From what I have seen of failure figures they are all about the same. Oddly I haven't seen much information to suggest that higher quality drives last longer either. Performance too, it seems to make little difference. What I have seen is that higher quality drives tend to be noisier!! I think many peoples purchases come down to brand loyalty and percieved quaility rather than hard fact or even performance. I know that WD deliberately charge a little more than Seagate becuase they believe people will pay more for their brand name!! In all, it's a bit difficult to make a choice but in truth I am not sure it will make a lot of difference which you choose. It certainly will make a difference as to what recommendations you will get though.... Certainly, though, you do get a longer warrenty with a higher quality drive and I wonder to what extent you are actually just buying an insurance policy rather than a better drive! Who knows.
