Hitachi/IBM 120Gb hard drive. Good or bad? RFC please.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Myron
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Myron

I'm curious. Thinking of getting a winchester drive of 120Gb. In the
past I've I've had a 15Gb and now using a 40Gb drive, both IBM
branded. Former drive behaved perfectly and current drives behaves
perfectly. Yes, I know IBM sold the storage division to Hitachi.

So, what are your comments? I saw in another thread that Maxtor is
something to avoid and that there are times when any of the
manufacturers can end up sending out a batch of bad winchester drives.
 
Myron said:
I'm curious. Thinking of getting a winchester drive of 120Gb. In the
past I've I've had a 15Gb and now using a 40Gb drive, both IBM
branded. Former drive behaved perfectly and current drives behaves
perfectly. Yes, I know IBM sold the storage division to Hitachi.

So, what are your comments? I saw in another thread that Maxtor is
something to avoid and that there are times when any of the
manufacturers can end up sending out a batch of bad winchester
Click to expand...
drives.

Uhm... they don't make Winchester drives anymore...

All the manufacturers have cut back to a 1 year warranty from 3 years.
If you can still find one with 3 years at a reasonable price, I'd go
with it. All the manufacturers are about the same for quality, except
IBM has a crappy history lately. Not sure what Hitachi has done with
it though.
 
I'm top posting to annoy all the bottom posters. [=:

Anyway, I know IBM don't make Winchester drives any more (the old name
for `hard disk`, but still the same).

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've been recommending the (latest) IBM
drives before IBM sold that division to Hitachi to others and so far,
not a single problem. That's just my observation and experience. I
know IBM was crap. Seems they got their act together, then sold out
to someone else.
 
I've got two 80GB IBM's (120GXP family) both working fine, one is almost
two years old the other about 9 months (one is used as a Ghost backup of
the other). Very quiet drives and still benchmark very well.

I've got two newer 120GB IBM/Hitachi (180GXP family), no problems here
either. Both are about 3 months old, EXTREMELY QUIET!

The only family that I believe got all of the bad press was the 75GXP
family. I have two of these (45GB) running fine. These are, however,
refurbished units that replaced two that crapped out after 2.5 years of
very heavy use. The refurbs seem to be fine (IBM replaced faulty
controller boards on both).

I've always liked IBM HDs going back to the 22GXP family. I have several
Travelstars in my IBM Thinkpads, again, no problems other than the two
75GXPs that crapped out...I will continue to buy IBM/Hitachi drives and
will not consider anything else regardless of what other people say or
do, IBM has ALWAYS done fine by me and now it's Hitachi!!

The warranty's on all Hitachi drives are 1 year except for the 8MB cache
drives, I believe.

FYI, I believe in adding additional cooling for HDs regardless of vendor
make/model (>7200 RPM). In both of my desktop systems (Antec cases) I
have 80mm fans mounted in front of the HD cage pulling in cool air and
blowing it across the bottom of the HD (where the controller board
resides). These fans do help keep the drives cool. On my 75GXPs I
mounted a Vantec twin-fan device that attaches to the bottom of the HD
in an aluminum heatsink. These work very well also and cost less than 10
USD.

Larry
 
Hey Larry! Excuse me for digressing, but I see that you know
something about cooling fans. I have a PIII 450MgHZ with the standard
configuration of one Power Supply fan and one CPU fan. One expert's
advice is to have FOUR fans as standard: one Power Supply, one CPU,
one case, and one Video Board or Sound Card, or HD, or....whatever.
Any comments?

JW
Click to expand...


Newer systems create more heat, need more fans. A newer hard drive
migth benefit from additional cooling if the chassis isn't designed to
route adequate airflow past the drive, but otherwise such systems work
fine with no extra fans unless there's an unusually high ambient temp.


Dave
 
....
..
..
..
FYI, I believe in adding additional cooling for HDs regardless of vendor
make/model (>7200 RPM). In both of my desktop systems (Antec cases) I
have 80mm fans mounted in front of the HD cage pulling in cool air and
blowing it across the bottom of the HD (where the controller board
resides). These fans do help keep the drives cool. On my 75GXPs I
mounted a Vantec twin-fan device that attaches to the bottom of the HD
in an aluminum heatsink. These work very well also and cost less than 10
USD.

Larry
Click to expand...

Hey Larry! Excuse me for digressing, but I see that you know
something about cooling fans. I have a PIII 450MgHZ with the standard
configuration of one Power Supply fan and one CPU fan. One expert's
advice is to have FOUR fans as standard: one Power Supply, one CPU,
one case, and one Video Board or Sound Card, or HD, or....whatever.
Any comments?

JW
 
I imagine that the spinning of the drive itself may contribute
to some of its cooling, is that right?

JW
Click to expand...

No, that would only help if there were significant external, cooler
air to exchange the heat. It's more-or-less sealed so no heat is
exchanged by airflow... there is a very very minor pressure "value" to
equalize internal pressure to external, but it's quite low airflow and
filtered.

The spinning is actually what causes quite a bit of the heat, from
friction of the platters against the air and the bearing and/or shaft
rotation.


Dave
 
JW,

I still have a similar setup, a PIII-500 system (still works like a
champ!).... ..
..

The Panasonic Panaflo L1A's are EXTREMELY quiet ( I have 4 of 'em in my
primary rig and you cannot hear them at all!)...the Vantec Stealths are
also very quiet.

Larry
Click to expand...

Thanks for the cool insight, Larry. I checked out the sights.
The Vantec looks interesting. I'll have to see if I get it here in
Montreal.
My friend mentioned that he uses a slot fan to cool two things
at once. Such a fan pulls air off one thing and blows it over another
(usually cooler than the first). It works quite well, apparently.

JW
 
I see. Have you heard of refirigerated computer cases? Are
they worth the money, or is a good fan system all that is necessary?

JW
Click to expand...

Refrigerated computer cases are a mistake, would cause massive
condensation... when refrigeration is used on single components it's
controlled and extra measures needed to control condensation. It
could be done but the benefit is not worth the extensive design &
construction time, parts, expense, etc.

Easier would be to just keep the room air-conditioned if ambient temp
is excessive, but beyond that a case with good design to route airflow
and/or fan(s) actively forcing air past the drives is sufficient.

Hard drives, being moving parts, will fail sooner than many parts in a
PC regardless of the measures taken. The best strategy is to make
regular backups and periodically replace them before they fail, before
their expected lifespan has elapsed.


Dave
 
This may or may not be your field (of expertise), but, what is
a good (reliable) air conditioner?


Which make of hard drive do you recommend, Dave?

JW
Click to expand...


I have no idea about the best air-conditioner, though that would be
something more for your own personal comfort than the computers, since
a well though-out system can stand more heat than a person can. Just
be sure attention is given to the hot-spots more than total airflow,
since a gale-force wind does little if a chip burns through it's
top... any-old heatsink does wonders to spread heat a little bit.

As for hard drives I usually use Western Digital and Maxtor... the
Maxtor are quieter and have pretty much equal sustained throughput but
the Western Digital with the 8MB cache are better for multiple access
requests, though IBMs should still be best in that department... I
just don't trust IBM drives yet. At any rate I consider data more
valuable than the system and retire all drives by the time they're 2
years old, move them into a RAIDed network storage box.


Dave
 
JW said:
.... snip ...


Which make of hard drive do you recommend, Dave?
Click to expand...

To extend HD life, take advantage (on W98 etc) of the power down
provisions. I have mine set to power down the drives after 5
minutes of inactivity. Of course you don't want silly background
processes running that will cause periodic drive access.

Together with a similar monitor provision, this also greatly
reduces quiescent power consumption and heat generation.
 
Refrigerated computer cases are a mistake, would cause massive
condensation... when refrigeration is used on single components it's
controlled and extra measures needed to control condensation. It
could be done but the benefit is not worth the extensive design &
construction time, parts, expense, etc.
Click to expand...

Point taken, Dave. I had not thought of that. :-)
Easier would be to just keep the room air-conditioned if ambient temp
is excessive, but beyond that a case with good design to route airflow
and/or fan(s) actively forcing air past the drives is sufficient.
Click to expand...

This may or may not be your field (of expertise), but, what is
a good (reliable) air conditioner?
Hard drives, being moving parts, will fail sooner than many parts in a
PC regardless of the measures taken. The best strategy is to make
regular backups and periodically replace them before they fail, before
their expected lifespan has elapsed.
Click to expand...

Which make of hard drive do you recommend, Dave?

JW
 
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