2 80gb budget ** Quiet + reliable!

salami1212 · 2 Jul 2006 at 10:59

Im looking for 2 80gb hard drives, as one will be used for backups etc. which 2 shall i get. they need to be quiet, and reliable.. And fast if you can

cheers

t31os · 2 Jul 2006 at 12:13

Generally the faster drives make more noise, Maxtors are fast, but noisey as hell.

Western Digital drives are quiet, unless you buy raptors.

I've got 3 sata drives, a regular WD, a Hitachi and a Raptor, and the raptor is the only one that makes noise.

Personally the Hitachi seems as fast as the regular WD drive even though it has a smaller cache.

Seagate and Samsung are popular amongst members here.

Everyone has a preference though....

Explicit · 2 Jul 2006 at 13:22

I'd go for Hitachi or if you can stretch, get the Seagate 7200.10 320GB drive.

Avoid Maxtor at all costs. Slow, noisy, hot and unreliable.

lay-z-boy · 2 Jul 2006 at 14:03

hitachi 80 gig'ers are the pick of the bunch,

Personally the Hitachi seems as fast as the regular WD drive even though it has a smaller cache.

Eh? they both have 8mb caches?

t31os · 2 Jul 2006 at 16:21

Well my Hitachi is 8mb cache, as far as i've seen so far, Hitachi's lower end sata drives don't have the 16mb cache yet.

Have purchased 2 Hitachi's though, the current one, 250gb sata2 and my old (in brothers system) 80gb regular sata 8mb cache, and they're both as good as each other. Only drive faster is the Raptor.

I spent 2 weeks reading reviews and opinions over the net when i brought my Hitachi, and its a good balance of performace and silence. Quicker then what i expected.

SiriusB · 2 Jul 2006 at 17:08

I also have an Hitachi - the 250GB SATA II and I am very pleased with it. If you want excellent performance with near silent running then go Hitachi.

SiriusB