From all of the reviews I have read, either the Seagate 7200.8 or the newest SATAII Hitachis. The performance goes to the Hitachi, which has MUCH lower seek times. The Seagate blows it away in HDTACH average read and burst, as long as you have NCQ disabled. FWIW, I use Hitachis a lot and have never had a problem. They are NOT "Deathstars" like some people say. That was when IBM was making them, and turned everything over to Hitachi (presumably they get royalties) and the rest is history. I have heard too many negative things about both Maxtor or Western Digital (except the Raptor) to even want to try either.
I am currently using a Seagate 7200.8 200gig version, and NCQ is disabled. HDTACH reports a average seek of 15ms with NCQ disabled, and 13.5 with it enabled. BUT, the average and especially the burst speeds are much higher with it off. So, I have been using it without NCQ and have not looked back. It is very quiet, and I can only barely hear it under heavy loads. The Seagate also comes with a five year warranty, which is not to be ignored. Although one of us types is unlikely to actually keep it in your current setup for that long, it does give an indication of the level of confidence Seagate has in their products.
