Which 250GB to get?

Dougiebabe2003 · 5 Mar 2007 at 19:12

Hi all,

As you may of guessed i'm looking for a new 250GB hard Drive.

I already have in my computer 2 250GBs which are MAxtor something or others.... they are both noisy and not exactly fast.... :confused:

I also have a 120GB which is what is getting replaced.

I am not going to be using Raid at all as I use one HD for backup another for vista and another for XP.

Just wondering which drive people think is the best?

Im thinking that it's between:

Western Digital Caviar RE 250GB 2500YS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

Or

Samsung SpinPoint T HD321KJ 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

Thing is, should I be looking for NCQ or not and does the 320GB Samsung actully have 16MB cache?

Thanks in advance, Doug.

rpstewart · 5 Mar 2007 at 19:25

The Seagate is the fastest of the three by a bit and it has the longest warranty.

NCQ isn't that beneficial in a desktop environment, the algorithms are skewed in favour of server implementations which have a high average I/O queue length, you just don't get that level of concurrent I/O in normal domestic use.

Souness · 5 Mar 2007 at 21:07

seagates = fastest, but reasonably chance of getting stuck with a noisey one.

samsungs = slower but quieter.

take your pick, i'm going for the samsung cos i can't let a dodgy HD kick my whisper quiet psu and cpu fan in the teeth.

Subliminal Aura · 5 Mar 2007 at 21:17

The old series seagates were the quietest of the bunch as reviewed by spc and I can vouch for that.

Even though I've always bought seagates I have found them getting noiser and noiser. Tried the spinpoints and they were just as noisy as the seagates. :rolleyes:

As an emergency I have to buy a few maxtors from my local pc shop and to my suprise these babies were SILENT ! I was amazed. (almost as silent as the old legendary 40gig seagate that you cant buy no more)

Goes to show eh ? Don't trust the reviews