Looking to buy new hard drive 250MB or 300MB

[MageXX9]

Looking to buy a new 250GB or 300GB hard drive to dedicate as a media drive. I'm currently ripping my cd collection to flac files, needless to say they get huge fast.

I guess I should go ahead and get SATA 3.0Gbps since the price difference between SATA 1.5Gbps is very little.

So, does anyone have a recommendation as to which drive is the best in terms of reliability and speed, or have a site that does a roundup? Couldn't find one on AT.

thanks.

 

[Bobthelost]

storage review. They have a performance database.

SATA2 is marketing crap for home users.

 

[MageXX9]

Got a link? I know there are old articles you can look through, but I'm specifically interested in 250GB and 300GB models. It'd be nice if there were a roundup of all available models.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I'd recommend the Seagate 7200.9 series

While this is a 150gb Raptor review, they use several other makes of drives for comparisons.
Try this
7200.9 500gb review
7200.9 intro article

The 7200.8 isn't a bad performing series of drive either. I own several, and they are quiet and reliable drives.

Storage Review's 250gb drive round up

 

[Bobthelost]

performance database, look there.

The 7200.8s are bloody awful reliability wise, look at the survey they have going there too. The 7200.9s are alright, but not as quiet as the older drives that got seagate it's repuation for low noise, nor do they perform all that well. The only real saving grace of seagate is the 5 year warranty. Which to be honest is a rather sizeable grace.

 

[ismay]

Storage Review's roundup of the currrent crop of 250GB drives is located at
http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200601/250_1.html

 

[Tostada]

Actually, StorageReview's most recent article is a 250GB roundup. Their reviews are a lot better than AT's half-assed hard drive reviews.

Originally posted by: MageXX9
Got a link? I know there are old articles you can look through, but I'm specifically interested in 250GB and 300GB models. It'd be nice if there were a roundup of all available models.

Honestly, do you really need a link to find StorageReview? If you'd take two seconds to type it into your address bar, you'd see that the first thing on the front page says "250 GB Drive Roundup."


I really have to recommend Wesdern Digital's WD2500KS for a 250GB drive.

Samsungs are good, but they're usually a little slower than anything else. Maxtor and Hitachi are arguably the most unreliable drives, and they also have the worst RMA policies of anybody and really give you a hard time on returns and won't cross-ship.

Given that, with the choice is between the Seagate and WD, I normally really like Seagate, but the WD2500KS is just too much faster. It beats the Barracuda 7200.9 by a decent margin in every single benchmark, and uses less power, and makes less heat. The WD also has a 16MB cache and beats every 250GB drive in office performance and the WoW benchmark (and has the lowest operating power of any drive). The only downside is that it makes more noise than other 250GB drives, but I certainly can't hear the one in my system.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: ismay
Storage Review's roundup of the currrent crop of 250GB drives is located at
http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200601/250_1.html

I guess we're going to do ALL the work for ya.

 

[Ronin]

T7K250 > *

 

[MageXX9]

Wow, you guys rock!!! Exactly what I needed.

And, yes I can type in storage review's website. The link I was interested in was the one I couldn't find, geez.

 

[saltedeggman]

it would be hard to find 250mb or 300mb nowadays, sorry can't resist

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: Ronin
T7K250 > *

The advantage over the WD drives is so small it's negligable. In some benchmarks the deskstar loses out to the WD. But either are very good performers.

 

[shoRunner]

been awhile since i've seen a 300mb hard drive

 

[MageXX9]

Looks like I'll be going with the Western Digital WD2500KS.

Is Native command queueing a big deal? Seems like I remember it hurting performance is some cases?



Also, dumb question, so flame away, but did Hitachi buy out IBM? You're probably gonna ask where I've been for the past couple of years.


As far as the 250MB, and 300MB are concerned, check out my ninja edit.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Heh, 250MB and 300MB... Anyways, StorageReview is a great site for hard drive reviews.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: MageXX9
Looks like I'll be going with the Western Digital WD2500KS.

Is Native command queueing a big deal? Seems like I remember it hurting performance is some cases?



Also, dumb question, so flame away, but did Hitachi buy out IBM? You're probably gonna ask where I've been for the past couple of years.


As far as the 250MB, and 300MB are concerned, check out my ninja edit.

NCQ slows things down a little bit for non-server use, but it's disabled by default.

Yes, Hitachi bought IBM's storage division.


edit: ZZF has the 2500KS for $99.99 with free FedEx 2-day:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101220-12

 

[Ronin]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: Ronin
T7K250 > *

The advantage over the WD drives is so small it's negligable. In some benchmarks the deskstar loses out to the WD. But either are very good performers.

Having both sets of drives, I prefer the T7K's. I've looked at SR's round-up, but I'm basing my assessment on day-to-day use.