HDD Recommendation

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Basically, I'm asking this because my machines tend to be left on 24-7 most of the time, so I'm going to need a drive which runs pretty cool.

At the same time, it needs to be a good performer for use in games etc, and be quiet as poss. too as machine is used for media... not too tall an order eh? lol

Raptors are out of the question, I'm going to need 300GB+ here. Maxtors tend to be the highest spec ones, but they have a reputation for running hot.

The Seagate ones have a reputation of being a good balance, fast while running cool.

Have been pointed towards the Samsung Spinpoint drives, but I've really not heard much about them!

Anyone able to recommend me one over the other here? HDD's seem to be the least discussed subject!

EDIT - Just wondering, do you guys think it's worth getting separate drives, 320GB Seagate for my main stuff, and a Raptor for games? Are Raptors that much better?
 
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Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Price: £63.95 (£75.14 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Runs cooler and quieter than the Seagate 320GB 7200.10 drive. The performance of the drive is a good match for the Seagate but it only has 3 years warranty compared Seagate's 5 year.

Anandtech Comparison

I personally use a Raptor for windows/programs/games and a Seagate for data storage.
 
Wow WD have really went up over the last few years, last time I checked they were still regarded as budget. WD it is.

Still trying to guage if buying a Raptor on top as a system drive is worth it... I mean, the HDD is probably the place where it's hardest to notice improvements.
 
Actually HDD's are currently one of the largest bottlenecks in the PC.

SataII offers 300mb/s transfer rate, but so far i dont think theres many if any drives that can fully utilize that.

A raptor is currently the fastest money can buy, but as you can see it does cost.

Compared to my 2 other drives the Raptor is definately faster.
 
Shakey_Jake33 said:
Hmm what are the Raptors like heat/noise wise? I'd imaging a 10,000rpm drive it pretty loud/hot.

I have a 36 GByte Raptor as the boot drive in a system with front and rear 120mm fans, an X800 and a 250 Gbyte WD drive, the Raptor adds to the noise on boot up as it does a lot of seeking, but it is generally inaudible. There is no significant whine from the drive unlike some high speed SCSI drives I am familiar with. It's in an Antec P160 case so has a 120mm fan blowing over the drive cage, runs very cool like that.
 
The problem is - these kind of threads all end up roughly the same way and I guess rightly so.
At the end of the day performance wise there is no real difference between any of the 7200rpm IDE or 7200rpm SATA disks out there.
Be they Hitachi, Seagate, Maxtor, WD, Samsung they are all much of a muchness with regards performance.

The Raptor's come out above the other drives.
However this is only usually with respect to benchmarks - go real world with these things and there isn't that much performance gain.
However they are 10000rpm so you'd expect them to perform slightly better.
However they are noisy (people will post and say they aren't that bad, put them along side any 7200rpm drive and they are).
They are also expensive for what they are.

Reliability - people only post when they are having problems and rarely when things are going well.
I currently use WD drives and find them reliable.
A friend of mine just bought a pair of 250GB HD's and he went out of his way to buy Maxtor because he has never had a single one fail on him.
It's all down to personal choice again and reliability is again much of a muchness unless there is a known reliability issue with a particular line of drives - the IBM's and Fujitsu lines from a few years spring to mind.

So it is all really down to personal choice really.
Of all the bechmarks, the testing, the performance, the reliability I think it is accepted that the Samsung drives are the quietest out there - but the rest is really down to personal choice and most drives are as good (or as bad) as each other.
 
looking at warrenty seagate have 5 year. since new ones performance and price about same i felt longer warrenty did it for me. runs quieter than my older 200gb maxtor was quite suprised by how much
 
fozzybear said:
Raptors are a complete rip-off and terrible bang for your buck.

I'll assume you don't have a Raptor then, its normally the people who've never had one who make comments like that.
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on topic

The 5 year warranty is pointless over 3 years, you really expect to replace that drive with the same model in 5 years?...... Its just a number, but apparently it sells it for most people, like how mhtz was everything when buying a PC (if you were dumb). In reality, its pretty pointless, just looks good on paper.
 
Does the warranty even apply to the OEM products OC sell (which is obv. where I'll be buying).

Might skip on the Raptor tbh... don't doubt their quality, but it sounds like they really don't have a place in a machine that's supposed to be cool and quiet, running 24-7.

Suprising how little coverage the Spinpoint drives have.... anywhere. Hard to find much info on them.
 
Yes - they are expensive for a reason.
They are running at 10,000rpm and are still running cool enough for you not to require any external cooling.
All that takes extra technology and that is what you are paying for.

However, at the same time you're paying £183inc for a Raptor 150GB HD.
For that same amount of money I could more or less buy a 500GB HD from any manufacturer of my choice.
On paper the Raptor is quicker.
In benchmarks the Raptor is quicker.
In the real world the Raptor will load your application that little bit quicker, will launch that game that little quicker, will load the next level of the game that little bit faster.
You'll also have a system that creates more noise.

Raptor 150GB=£1.20 per GB - Example WD, 7200rpm, 500GB=£0.34p per GB

Nobody is denying the Raptor is a "nice drive" if you don't mind the extra noise.
But those prices do really speak for themselves - is the Raptor 4x as good as the 500GB, 7200rpm units out there?
 
t31os said:
I'll assume you don't have a Raptor then, its normally the people who've never had one who make comments like that.
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No, i don't have a raptor and never will. I'm not denying its a decent drive but for the money it's a rip-off. Its nothing more than a status-symbol!

If you want to pay £225 for a 150gig hard drive them feel free. Any NOTICABLE speed difference would be marginal. Give me a Samsung Spinpoint for a fifth of the price anyday. ;)
 
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