Need a new HD

Mr.Orb · 11 Jul 2006 at 15:55

Hi all,
My maxtox 300gb has died on me so I am in the market for a new HD (once my refund comes through).

Now the problem is I have a Adaptec SATAConnect 1205SA, will this support a SATA2 Hard drive?
I have been looking at a:
Western Digital WD2500KS Caviar SE 250GB 7200RPM SATA2/300 16MB Cache
(I’ve learnt my lesson about Maxtor

)

Will my sata card be compatible? How do peeps rate this drive?
EDIT: I don't really want to spend more than £70-£80.

Thanks!

Zefan · 11 Jul 2006 at 15:56

The hitachi deskstar is in a league of it's own when it comes to SATA2. Don't know about that drive really.

Just re read, it will support a sata2 drive, but will run at sata speeds. If you don't have SATA2 (I'm presuming you don't) then the Samsung SpinPoint is pretty much the best in overall terms of performance/heat+noise.

Mr.Orb · 11 Jul 2006 at 15:59

Zefan said:
Just re read, it will support a sata2 drive, but will run at sata speeds. If you don't have SATA2 (I'm presuming you don't) then the Samsung SpinPoint is pretty much the best in overall tersm of performance/heat+noise.

I might as well get a SATA2 drive then for future proof.
Cheers

Mr.Orb · 11 Jul 2006 at 16:32

Just looked at the hitachi deskstar, they have a 8mb cache and the WD has a 16mb.
I have seen the Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM on OcUK, which I am tempted by. Would this need a jumper set to work as SATA (not sata II)?

Zefan · 11 Jul 2006 at 16:38

It will work, but I can guarantee the Deskstar will be faster, due to the density of the data on the platters. 16mb cache will make a difference, but AFAIK the deskstar is the /best sata2 drive at the moment. Feel free to prove me wrong, as I haven't actually looked around for a while now

Sirrel Squirrel · 11 Jul 2006 at 16:44

I've just bought a Seagate 7200.10 320gb, its Sata 2 but it works on my Sata 1 board using a jumper, very quick drive, its nearly as quick as my 2 Samsungs running in Raid 0

In HD Tach the Raid 0 Samsungs Burst Speed is 106.7MB/s with average read of 73.2MB/s

The Seagate has a burst speed of 130MB/s and average read of 66.2MB/s