new ide hard disk recommendation

JG · Dec 4, 2006

Hi !

I'm looking for a larger capacity replacement for my current 80GB WD
IDE Hard Disk.

I was going for a 160Gb, but I see my local store offers the double of
that capacity for only a few extra bucks. I'm not interested by
capacities larger than 320 Gb.

That store also carry many known manufacturers (Maxtor, Seagate, WD).

While all have a 7200 RPM, Maxtor and Seagate have 16Mb buffers while
WD still have only 8Mb; does it makes a significant performance
difference ?

Is the guarantee (some have 3 years other 5 years) a good indication of
the product reliability ?

Any particular comment on/experience with the WD3200SB (Raid Edition)
?

Except for a small but annoying (bearing ?) noise which developed over
the years, I never had a problem with my current WD, but heard they
experienced problems with larger capacity drives of the same family.

Any recommendation ? Any gotchas to be aware of (ex: BIOS limitation)
with these larger drives ?

Thanks.

Rod Speed · Dec 4, 2006

JG said:
Hi !

Lo !!!

I'm looking for a larger capacity replacement for my current 80GB WD IDE Hard Disk.

I was going for a 160Gb, but I see my local store offers the double of that capacity for only a
few extra bucks. I'm not interested by capacities larger than 320 Gb.

Fine, but 400G is similarly priced.

That store also carry many known manufacturers (Maxtor, Seagate, WD).

I prefer Samsungs myself, they generally run quieter, and cooler.

While all have a 7200 RPM, Maxtor and Seagate have 16Mb buffers while
WD still have only 8Mb; does it makes a significant performance difference ?

Nope, you wouldnt be able to pick it in a proper double blind trial with modern OSs.

Is the guarantee (some have 3 years other 5 years) a good indication of the product reliability ?
Nope.

Any particular comment on/experience with the WD3200SB (Raid Edition) ?

The raid edition isnt the one to use if you arent planning
to do raid, it gives up on poor sectors much more easily.

I dont like WD drives anymore myself, stupid jumpering scheme
which has a different jumper config for the only drive on a cable
and master and slave of a pair if you dont use cable select.

Except for a small but annoying (bearing ?) noise which developed over
the years, I never had a problem with my current WD, but heard they
experienced problems with larger capacity drives of the same family.

Any recommendation ?

The Samsung.

Any gotchas to be aware of (ex: BIOS limitation) with these larger drives ?

Yes, you're going over the 128G limit thats due to the lack of 48bit LBA support,
so you need to ensure that the bios and the OS supports that. You get that with
XP SP1 and later.

VanShania · Dec 4, 2006

Raid edition drives have whats called NCQ which allows the hard drive to
access data quicker. Western digitals 320 gig ide hard drive is considered
one of the best. But if your using it as your main drive, then going for a
seagate or maxtor with a 16 mb buffer may be the better option. Bigger
buffer will make your desktop performance quicker and I believe they both
have NCQ included where only raid edition western digital drives have it.
Just ignore Rod. He's somewhere else.

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
The most horrible feeling in the world is knowing that No One is There to
Protect You.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 Pro 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb OCZ Platinum 2-3-2-5
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT, Call of Duty War Chest

Rod Speed · Dec 4, 2006

VanShania said:
Raid edition drives have whats called NCQ which allows the hard drive to access data quicker.

Nope, they give up trying on margin sectors quicker and let the RAID handle that.

Western digitals 320 gig ide hard drive is considered one of the best.

Nope, there's bugger all in it with drives that size.

But if your using it as your main drive, then going for a seagate or maxtor with a 16 mb buffer
may be the better option. Bigger buffer will make your desktop performance quicker

Wrong, you wouldnt be able to pick it in a double blind trial with a modern OS.

and I believe they both have NCQ included where only raid edition western digital drives have it.

Wrong again.

Just ignore Rod. He's somewhere else.

You've never ever had a clue about the most basic stuff.

VanShania · Dec 4, 2006

Any hard drive can be raided. Ahhhh Roddy old buddy. I'm glad your pointing
out how little you know.....again. I also know that Western Digital didn't
call their hard drives raid editon because they were only meant for raid. I
have 2 of them(SATA) and they are not in raid. No Rod, manufactures add more
memory to buffers because they do increase performance. This has been proven
by experts who test parts like Maximum PC, CPU, PC World. Nice try to save
face though Rod.

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
The most horrible feeling in the world is knowing that No One is There to
Protect You.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 Pro 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb OCZ Platinum 2-3-2-5
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT, Call of Duty War Chest

DaveW · Dec 5, 2006

It is very possible that if you have a slightly older motherboard, your BIOS
may not be able to recognize and use a harddrive larger than 137 GB. You'll
have to check with your computer's manufacturer. Also, you have been using
an IDE harddrive. Most of the new harddrives that have 16 MB caches are
SATA harddrives which are incompatible with your motherboard in all
likelihood. Be careful in your selection.

Rod Speed · Dec 5, 2006

VanShania said:
Any hard drive can be raided.

Thanks for that completely superfluous proof that you have never ever had
a ****ing clue. There's a reason that WD has special raid editions and even
someone as stupid as you should be able to find out why using google.

I also know that Western Digital didn't call their hard drives raid editon because they were only
meant for raid.

They do however dont try so hard with marginal sectors,
and that is why they arent ideal with non raid, stupid.

I have 2 of them(SATA) and they are not in raid.

More fool you.

No Rod, manufactures add more memory to buffers because they do increase performance.

Pity you cant even pick it with the desktop with
a modern OS with a proper double blind trial.

This has been proven by experts who test parts like Maximum PC, CPU, PC World.

You're lying with the DESKTOP performance you
so pig ignorantly claimed you would see it with.

The only time you see any advantage is with stupid benchmarks which dont
do anything like what a real world modern desktop OS does with the drive.

kony · Dec 5, 2006

Raid edition drives have whats called NCQ which allows the hard drive to
access data quicker.

.... or slower, depending on the application and # of
concurrent reads, NCQ is often slower for typical desktop
use. That's not a reason to avoid a drive that can do it
though, but it's a lot more useful for a server.

Western digitals 320 gig ide hard drive is considered
one of the best.

Yes, "one of", among many other similar drives. Generally
speaking, if buying a consumer grade drive based on price
(as OP mentioned slight price difference going from 160GB or
more), it's a fine choice as are Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung,
even Maxtor is now Seagate (drives inside the box, in the 21
series).

But if your using it as your main drive, then going for a
seagate or maxtor with a 16 mb buffer may be the better option.

It makes very little difference, if the cost is similar it's
reasonable but if not, not.

Bigger
buffer will make your desktop performance quicker and I believe they both
have NCQ included where only raid edition western digital drives have it.
Just ignore Rod. He's somewhere else.

If utmost performance per dollar is really important, then
one has to consider their most demanding use, and which
drive's firmware delivers best performance in that use as
there are semi-significant differences there. A good review
might be the best place to start, one that benches several
of them.

kony · Dec 5, 2006

Hi !

I'm looking for a larger capacity replacement for my current 80GB WD
IDE Hard Disk.

I was going for a 160Gb, but I see my local store offers the double of
that capacity for only a few extra bucks. I'm not interested by
capacities larger than 320 Gb.

First determine if your motherboard bios can support 48bit
LBA, drives larger than 128GB. If not, I suggest getting a
PCI controller card, ATA133 ideally.

That store also carry many known manufacturers (Maxtor, Seagate, WD).

What store? Typically you can get better prices online, for
example right now the best price per capacity is probably
about 250-320GB, maybe only 160GB if you find rebates for
them.

While all have a 7200 RPM, Maxtor and Seagate have 16Mb buffers while
WD still have only 8Mb; does it makes a significant performance
difference ?

No, not as much as most things. If it were free, go for it,
but not worth spending more than a single-digit # of dollars
for it.

Is the guarantee (some have 3 years other 5 years) a good indication of
the product reliability ?

No, you can expect similar failure rates either way, you'd
just be covered if the drive had a failure between year 3
and 5.

Any particular comment on/experience with the WD3200SB (Raid Edition)
?

No point in picking it if you aren't RAIDingn it. That
doesn't make it a bad choice, but why focus on it?

Except for a small but annoying (bearing ?) noise which developed over
the years, I never had a problem with my current WD, but heard they
experienced problems with larger capacity drives of the same family.

Any popular drive will have a certain small % of failures
and people quick to mention theirs failed. It doesn't mean
anything about the reliability of multiple generations later
models from WD, or from other companies for that matter.

If your drive was made back when they used ball bearings,
any modern drive will have substantially quieter,
practically inaudible bearings now though still a slight bit
of seek noise with many unless you enable accoustic
management to further reduce the slight noise (which also
degrades performance slightly).

Any recommendation ? Any gotchas to be aware of (ex: BIOS limitation)
with these larger drives ?

Seagate, Maxtor 21 series, WD, Hitachi or Samsung.
Whichever gets you the largest capacity within the budget
and has at least 3 year warranty (some retail WD only had 1
year, but I vaguely recall something about WD moving back to
3 year on their retail as they have with the OEM drives...
but whether those 3 year warranted models are at your local
store, I don't know).

VanShania · Dec 5, 2006

hahahaha
Braawwwhahahahahaha

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
The most horrible feeling in the world is knowing that No One is There to
Protect You.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 Pro 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb OCZ Platinum 2-3-2-5
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT, Call of Duty War Chest

VanShania · Dec 5, 2006

If I were looking for info, I would rely on the experts at afore mentioned
magazines, as they have benched and reviewed all kinds of drives long before
you were a gleam in your parents eyes. Nice to see you've finally caught up
though

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
The most horrible feeling in the world is knowing that No One is There to
Protect You.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 Pro 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb OCZ Platinum 2-3-2-5
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT, Call of Duty War Chest

VanShania · Dec 5, 2006

Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm ATA100 Hard Drive - 8MB Buffer - RAID
Edition $145.84

Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm ATA100 Hard Drive - 8MB Buffer $128.84

Seagate 320GB 7200rpm ATA100 Hard Drive 16MB Buffer $125.84

Maxtor DiamondMax 400GB 7200rpm ATA133 Hard Drive 16MB Buffer $189.84

Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm SATA300 Hard Drive 16MB Buffer $130.84

Western Digital 400GB 7200rpm SATA150 Hard Drive 16MB Buffer - RAID
Edition $208.84

Maximum PC did a test of a Raptor 150 and a Maxtor's new 500 gig hard drive.
Because of the maxtor's 16mb buffer, it was able to all but keep up to the
raptor. And as far as pricing concerned, if people are willing to spend an
extra $100 for 512 kilobytes of cache on a cpu, spending an extra $5-$20 for
8mbs more drive buffer seems kinda peanuts. Though maxtor and seagate
include all the extras unlike WD, WD does have cooler running drives than
any of them(and usually better performance from the tests I've seen. Maxtor
has won several kickass awards though). Don't know where you guys are coming
from, but it ain't from this planet. If I'm wrong, maybe you should start
your own magazine. Actually, how can you guys make these claims without
doing any testing or research on the subject? From your remarks, its obvious
your just blowing hot air. Oh, Maximum PC, CPU, and PC World all have web
sites where you can review their tests.

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
The most horrible feeling in the world is knowing that No One is There to
Protect You.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 Pro 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb OCZ Platinum 2-3-2-5
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT, Call of Duty War Chest

Rod Speed · Dec 5, 2006

Some gutless ****wit desperately cowring behing
from a desperately cowering gutless ****wit that's never
ever had a ****ing clue about anything at all, ever.

Rod Speed · Dec 5, 2006

VanShania said:
Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm ATA100 Hard Drive - 8MB Buffer -
RAID Edition $145.84

Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm ATA100 Hard Drive - 8MB Buffer $128.84

Seagate 320GB 7200rpm ATA100 Hard Drive 16MB Buffer $125.84

Maxtor DiamondMax 400GB 7200rpm ATA133 Hard Drive 16MB Buffer $189.84

Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm SATA300 Hard Drive 16MB Buffer $130.84

Western Digital 400GB 7200rpm SATA150 Hard Drive 16MB Buffer -
RAID Edition $208.84

Maximum PC did a test of a Raptor 150 and a Maxtor's new 500 gig hard drive.

You did manage to get that bit right.

Because of the maxtor's 16mb buffer, it was able to all but keep up to the raptor.

Pig ignorant lie.

And as far as pricing concerned, if people are willing to spend an extra $100 for 512 kilobytes of
cache on a cpu,

You dont need to spend anything like that to get the same
result as you get with the hard drive cache, ****wit child.

spending an extra $5-$20 for 8mbs more drive buffer seems kinda peanuts.