Which of these Seagate drives is best?

[TheNiceGuy]

I'm looking for a 3rd drive to use for extra storage. These 250GB Seagates are all around the same price. Which one is best for me?

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/dis...es/marketing/detail/0,1081,632,00.html

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/dis...es/marketing/detail/0,1081,720,00.html

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/dis...es/marketing/detail/0,1081,760,00.html

I chose Seagate because I currently have 2 (in my sig). I have never used the NCQ feature though, as I heard a lot of guys had stability issues with that. The drives have worked well for 2 years, except for (very rare) recognition issues at startup, which I feel are motherboard issues.
Thanks!

 

[Bobthelost]

The 7200.10 is the newest and therefore almost certainly the best for you.

NCQ is not a good thing for home users, it slows things down. Then again since you have to activate it deliberatly it's not an issue.

 

[acegazda]

I'm pretty sure that it gets slightly more expensive as you move up to the newer products, but nevertheless, the performance on the 7200.10 hdd trumps the others. It has 16mb buffer chache and perpendicular recording. Native Command queuing. Read this, it shouldn't have any stability issues with the newest drives.

 

[Bozo Galora]

the 7's are the gold standard
the 8's have issues
the 9's were slightly better, but have just been redone to new smaller form factor (see dailytech)
the 10's are perpendiclar, and now that the cannibalized platter units are prob out of channel by now, are the best.
$89.95 shipped from NE 320GB

Edit: (added the 7's)

 

[corkyg]

Agree fully with Bozo. I further commend the choice of Seagate - their 5 year warranty speaks for itself.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Agree fully with Bozo. I further commend the choice of Seagate - their 5 year warranty speaks for itself.

Unfortunately, so do the loud seeks (speak for themselves) since lacking AAM. Chortle. But yeah, it's hard not to recommend Seagate when the OP's three options are Seagate, Seagate and Seagate. Guffaw.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Auric

Unfortunately, so do the loud seeks (speak for themselves) since lacking AAM.

That's odd - I've never heard them at all. I guess I don't have enough Seagate drives running this system - just 3.

My laptop has 2 of the new PR 160s - and I can't hear them either.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: Auric

Unfortunately, so do the loud seeks (speak for themselves) since lacking AAM.

That's odd - I've never heard them at all. I guess I don't have enough Seagate drives running this system - just 3.

My laptop has 2 of the new PR 160s - and I can't hear them either.

Yeah my Seagate is much quieter than my WD.

But then I don't have a problem with some noise from a computer. I don't know if you have a dog's hearing or if you live in a library, but I don't think having something 100% dead quiet matters.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
[Q}But then I don't have a problem with some noise from a computer. I don't know if you have a dog's hearing or if you live in a library, but I don't think having something 100% dead quiet matters.

I really like to know if the darn thing is running or not. Total quiet tells me it is not.

Seek noises - no - never. I don't have a dog's hearing - but in the summer, there is a pretty good noise coming from a room fan. Since my computer is on the floor, under the desk, I rarely hear anything from it - even in the winter.

In three systems, I now have 11 Seagates. They replaced IBM/Hitachis. The only drive failure I have had in 26 years of computing has been a WDC.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
the 8's have issues
the 9's were slightly better, but have just been redone to new smaller form factor (see dailytech)
the 10's are perpendiclar, and now that the cannibalized platter units are prob out of channel by now, are the best.
$89.95 shipped from NE 320GB

Does that mean the 9's arnt good? I just bought a Segate 300Gb SATA3.0gbs with a 16mb cache

 

[Super6]

My first Seagate was a "9" and it's been great. I can't hear it over the other fans. Can't beat the five year warranty. I've had Matrox and IBM's go bad on me. Just recently bought the new 7200.10 320GB but haven't built the system yet. Hard to go wrong with the Newegg promo and it held its own in a recent comparison I read somewhere.

Not too many years ago an eight GB drive for $200. was considered a great price! And 300 celery's O/C'ed to 450 MHz and the best performance mobo's were Abits and AMD processors were dogs. We've come full circle.

Super6

 

[Auric]

Yeah, I can't hear a shop vac over a jet turbine ergo the vac is quiet :roll:

See user experiences at silentpcreview and storagereview.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

I ordered a 320GB .10 16MB.

Thanks for the help fellas!

 

[Auric]

Let us know which country of manufacture (sg or cn) and motor you get (flush or recessed spindle) and of course if it makes the thunka thunka or other noises. That way presumably anyone else considering ordering from the same shoppe has a greater chance of receiving the same at this moment.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

It's made in China, not sure 'bout the spindle though. How do I check that?
As for noise, absolutly none - because it ISN'T WORKING! BIOS recognizes it, but it's invisible in Windows. Any ideas what's going on?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: TheNiceGuy
It's made in China, not sure 'bout the spindle though. How do I check that?
As for noise, absolutly none - because it ISN'T WORKING! BIOS recognizes it, but it's invisible in Windows. Any ideas what's going on?

format it....

 

[TheNiceGuy]

it shows up in Device Manager as well, but not in My Computer, so I can't use it.
It is new, so it doesn't need formating, does it?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: TheNiceGuy
it shows up in Device Manager as well, but not in My Computer, so I can't use it.
It is new, so it doesn't need formating, does it?

All new drives need formatting....

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Ahhh! Sorry, got a lot on my mind lately, forgot about that. Thanks.
All is normal now.
Can I use Quick Format for a new disk?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: TheNiceGuy
Ahhh! Sorry, got a lot on my mind lately, forgot about that. Thanks.
All is normal now.
Can I use Quick Format for a new disk?

yes

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Thanks a lot PR!

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: TheNiceGuy
Thanks a lot PR!

no problem :thumbsup:

 

[TheNiceGuy]

I'm getting a LOT of disk read errors and crashes now since the install of the new disk:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1931953
is this a disk or a motherboard issue, any ideas?

 

[TheNiceGuy]

BTW, are jumpers an issue? I can't even find them.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Never mind, there are no jumpers! But I wonder about BIOS settings - the HDs are all listed as Master, from first to fourth... is this normal?