truth about the 'best' hardrive

Entity23

Senior member
Jan 30, 2001
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Is there really a practical difference in the hardrives. 7200 rpm drives I am comparing. Would an average gamer notice the difference between an IBM 75gxp and a maxtor diamond plus? The reason that I'm asking is because everyone strives for the best here, some for bragging rights and the others just because they are the best.
 

chemwiz

Senior member
Mar 8, 2000
848
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Well, I have one of each, a 45GB GXP and a 40GB Maxtor. One's on a 600@900mhz celery, the others on a 550@850 Athlon, and I don't see any noticeable difference. I just bought a 60GB Quantum Fireball AS to replace the Maxtor, but only because I got a great deal. Both companies have great warranty services, so I just go by price now. I was replaced my 20gb and 30gb 5400rpm drives with those two, and saw a huge difference there for gaming, though.
 

spamboy

Banned
Aug 28, 2000
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The Maxtor and IBM drives are so close in performance that one will be quicker for one thing and the other will quicker at another. You will never notice the difference either way, and the Maxtors are cheaper. Thats a no-brainer for me.
 

gooseman

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2000
4,853
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If you're not going to overclock to speeds that stress the hard drive, go with the cheaper one. IMO, you will really only notice a difference when you ask the drive to run at a higher spec bus speed.
 

Joemonkey

Diamond Member
Mar 3, 2001
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friend of mine just switched from a 5400rpm drive to a 7200 rpm drive... he's not too terribly computer tech savvy, yet called me to say "wow man, it's amazing to double click on something and it come up RIGHT AWAY" and it kinda made me mad that i have a 5400 drive still... i wanna get a 7200 drive and see if it improves my performance that much as well, plus i hear they are more reliable when burning CD's at high speeds.
 

Jeff H

Golden Member
Oct 11, 1999
1,611
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Joemonkey, you'll notice a difference between nearly any current generation 7200RPM drive and a 5400RPM. I recently replaced an IBM 22GXP 13.5G drive w/ an IBM 75GXP 30G, and I was literally taken aback by the differences in the drives. The 75GXP is quieter, and visibly faster (simple tasks like running RegClean, ERU, opening Office apps., etc.) In my mind the best benchmark is when you can see a difference, and you will w/ a 7200RPM drive.
 

Entity23

Senior member
Jan 30, 2001
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ok now, which is quieter? Yeah i know that 7200 rpm is better. I will have a higher bus speed too. Even though its only 110 mhz now.
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
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<< Joemonkey, you'll notice a difference between nearly any current generation 7200RPM drive and a 5400RPM. >>



I can't wait until I upgrade from my 5400rpm WD to my Quantum Atlas 10K II. ;)
 

esung

Golden Member
Oct 13, 1999
1,063
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with 7200rpm drives, the access time improved as well as data transfer rate. but those drives are slightly louder then the 5400rpm drives.. If I recall correctly, both IBM and Maxtor have the acoustic management to *quiet* down the drive some, at the cost of performance.
I really don't get bother by the noise, since I've been using 7200rpm and 10k drives for quite some time now. (nothing beats the noise of those 10k drives :D )

as for a higher bus speed, some drives might not function well above 33mhz of the PCI spec, but each drive's mileage may vary :D You won't know until you tried.


 

murdock2525

Banned
Feb 23, 2001
1,126
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You know...all of the latest hard drives are badass ! As are most of the cdrw's, sound and video cards and everything else. People worship online reviews too much....... These companies have been around forever ( in computer days) Just go with it and tweak it and roll on....
 

Entity23

Senior member
Jan 30, 2001
689
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76
hehehe, keep on truckin? hehe, yeah I think I will settle with a fireball or deskstar, they are all within like $20 or each other.
 

Jeff H

Golden Member
Oct 11, 1999
1,611
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Entity23, re drive noise, the 22GXP that I had was quieter than the Maxtor 5400RPM drive (6800 series, I believe) it replaced, and the 75GXP drive that I currently use is quieter than the 22GXP. And, I'm not using the drive acoustic software to quiet the 75GXP.
 

randypj

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,078
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Like the others, I was pleasantly surprised with the noticeable performance difference with my first WD 7200 vs. my old 5400 Maxtors. Enough, that I sold all my 5400s to my Dad, and run only 7200s now. In my experience:

1. Several failed Maxtor 5400 drives. Maxtor was excellent in replacing them.
2. WD 7200s are whisper quiet.
3. WD 7200s run hotter.
4. Even my g/f noticed the speed diff.
--Randy
 

rlism

Golden Member
Feb 1, 2001
1,461
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Quantum just hasn't made any good IDE drives lately. Their last breakthrough was probably the Quantum Fireball Plus LM which was easily the fastest thing you could get at the time. I have a 30GB LM and it's plenty fast. It's slower than the IBM and Maxtor on benchmarks but supposedly has better seek times. I have a 30GB 75GXP and I can't tell the difference. The IBM is quieter though. I also have a couple of the 60GB versions of the IBM too and those seem louder than the LM.