Best drive for O/S, apps & games?

danceMB

danceMB

danceMB

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Im after a new main drive that can offer better performance than I am currently getting.

I will put my current 120gb drive in the 2nd slot, and am hoping for the new drive to be between 250-300gb to have plenty of space for everything to go onto the main drive, with music, photos on the 2nd drive.

What would be the best drive for me to get? Im put off by Maxtors with quite a few issues, but am after a quiet drive at the same time.
 
danceMB said:
but am after a quiet drive at the same time.
Click to expand...

Look no further than Samsung Spinpoints! They're seriously quiet and fast.

I own a 160GB Sata Spinpoint and which had been running solid for almost 19 Months. Today I'll be ordering the "Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache" They're top drives and i'm sure many people will say the same :)
 
So everyone recommends me the Hitachi range of drives. Should I just go and buy, or will they be releasing new, revised drives soon? Also, how silent are the drives?
 
Hitachi drives are all current and fully featured with SATA-II specs, I really can't see any new ones coming for a while yet. Mid last year the current lot were released IIRC. My 4 80GB drives are pretty quiet (then again they only have one platter).
 
Yes, the Seagate 250GB 7200.8 (perhaps even the .9) have only 2 platters and was one of the first large drives to utilise 133GB platters. This means that one 2 platters are required instead of the usual 4. This means quieter operation, faster operation due to densities of platters and more reliability due to the fact that there are fewer platters.
 
If Seagate is the only one to have utilised the 133gb platters, then does this mean it is the more quieter & faster drive available?
 
danceMB said:
If Seagate is the only one to have utilised the 133gb platters, then does this mean it is the more quieter & faster drive available?
Click to expand...
Quieter - yes, faster - not necessarily as Seagates aren't renowned for speed but excellent reliability and noise.
 
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 320GB 3200JD SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-045-WD.

How would this fair against the Seagate? It appears to be good value for money, but havnt heard of anyone here actually owning one which is never a good thing. Also it says they have a special SATA cable just for thw WD drives, does the statement they provide for this cable true?
 
Pah, ignore the secure connect unless you are heavy handed/have very stubby fingers and break things easily.

They are decent drives. There is little difference between 7200rpm drives anyway so look for features/reliabilty. The WD's don't have NCQ on the most part which comes in handy when gaming/heavy HDU usage.

Perhaps the hitachi 300gb or seagate 300gb are more viable?
 
Samsung spinpoint SP2504C is far from quiet in operation. Well, my one is anyway.lol

I think samsung mean the idle noise is a lot less than others, which I would have to agree with. When its seeking it seems just as noisy as the rest.

My PC is quiet'ish and the idle noise of my spare maxtor diamondmax plus9 idle's louder than my whole system.
 
So basically, I will have to choose between noise or performance? Is there much of a speed decrease between the 250gb drives and the 300-320gb?
 
Having bought a samsung spinpoint thinking the quiet operation would be far better, I wish I went for the equivalent Hitatchi. Little extra performance and very little difference in noise as far as I can hear.
 
So is everyone saying that any of the Hitachi drives are the best to go for, both in terms of speed & performance? Or any type of sizes to avoid etc?
 
Good post, Im in the same boat, building a new system and want to go to SATA. Only ever used IDE and it looks like the hitachi drives are the ones to go for.

Is there a difference in getting a large 200g-300g and splitting it or would you recomend 2 smaller drives, noise not a problem but cost is.

Any holp would be great.
 
I have a pair of Hitachi's in a server. 160GB and 250GB. So quiet that it is hard to tell that the machine is on!! I am going to have to wire a big flashing light to the top of the box so I know when it is powered up. :D

As to differences between performance.... in real world use I doubt you would be able to tell the difference between modern drives except in benchmarks. There will be more delays from badly fragged files, etc than the drive itself.

Hitachi drives followed by Segate and Samsung would be my choice. :)
 
Right, I think from that I have made my mind up that the Hitachi drives range is the best to go for, from both this thread & another kind of duplicate post from someone else. I think what I will do is buy that drive and have as the main one for OS, games & apps, with the current IDE 120gb drive as the 2nd and have that as an MP3 & anything else storage drive. Would people recommend I configure my system this way?
 
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