I was always led to believe that western digital are the best hard drives on the market (and are the only ones to offer 8mb cache). i heard today tho that they give a lot of trouble. what would you recommend for speed and reliability in an ide hd?
also does the 8mb cache make much difference in normal desktops - for gaming, word, internet etc.? thanks

I've used several brands of hard drives in the past. Western Digital is the brand I've stuck with. Their performance is reliable, and their warranty program has been very good. I've had to return 2 drives in the 8+ years I've used them and they were very quick at getting me replacements.

the 160Gig Maxtor SATA has excellent reviews! Their minimum read and write time is a lot higher than most drives in their class (including WD).

Do a search on Toms Hardware for SATA HDD reviews!

By the way, the new maxtors do have 8mb cache.

I also recommend Maxtor or WD.

i have a Maxtor 160GB, brand new in retail box. email me if interested.

As long as you get 8mb of cache everyone has about the same performance. I've never had a hard drive whine except for the three I got from wd. Maxtor and Seagate are quieter. You might as well get the cheapest you can find as long as its 7200rpm and has 8mb cache.

the only hdd's iv'e ever had alot of fallout with are maxtor drives but they were the older 8gig drives

KEEP i SIMPLE

This is down to personal choice. I still have the 7 year old Samsung 1.5 gig as a slave, and it works as well as the day it was installed. A little noisy now, but not a bad sector anywhere.

I also have a 4 years old Quantum Fireball and the same with that - not a bad sector anywhere ever, and runs as quiet as the day I got it.

OTOH I have read of Western Digitals burning out within a year. So they have a good warranty program, but I'd sooner have a good hard drive which doesn't need the warranty.

Like I said, this is all a matter of personal choice. :)

As a WD and Maxtor reseller I can honestly say I think the WD's superior. I have many more Maxtor's die than all the other brands combined.

Maxtor USED to have the best warranty RMA policy but it has become a little more difficult in the past 6 months.

Jimi_l
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I'd lean towards WD, but it's based mostly on my personal experiences... I've had a few of every brand go bad, but I've had the least problems with WD.

Actually, the best rule of thumb is to see just how long the manufacturer will warranty the product. Performance is pretty uniform among comparable drives from different manufacturers. If you're talking ATA/SATA attached drives, look for a 7200rpm drive with a 8MB cache and 3 year warranty.

If you have SATA controller. I say go with WD Raptor. I got 2 and I think it is the best of ATA drive.

Ok now lets end this ,I think that everyone is intitled to there oppion ,now here is mine.
I have two 40 gig hard drives from maxtor 7200 rpm ultra ATA/133 and have not yet had a problem.They are quick and quite.they are great for games and video with no lag as long as you keep them clean and de fraged.I turned one in to a 80 gig slave drive no partion and it runs great i keep all my games on that one and videos.You make the choice its your pc just know what your going to do with it. i only paid 85.00 dollars each but well worth it.