Maxtor or Seagate?

DasFox

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
4,668
46
91
Well I can't make up my mind. But I have been running 3 different versions of Maxtors for 5 years and they have been great for me, but I know Seagate is starting to get more popular these days, so it has me thinking.

I'm thinking between these for someone I'm building a PC for:

Maxtor Maxline III 7L250S0 250GB Serial ATA
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100718-6

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB Serial
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101571

============================

But for me, a few weeks ago I bought this maxtor:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100719-6

The 16mb buffer was what made me decide on this drive, but does 16mb caches really get utilized? I mean 8mb buffers help over 2mb I know that, but I'm not sure if 16mb is more advanced then the motherboard, or systems at present can handle.

I haven't used the hdd yet, but for the PC I'm building and myself I'm thinking for the first time in 5 years of going with Seagate.

If I do this will be the one for me:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101567

And that 250GB up top for the one I'm building for someone.

Anyone have any thought on these hard drives and real experience with them?

THANKS
 

alimoalem

Diamond Member
Sep 22, 2005
4,025
0
0
what you should do first is shop around. $155 is too much for a 300gb drive. find something around $140 or less. you wanna truly bust out? get the Western Digital Caviar II or something like that (400GB ~$200ish)
 

DasFox

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
4,668
46
91
alimoalem, I live in Hawaii thats why I showed ZipZoomfly, CHEAP shipping. PLEASE stick to the subject matter. My concerns are over the differences in the drives not the price, LOL

No one said I was going to buy them there, I just saw them there and easy to put up the pics of what I'm looking for is all. ;)

THANKS
 

Cdubneeddeal

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2003
7,473
3
81
I've been really happy with Seagates thus far and Maxtors. I've heard alot of bad things lately about Maxtor but everyone that i've had has been stellar.

Personally I would say the Maxtor as it has the same 5 year warranty as the Seagate and double the cache.
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
5,701
68
91
I am a Seagate convert. The new Maxtor hdds are crap now. Me and my brother has 4 maxtor drives broken last two years. A friend of mine also has his replaced twice in a year. That is pretty bad.
 

mOeeOm

Platinum Member
Dec 27, 2004
2,588
0
0
Maxtor, it has the same warranty as the Seagate but performs better.
 

Philippine Mango

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2004
5,594
0
0
Originally posted by: DasFox
Well I can't make up my mind. But I have been running 3 different versions of Maxtors for 5 years and they have been great for me, but I know Seagate is starting to get more popular these days, so it has me thinking.

I'm thinking between these for someone I'm building a PC for:

Maxtor Maxline III 7L250S0 250GB Serial ATA
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100718-6

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB Serial
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101571

============================

But for me, a few weeks ago I bought this maxtor:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100719-6

The 16mb buffer was what made me decide on this drive, but does 16mb caches really get utilized? I mean 8mb buffers help over 2mb I know that, but I'm not sure if 16mb is more advanced then the motherboard, or systems at present can handle.

I haven't used the hdd yet, but for the PC I'm building and myself I'm thinking for the first time in 5 years of going with Seagate.

If I do this will be the one for me:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101567

And that 250GB up top for the one I'm building for someone.

Anyone have any thought on these hard drives and real experience with them?

THANKS

To answer your question about the 16MB buffer, in reality, it's not utilized very much just as you predicted and doesn't help much with performance. It's like the upgrade from 512KB cache to 1MB or 2MB cache, it helps, just in certain circumstances and not very much...
 

DasFox

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
4,668
46
91
Yeah I tell ya with hdds it seems they are always up and down. I remember like 3-4 yrs. back the Deskstars where on top of the world then the following year people where getting them DOA.

Seagates 5 years ago where mostly from what I remember, built in low end pcs, like, E-machines, etc.. Fujitsus' had a rave for quite some time, now you don't hear anything about them. Personally I find hdds to be one of the biggest pain to deal with in getting a reply, as in any typical year who is the STANDARD. Well seems like to me they are just like cars, we all drive them, but do we drive the same makes and models and they work.

LOL

Well like I said, for me I have used 3 different versions of Maxtors going all the way back 5 years, from that point forward. And those 3 different models are all I have used spanning 5 years and my Maxtors have never let me down and I have beat them to hell, running them into the ground, now that's not crap. all I see is bad luck, or just a bad draw of the few.

Oh well I'll stick to my Maxtor SATA for my new mobo coming up and I'll tell ALL how #4 spanning then into almost 6 years, how this new Maxtor is doing.

See, just remember ONE thing, most of the hdd companies make different models, I personally only pick the high models, maybe that is where people are having problems, they don't know this and go with the cheaper ones.

Anyhow THANKS!

Oh and one other thing, pick up a WD, at least before, they felt like nothing, then pick up a Maxtor, they feel like they're a brick in your hand, as in really solid. That was one thing that turned me off over the WDs they felt like a toy in your hand.
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
How fast can a disk write?

You know it would be easy to slap on a much larger buffer but they won't do it - yet.

Imagine at 30MB/S platter write speed how long commision of 256MB buffer will take - PER disk! All in a sudden, the A/V rating on the disk returns.
 

DasFox

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
4,668
46
91
C6FT7, I'm not so technical, so what you said I have NO FRIGGIN CLUE!

LOL