SATA drive recommendations

[Elie]

Hey guys,

need to buy three SATA drives for my new HP 9300 dual dualcore Opteron workstation

Wondering what's best out there in terms of speed and reliability, I have Maxtors, they're good, so far no problems with them.

Here a list on Sharky extreme

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/article.php/10704_3587586__2

Thanks,
Elie

[Tjalfe]

you will now have people recommend every drive manufacturer out there

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProdList&cmd=pl&id=HD.96

I have seagates in my computer, 5 year warrenty, very quiet, but not necessarily the fastest performers. My next hdd will probably be another seagate.. say 500+GB

[Claymonkey]

i'd take tjalfe's side on this one and recommend Seagate. I use to be a Western Digital man but I've had about half as many of those as Maxtor's die on me (and we all know how I feel about them). However, the main reason to go with seagate is if you're going to do a RAID configuration having a 5 year warranty suddenly looks a whole lot better. Now matter how good the system or the drives one of those drives is going to have a high chance of dying within five years and you might as well get a free replacement out of it. That and the speeds are close enough that unless you go Raptor you're not going to notice a difference.

[Jammrock]

Good old fashion server/workstation reliability:

Seagate NL35 series
WD Caviar RE2 series

The NL35 and RE2 series are specifically designed for server/near-line storage (i.e. tons and tons of usage and reliability). Both have 5-year warranty plans, 16 MB cache, etc, etc... The 400 GB WD RE2 has been getting rave reviews from everybody, and is quickly becoming the high capacity drive of choice for many workstation and gamer rig.

Mainstream drives:

WD SE/SE16
Seagate 7200.9
Hitachi Deskstar
Maxtor Diamondmax III

Seagate is the only one that comes with a standard 5-year warranty, so if reliability without steep'ish prices is a concern, go for the 7200.9 line. The Deskstar's are the performance kings in the mainstream sector, expecially their 500 GB drive and T7K250 model line. DiamondMax III line is right next to Hitachi in preformance, but I haven't been a Maxtor fan in the past, and not thrilled with my current Maxtor drive. WD is WD.

Silent:

Seagate 7200.9
Samsung P120 series.

Samsung makes the quietest drive there is, period. The 160 GB 7200.9 is a close second, so if you want something quiet, look there.

Raw Performance ... WD Raptor .


The best mix of price/performance/capacity is the 400 GB RE2 and 500 GB Hitachi TK500(?). For more reliability look at the 7200.9 500 GB job and the WD SE16 version.

Hope that confuses you

Jammrock

[Elie]

Ok thanks guys so three out of three recommend Seagate, so it looks like Seagate may be it.

However if I opt for raw performance WD Raptor is the one, tough choices

Cheers for the help!

Regards,
Elie

[schmosef]

I've used and sold lots of WD drives.

I like them.

The Raptors are really awesome.

There's a definite difference in speed. Very noticeable. I'd go for a Raptor drive if capacity isn't your biggest issue.

[Admiral]

Another vote for WD, I'm all WD in the household (minus a 40gb IBM Deathstar ).
And yes, Raptors are awsome, I'm pondering buying a 74GB one to replace the 80GB JB in my system, I like the fast access time
And now that we have the 150GB model it's even sweeter.

Not sure how the JS SATA series behave, I've only worked with JBs (IDE) and Raptors.

[Elie]

I've used and sold lots of WD drives.

I like them.

The Raptors are really awesome.

There's a definite difference in speed. Very noticeable. I'd go for a Raptor drive if capacity isn't your biggest issue.

Thansk again guys for the input!

Hey Shmosef, do you workin a computer store in Toronto, and do MURCERS get a discount?



It looks like I'll pickup a pair of WD's or three depending on price