fastest 250GB SATA HDD?

The Running Man · 9 Oct 2006 at 11:03

hi all, im looking to buy the fastest/most reliable SATA 250GB HDD> ive been looking at the WD Caviar RE16MB 250GB, and DIamondmax 10's, and the Seagates's.

i cant really seem to find any decent reviews as they are all focusing on 500GB hdd's which seem to have different density/platters which would effect the impact of the speed.

any clues guys?

snowdog · 9 Oct 2006 at 11:12

I have all 3 (well not exactly for WD, i have an older 250 gig ide caviar, but close enough, as for the maxtor and seagates i have exactly them yes.) , dunno wich is best from WD and Seagate most ppl will say seagate, forget maxtor tho, its a unreliable, noisy and hot piece of ****, really, i have a diamondm10lus and its condition has deteriated most out of all my hdd's, its worse than one of my 3 year old hdd's.

Messiah Khan · 9 Oct 2006 at 11:18

At the monment the Seagate 7200.10 range are the fastest and most reliable SATA drives you can get.(Except for the WD raptors, but its close.)

The Running Man · 9 Oct 2006 at 11:38

COOL, will look into. are they the perpendicular drives? or just normal ones?

i have an 80GB WD SATA 1 and its fine, but i need more space/new install of vista etc.

the WD2500YS look good 5 year warranty, slightly bteter than the standard Caviars etc.

will look into seagate. (btw u guys know that seagate and maxtor merged right?)

The Running Man · 9 Oct 2006 at 12:01

going to get this one if i can find stock

regards

ST3250620AS

smids · 9 Oct 2006 at 12:13

Excellent choice. We do indeed know about SeaMax

- but it was Seagate buying out Maxtor, not the other way round thankfully. Seagate is by far and away the largest HDU manufacturer anyway, and the fact they had enough to buy out Maxtor (who are also massive) suggests how big they really are - sorry, I digress.

Amp34 · 9 Oct 2006 at 12:16

Hitachi drives are very fast too, when I was getting a couple of HDD's I ended up getting them as they were the fastest ones out (although now seagates are faster but IMO too expensive for the extra speed.)

snowdog · 9 Oct 2006 at 12:19

Hitachi's are good indeed too, very silent & reliable drives, my oldest hdd in my pc is a hitachi and its in top shape still.

smids · 9 Oct 2006 at 12:25

I own 4 hitachi's, 1 seagate, 1 WD and 1 Maxtor.

Elsewhere in my house (from computers I built) there is 1 WD and 2 Seagate.

I have to say, I do enjoy the speed of the hitachi's (hence 4 80GB drives in a RAID array). Hitachi, however, have not yet released their perpendicular drives, and as such Seagate's are by far and away the best (read: only viable) option at the moment.

burtie · 9 Oct 2006 at 12:45

Nickg said:
COOL, will look into. are they the perpendicular drives? or just normal ones?

i have an 80GB WD SATA 1 and its fine, but i need more space/new install of vista etc.

the WD2500YS look good 5 year warranty, slightly bteter than the standard Caviars etc.

will look into seagate. (btw u guys know that seagate and maxtor merged right?)

Get the Seagate and yes its Perpendicular.

The Running Man · 9 Oct 2006 at 13:44

ST3250620AS - ordered. should be getting it tomorrow.

should be good for me Vista RC2 install

Amp34 · 9 Oct 2006 at 14:06

smids said:
I have to say, I do enjoy the speed of the hitachi's (hence 4 80GB drives in a RAID array). Hitachi, however, have not yet released their perpendicular drives, and as such Seagate's are by far and away the best (read: only viable) option at the moment.

But is the improvement of the Seagate drives really worth the extra 15-20% price over the other drives that aren't that much slower than them? I went for another Hitachi a couple of weeks ago due to not being able to justify the extra £10+ of the Seagate.

The Running Man · 9 Oct 2006 at 14:29

well i just paid £50 all in for mine, they are all similar price @ trade.

smids · 9 Oct 2006 at 14:35

Amp34 said:
But is the improvement of the Seagate drives really worth the extra 15-20% price over the other drives that aren't that much slower than them? I went for another Hitachi a couple of weeks ago due to not being able to justify the extra £10+ of the Seagate.

They aren't 15-20% more.

Minstadave · 9 Oct 2006 at 14:47

Yeah the Seagates aren't bad, I paid £108 inc delivery for my two 250GB drives.

Amp34 · 9 Oct 2006 at 15:40

smids said:
They aren't 15-20% more.

Ok I lied a bit, they are 14% more, thats still quite a lot for a minor difference in speed.

smids · 9 Oct 2006 at 15:45

Depends entirely on the size you buy - my 320GB was cheaper than 300GB drives at the time - now they are pretty much the same price. Yes, lower end models work out slightly more expensive per GB but when you reach 250/320, this offers good value for money.

Android · 9 Oct 2006 at 16:58

The small % more is worth it as Seagate are the only company that provide a 5 year warranty on all the HD's they sell. (Apart from External ones)

Cal_G · 9 Oct 2006 at 17:47

After having a 7200.10 320GB SATA2 and being very impressed I bought a 7200.10 320GB ATA the other day, performance is great on the new drive, can't really notice any difference between this and the SATA apart from benchmarks.

Both are really quiet and run at a decent temperature (although not as cool as my WD 300GB drive)

Have swapped out the WD for the Seagate in my main machine today

guess the WD will have to go into the NAS enclosure.

The Running Man · 12 Oct 2006 at 11:33

well, managed to install my new 7200.10 last night running under vista.

i ran HDtach and got a burst well below 200MB/s, but after some reading around i pulled out the pin on the back to enable faster transfer and hit 230mb+ and an avg of 65mb+.

this is with other stuff running, windows backup etc all turned on, with zero optimising of my system for hd access (had downloads going at same time etc)

all seems well. the drive is super quiet and fast. i like.