Dear all,

hello.  I have been looking to buy a new 320 GB (SATA-II) drive and have been in two minds between the Hitachi T7K500 320GB (16mb cache) (8.5ms) drive, and the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB.

Which of the 2 drives (feel free to suggest other brands, as well) would be the fastest drive overall for single user applications.  I will be using it for multimedia mainly, e.g., watching / backing up DVD movies and music.

(Bear in mind that I have an Asrock P4V88 SATA-1 motherboard at the moment).

Thanks in advance,

Dimitris

The bigger the hard drive, the more prone to errors it will be... That said, Western Digital is making the best hard drives at the moment.  I recently bought qty 2  - 250GB SATA drives with 16MB buffers.  Hitachi drives were once IBM Deskstars which were good drives back then.  Seagate - HA!!! Back in my SCSI days I burned up Cheetahs and Barracuda.  Sure, Seagate RMA'd them, but I had down time and data loss because of them.  I switched to IBM UltraStars (SCSI) and those drives are still running in my kids local grade school today.   They must be around 7 - 8 years old (perhaps older).  I won't buy anything Seagate.

(in reply to Dimitris32)

Hi SithTracy,
I want to buy the 320GB because this is the smallest Hitachi drive with a 16mb cache, ortherwise I would be buying a 250 GB drive.
How do you think the latest 320 GB Western Digital, Seagate and Hitachi drives compare in terms of best overall speed for multimedia applications?

I know the differences will be relatively small, but I really want to get the fastest of the 3.

I cannot understand why there has been a major lack of reviews for DVD writers, hard drives, etc, on the internet in the last year or so...  So it is rather difficult to know what a product is like...

(in reply to SithTracy)

I have not personally done any benchmarking but I found reviews out there that gave WD the nod for speed tests and reliability.  But, for day to day multimedia use, it will be marginal... so while I can't tell you profoundly what the best/fastest is, I can tell you to avoid Seagate like the plague.  I may have just had bad luck with them, but it made a lasting impression for me to stay away.

If Hitachi is making drives like IBM used to, I would expect a very good quality drive.  The two WD drives I have right now are outstanding (but 250GB because I don't want the biggest one... for reliability reasons... do a little research there my friend).

(in reply to Dimitris32)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SithTracy

The bigger the hard drive, the more prone to errors it will be... That said, Western Digital is making the best hard drives at the moment.  I recently bought qty 2  - 250GB SATA drives with 16MB buffers.  Hitachi drives were once IBM Deskstars which were good drives back then.  Seagate - HA!!! Back in my SCSI days I burned up Cheetahs and Barracuda.  Sure, Seagate RMA'd them, but I had down time and data loss because of them.  I switched to IBM UltraStars (SCSI) and those drives are still running in my kids local grade school today.   They must be around 7 - 8 years old (perhaps older).  I won't buy anything Seagate.

what do you mean by the bigger the drive the more prone to errors it will be ?
if I want to buy WD 500GB AAKS hard disc .. I will be better buyin' 2 drives of 250GB ?

(in reply to SithTracy)

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070225-8917.html

(in reply to major9686)

LOL... I have 2 Segates running over 9 years now... never had a problem!

(in reply to SithTracy)

quote:

LOL... I have 2 Segates running over 9 years now... never had a problem!

I had Cheetah UW SCSI drives fail on me...  One right after the other.  Oh, Seagate replaced the drives (again and again), but the hours I spend recovering lost data or re-installing the OS.  IBM UltraStars were better... Some of mine are about 9-10 years old and still working... I don't have the machine, but I donated it to my kids school.  Some people have good luck with them... not me.  Same thing with Sony.

As drives have gone up in capacity, they seem more prone to error.

(in reply to MP3Mogul)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SithTracy

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070225-8917.html

I already have 1x ATA WD 80GB .. 2x SATAII WD 250GB .. and I have room only for another 2 SATA drives .. slots and physical space in drives cage ..

so should I buy a couple of 250 instead of a single 500 ?

(in reply to SithTracy)

What do you need to store? ...and if you get two 250's, you can't add anymore.  Is that a problem?  I can't say either way... but I have 2x250 and that is plenty for me, right now... but I have room to expand.

(in reply to major9686)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SithTracy

What do you need to store? ...and if you get two 250's, you can't add anymore.  Is that a problem?  I can't say either way... but I have 2x250 and that is plenty for me, right now... but I have room to expand.

movies, shows, lots of MP3s ... and even more animes ! :) some more anime .. and abit more anime just to spice things up ;)

(in reply to SithTracy)

If you get a larger drive, go retail and avoid OEM, that way you have some type of warranty... Just make sure you make backups...  Best of luck!

(in reply to major9686)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SithTracy

If you get a larger drive, go retail and avoid OEM, that way you have some type of warranty... Just make sure you make backups...  Best of luck!

Thanks mate .. but all the good pc stores I go to sale only OEM .. thats why the so-called low price .. here OEM might cost as a retail in the US .. or even more .. (what is Bulk ? its like OEM or like Retail ?)
hmm .. and another thing .. how can I keep the HDD temp. down since the computer runs 24\7 almost the entire year ...
Ive got my WD80GB for 4 years now and it was active for 3years 11 months + by now ..
and it doesnt have a temp. monitorin' device so I dont know whats its temp. it might be 70c. :( my SATA2 250GB went up to 70c. last night ..
the newer goes between - 30c. - 40c.
the older goes between - 52c. - 70c.
the much older - doesnt have a temp. montioring :(

ps. thanks for the help ..
and where is every1 else ? I remember that I got alot of advices from couple of people last time I was here ...

(in reply to SithTracy)

quote:

how can I keep the HDD temp. down since the computer runs 24\7 almost the entire year ...

That kind of "on time" deserves a server based SCSI solution, but since your a student... That's too darn expensive!!!  I have a 120mm AeroCool Extreme case fan sucking in air from the oustide of my case and blowing it over my hard drives... and I don't stack them, I "gap them" to avoid trapping the heat and letting the fan work.

Also, understand the cost factor of OEM/Bulk and Retail.  Bottom line, get what you can afford and make backups.

Good luck,

Sith

(in reply to major9686)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SithTracy

quote:

how can I keep the HDD temp. down since the computer runs 24\7 almost the entire year ...

That kind of "on time" deserves a server based SCSI solution, but since your a student... That's too darn expensive!!!  I have a 120mm AeroCool Extreme case fan sucking in air from the oustide of my case and blowing it over my hard drives... and I don't stack them, I "gap them" to avoid trapping the heat and letting the fan work.

Also, understand the cost factor of OEM/Bulk and Retail.  Bottom line, get what you can afford and make backups.

Good luck,

Sith

Thanks .. I will :)
already got the WD 500GB AAKS .. but I noticed I dont have the serial power cable :( I will have to go and buy couple of these today ...
and I will buy 2-3 HDD Cooling devices ..

(in reply to SithTracy)