just a thought, about what hard disk to choose

[Admiral]

By the end of the year I'll probably build me a new PC. I've decided on most of the components, though I'm still uncertain about what hd to choose.

Quantum Fireball AS 60 GB
Western Digital Caviar (7200rpm) 60 GB
Seagate Baracuda ATA IV 60GB
IBM 60 GB (7200rpm)

Now, about the Quantum I keep hearing stories of failure on one side and praises about how fast it is on the other.
On the IBM side, I already have a 45 GB version that I'm happy with. There's that thing about keeping away from the ones made in Hungary though.
And about Seagate and Western Digital I know nothing.

[Novdid]

Usually the IBM drives are very relyable. I have a 60GXP Myself and I'm quite happy with it.

I have heard some good words about the Seagate drive, but that's also all I know.

Performance should be the same on all the drives, if it's not, you won't notice the difference anyway.

[Paulr]

I love Quantum as a manufacturer, I remember owning 2x 2GB Quantum Fireball's at a time when those drives were miles above any other for performance.
Quantum owned the performance market for a long time.
Not too sure about the latest units, not heard anything bad about them.
Western Digital, well IBM makes 80% of the drive for them, so your basically getting an IBM drive with a few extra bits WD put on - not a bad thing.
Seagate, the old boys
Last time I checked the Seagates were even more expensive than the IBM's.
I've got 4x 60GB 60GXP IBM drives in my home system - They are silent and oh so very fast.
Had one of them fail on me (Thanks to RAID 0+1 no data loss) but the other 3 and the replacement (which I got within 48hrs) have been running for ages without a single problem.

[Greebe]

I also have a IBM 60gig 60GXP (IC35L060AVER07-0) and it's da bomb (great

[impact]

IBM are quite reliable, so I'd say go with IBM...


... however, the new Seagate Barracudas are really silent. You don't hear them at all, thanks to the new technology Seagate is using now. Just amazing. The only bad thing is as they all are relatively new, so noone really knows how many failures can the new technology cause...

[dZeus]

I think that WD ended their agreement with IBM some time ago... they make drive models which aren't found in IBM's model range at all (and when they did use IBM technology, they were almost the same as IBM HDD models).

Anyway, I'm using a WD 80GB Caviar 7200rpm in my linux box, and it has been running 24/7 for a couple of weeks and still working just fine

I bought it because it was very cheap, and IBM had some quality control problems at the time I bought it.

if you want to check reviews on HDDs, give a visit to www.storagereview.com
they have a large HDD review database (and you can directly compare different models in different benchmarks through their database).

[ChenSoft]

Don't say Quantum, say Maxtor!

Hello folks.
I own Quantum, IBM & WD HD's on 2 computers @ home & work.
Usually my choice will B Between IBM & Quantum witch offer the best performance/stability pack, But since Quantum was lately acquired by Maxtor witch make good product also, my choice will B IBM or Maxtor.
I don't like WD since I hade some stability problems with them & I never owned a Seagate drive so no help here.

_________
Chen

[Gurm]

Quantum = Maxtor.

Maxtor = The Crap You Step In On The Sidewalk.

therefore, by substitution:

Quantum = The Crap You Step In On The Sidewalk.

Sad, but true.

Go for IBM or WD. WD's drives are now IBM drives in disguise, which solves some of their past issues (which are now multiple years in the past, btw - a veritable eternity in computer time).

- Gurm

[borat]

personally i would go for the western digital caviar xxxAB which spins at 5400rpm. dont be put off by this though as the data density of the drive is immense as they spread 30gb across a single platter.
this drive is faster than the 7200rpm wd and the only drive i know of faster than it is the ibm 60gxp but this is only very marginal and you will not be able to tell the difference.
it also has added advantages of being extremely quiet and the boot up time is less than with a 7200rpm hdd.
it comes in 30 and 60gb and is a lot cheaper than the ibm.

[Admiral]

All the models revolve around the same price (here), only a difference of 10-15$, price won't matter in the final decision.

I'm looking for reliability (and maybe low noise), so I guess Quantum's out.
Right now I'm inclining towards IBM though Seagate's tempting also. Only problem with the Seagate is that I can only find it in a shop I've usually been having bad luck buying from.

Edit: to borat, I can only find the 30GB version of that drive. I could buy two for the same price as the IBM 60GXP.

[borat]

admiral if i were you i would buy 2 of them and raid 0 them.
that way you will get your 60gb and much better performance than the ibm + all of the previously mentioned benefits.

[Admiral]

There's one small problem in doing so.
I want to buy an IWILL KA266 (Ali Magic1) motherboard. The shop I want to get it from doesn't have the -R version listed so I'll have to ask them if they could get hold of one. I could look towards a VIA KT266 or AMD760 (which still has a VIA southbridge) motherboard. Neither is appealing though, since I want to mate it with a SB Live 5.1.

[Kastuvas]

I had a Quantum Firball lct** something cant remeber now. But it failed only after 1 year and 1 month. Good thing i have 3 year waranty It was replaced by bigger better faster Fujitsu, because the one that failed wasn't in the production any more.

One more about the Fireball i dont know about the current models of this hard drive manufacturer but the one i had was very noisy you could here it in the "toilet" when it was working.
Quiet
When i got the fujitsu i couldnt believe how quiet it is, i always have to bend under my teble and chek if the HDD LED is on when i load the game, it feels as if my pc has crashed.

[Admiral]

I still have a 4.3 GB Fireball SE that I'm using for backup, bought it back in 98. Very noisy but I never had a single problem with it.

[borat]

if your heart is set on the IWILL KA266 then there is the option of a promise pci raid card but this will add to the cost significantly if you dont fancy this then a single hdd is the only solution.
if you are more flexible about your motherboard then i personally would opt for a via kt266A even though via boards have had problems with soundblasters in the past as i think that they may have tried to solve the problems with this board.
also as you are not planning to upgrade for a while then you will be able to verify or disprove my hunch and if you are interested in the kt266a there will be quite a few boards about based around it.