Maxtor D740X vs. D740X-FDB ?

[Fred H]

I’ll order a new Maxtor 80 GB hard disk.
The choice is between the:

Maxtor DiamondMax D740X 80.0Gb 7200rpm UDMA133 IDE
and
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus D740X-FDB 80Gb 7200rpm 2Mb UDMA133 Fluid IDE

The price lists, here in my country, show that the Fluid bearing disks are about 10$ cheaper than the older normal bearing disks.
At the same times, the dealers have fewer FDB drives in their stock.
I am confused.
Are the FDB drives less safe and not so good than the normal drives, with normal bearing (disregarding that they are silent drives)?
Or is it a marketing reason why the FDB drives are cheaper?

Any experience, ideas, please.

Fred H

[Wombat]

I haven't heard anything about the fluid drives, but they are supposed to be quieter. Here the 60GB standard one is $91, and the fluid one $95.

[Guru]

Fluid drives cost about 10€ more over her in Finland!

[Fred H]

Here a 60 GB standard costs an equv. of 121$ and a 60 FDB 120$.
Not a big difference, but cheaper anyway.
A 80 GB standard costs here eq. of 145$ and a 80 GB-FDB is 137$. 8$ cheaper, more or less depending of the dealer. Strange.

The FDB drives ARE silent drives, but, maybe not so safa?

Another question could be, if the 80 GB drives are safe enough or the 60 GB is to prefere?

Fred H

[Fred H]

According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally worthless...

What do you mean?

Fred H

[Dr Mordrid]

It means there are lies, damned lies and (worst of all) stastistics

I have 6 of the fluid drives now and they are definitely quiet, and so far reliable. They sure as hell rock in a RAID array.

Dr. Mordrid

[Guru]

I think why you find the fdb drives cheaper then the non fdb might be becouse of the resent price drops in Finland and Sweden!

As far as I knowe the fluid db drives are the same as the none fluid db they only have the acoustic mode enabled!

[Fred H]

Thanks, Doc.
It was just what I wanted to hear.
Your post made me make my decision for an 80 GB fluid drive.
In front of all, Maxtor manufactures reliable drives and a new fluid drive can't be bad.
In fact, I am not satisfied with my IBM 60 GPX drive.
Last week I was forced to low-level format it, resulting in 8MB bad sectors per 40 GB disk. Later I normal formatted it with some difficulties. (Wombat have had right in another thread, here at the Forum) If it begins, than....

Your suggestions were/are/will be appreciated, Doc. Thanks.

Regards,
Fred H

[Wombat]

Guru, Maxtor actually says that the drives have different bearings.

[Dr Mordrid]

Those IBM GXP's are big trouble and one of the major reasons they sold their HDD business. Talk about going out with a thud.

Dr. Mordrid

[Guru]

Originally posted by Wombat
Guru, Maxtor actually says that the drives have different bearings.

I know but take a look at the drives (s/n p/n etc).