to the side of Samsung as I was leaning that way (with the help of xbassman and aidanjim's comments and links) and you helped push me over to their side.

What a shame they may have changed motors since last year which may be louder !!!

What can one do? There always seems to be a downside to every component decision. At least MY luck seems to run that way - with the exception of an AOpen AX6BC (intel 440 bx) mobo decision I made (by myself believe it or not) for a system I built for my folks in December, 1999. It is the most stable, reliable motherboard I have ever used and it is still going strong after 5 1/2 years now. :thumbsup:

 

[Varun]

I have the 120GB Samsung 8MB. It is by far the fastest drive I have used, and is very very quiet, even in my crappy case. I can't hear it except for the odd seek noise. I did a lot of research, and check out storagereview.com for some more reviews.

From the numbers I saw, the Samsung was fractions of a dB louder than the Seagate (quiestest drive in the review) but much better performing.

I picked one up and never looked back.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: Varun
I have the 120GB Samsung 8MB. It is by far the fastest drive I have used, and is very very quiet, even in my crappy case. I can't hear it except for the odd seek noise. I did a lot of research, and check out storagereview.com for some more reviews.

From the numbers I saw, the Samsung was fractions of a dB louder than the Seagate (quiestest drive in the review) but much better performing.

I picked one up and never looked back.

Thanks Varun for posting.

In an article over here at Hardwarezone.com in which they compated both the PATA-133 and SATA 1.0 series of Samsung SpinPoint SP1614 drives the Samies only performed in the middle of the pack of their contendors. This is an article that is 1 1/2 years old though.

For years I used to go to storagereview.com for info on both hard drives AND optical drives; thanks for reminding me about their excellent site. 🙂

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Heh, well let me throw another wrench into the gears:

I've been hearing good things about THESE drives. They have the fast timings of the Seagates and user-configurable acoustic management settings. $90 for 160GB of storage and it comes with the now standard 3yrs warranty.

🙂

Megatomic:

Although your idea DID throw another wrench into the gears there is some hard evidence to support you decision to mention them.

Let's put aside the reliablity problems IBM was having with their 75GXP and 60GXP series drives before they sold 70% of their hard drive division to Hitachi.

I did a little research on the 7K250 series drives you mentioned.

If one first reads this October, 2003 review of the top drive in the series, the 250GB SATA model over here at StorageReview one sees that is performed very well and received SR's "safe buy" award.

Next when you compare the benchmarks on that drive in that review to the IDENTICAL benchmarks on the Samsung Spinpoint P and Seagate 7200.7 SATA drives a year later in this article over here at StorageReview one sees that the Hitachi (one year earlier) beats BOTH the Samsung AND the Seagate drives by a significant margin in almost EVERY benchmark.

Furthermore, when one reads this hard drive roundup in March, 2004 over here at HardwareZone, in which the Samsung Spinpoint P and the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 were included, one can see that, again, the Hitachi takes top honors.

So the Hitachi 7K250's DO perform and they have the 160GB SATA model over here at NewEgg for a reasonable $93.99 delivered.

It is just difficult for me to put that "IBM Deathstar" fiasco out of my mind. It's alarming that such a young hard drive series can be found REFURBISHED like over here at NweEgg.

As you can tell, I haven't made the Hard Drive decision and I just received the Mobo/CPU combo the other day. It's time to make up my mind so I can get this system build going.

Thanks, Megatomic, for adding to the thread! 😀

Greg