Which drive is better? A 80GB 8MB Cache Maxtor or the 8MB Cache SE Western Digital Drive?

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Salvador

Diamond Member
May 19, 2001
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Just curious.. I'm going to keep one of them, but I don't know which one to keep. Which is a better drive? The Western Digital 80GB SE 8MB Cache drive or the Maxtor 80GB 8MB Cache drive?

Do you know which one is quieter? Which one is faster? Which one stays cooler?

TIA,

Sal
 
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Merethrond

Member
May 2, 2003
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The Maxtor hard drive's Interface is IDE ULTRA ATA133, while Western Digital's is IDE ULTRA ATA100. I think that means that the Maxtor transfers data at 133MB/sec, while the Western Digital transfers at 100MB/sec, which would make the Maxtor fasster. Also the Western Digital is an EIDE hard drive, does anyone know what this stands for:)?
 
Insidious

Insidious

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 2001
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since you have both, why not give them a whirl and then YOU can tell US which one is the best.

-Sid
 
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GnomeCop

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2002
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yeah run some benchmarking programs on them and decide for yourself, thats the most important opinion.

I think there are some programs at majorgeeks that you can use
 
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John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I have used both, and the Maxtor is quieter, runs cooler (in my case), if not faster (marginally). Currently I have the DM+9 8-GB 8MB in here as master, and the 2MB buffer version as a slave.
 
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Acanthus

Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
19,915
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ostif.org
Originally posted by: Merethrond
The Maxtor hard drive's Interface is IDE ULTRA ATA133, while Western Digital's is IDE ULTRA ATA100. I think that means that the Maxtor transfers data at 133MB/sec, while the Western Digital transfers at 100MB/sec, which would make the Maxtor fasster. Also the Western Digital is an EIDE hard drive, does anyone know what this stands for:)?
Click to expand...

Those are peak transfer rates, not continuous. The WD is faster from the reviews ive read, but louder if thats a concern.
 
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EeyoreX

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2002
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The Maxtor hard drive's Interface is IDE ULTRA ATA133, while Western Digital's is IDE ULTRA ATA100. I think that means that the Maxtor transfers data at 133MB/sec, while the Western Digital transfers at 100MB/sec, which would make the Maxtor fasster. Also the Western Digital is an EIDE hard drive, does anyone know what this stands for:)?
Click to expand...

Those are peak transfer rates, not continuous. The WD is faster from the reviews ive read, but louder if thats a concern.[/quote]

Not only that, the ATA66 spec is hardly ever pushed to it's limit, so you will rarely, if ever, really reach ATA100 speeds. Much less than ATA133's.

[EDIT]Oh yeah, to answer the question. I agree, test them yourself to see which is best for you.[/EDIT]

\Dan
 
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Salvador

Diamond Member
May 19, 2001
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Thanks for the replies. I'm going to sell one of them and would like to keep the drive that I'm going to sell new if possible. Seems like a toss up to me. One thing that the WD has in its favor is that it has a 3 year warranty vs the 1 year warranty for the Maxtor.

Thanks again.

Sal
 
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Hawaiian2002

Member
Sep 2, 2002
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I have a raid 0 setup w/2 WD 80GSE's. The noise that both of them put out is less than one Maxtor 80G 8mb cache in my kid's computer. I am talking about read/write noise not idle noise. When they idle, I cannot tell the difference which is louder. Previously I was running the raid setup w/2 Maxtor 740X liquid bearing drives. That also made more noise than the Western Digitals. I have built many systems and I always find the Western Digitals to be very quiet. If you want really quiet try the Seagate Baracudas.
 
NesuD

NesuD

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,999
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Originally posted by: Hawaiian2002
I have a raid 0 setup w/2 WD 80GSE's. The noise that both of them put out is less than one Maxtor 80G 8mb cache in my kid's computer. I am talking about read/write noise not idle noise. When they idle, I cannot tell the difference which is louder. Previously I was running the raid setup w/2 Maxtor 740X liquid bearing drives. That also made more noise than the Western Digitals. I have built many systems and I always find the Western Digitals to be very quiet. If you want really quiet try the Seagate Baracudas.
Click to expand...

Thats strange. I have 2 80 gig maxtor ultras in my box and i find that the only noise they make is the noise from the seeks which is not particularly loud. certainly no louder than the WD SE drive i used to use. The maxtor is somewhat faster in hdtach at least in the 80 gig version. The Maxtor also has an acoustic management feature and an internal temp diode if those things are important to you. The WD has neither of those features. When set to "quiet" with the Acoustic management utility the seeks become totally silent, The drive makes no noise whatsoever.
 
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bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
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imo, the WD is better
i have one running here and it's silent.
my friend has a maxtor and i can hear the hd when it seeks. none of them can beat my barracuda IV though:D
don't know about temps, though
 
W

WyteWatt

Banned
Jun 8, 2001
6,255
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This may be a important fact to. I believe most maxtor hds even ones with 8 mb of cache only have 1 year warranty :(

Where all WD HDs with 8 mb of cache have a 3 year warranty!
 
P

ProviaFan

Lifer
Mar 17, 2001
14,993
1
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Originally posted by: EeyoreX
Not only that, the ATA66 spec is hardly ever pushed to it's limit, so you will rarely, if ever, really reach ATA100 speeds. Much less than ATA133's.
Click to expand...
It seems that my WD 80GB "SE" drive can be limited just a little by ATA66 (I had it on an ATA66 controller for a bit) in burst transfer rate, but the advantage that gives in real life is probably nothing, or if not, next to nothing.
[EDIT]Oh yeah, to answer the question. I agree, test them yourself to see which is best for you.[/EDIT]
Click to expand...
Wise advice, he gives... hmm.... YES! ;)

<-- is happy with his Western Digital Special Edition 80GB drive. :cool:
 
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Pauli

Senior member
Oct 14, 1999
836
0
0
Performancewise, it's a tossup. Noise-wise, I have a 2MB WD (80GB), 2MB Barracuda IV (80GB) and 2MB Maxtor (120GB) in my system (as you can see, I don't play favorites), and I would say that the Maxtor is quieter than the WD when seeking, and the Barracuda is dead silent. So, go with the WD and its 3 year warranty.
 
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HitokiriBattousi

Junior Member
May 6, 2003
17
0
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Yes, the Western Digitals are faster on seek rates, however, they are louder. That can be fixed though. D/L Intel Application Accelerator. That will fix the IDE contorller Bottleneck when using the Microsoft driver and it will allow you to change the acoustic noise management on the Hard Drives. It only works on Intel chipsets for the Intel Pentium 4 though.

If you change the Noise management to minimum acoustic noise output, on a drive that supports the changes, you can barely hear the read write heads.

The maxtor is cooler and quieter. I don't like WD's because they have failed alot on me even though they have stayed nice and cool and have not been jarred. I love maxtor cause I have 10 year old Maxtors that work fine and have no bad sectors.
 
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