main hard drive for new build, which one?

[boy_wonder]

I'm building a new comp and don't really know which direction to go in here, i was thinking of going for the WD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074) or the Seagate (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140). Which one do you guys suggest? Does anyone currently have either of these HDD's? How's the noise and general performance on them?
This system is gonna be used for gaming and general computing purposes.

[Canon]

It depends on how much you want to spend. I don't think many here will have a hard time recommending the WD Velociraptor.

I caution you if you have an Asus Board with a P35/ICH9R chipset though because this drive doesn't seem to get along well with the onboard SATA controler. I just finished posting a solution to the problem I ran into. I am just getting the install finished up right now. I ended up having to grab an add on SATA controller card and had to flash it's BIOS etc. quite messy.

I would recomend Seagate drives for sure though. Good warranty and apparently quite compatible as well.

If you are speaking about noise level... The WD Velociraptor is very quiet in my opinion. I would say it generates slightly less noise than my Seagate drive when seeking, must be because of the smaller size (2.5" vs. 3.5"). Highly recommended from a sound level perspective, I doubt you'll hear the rotational sound over moderate fans or room noise.

[boy_wonder]

hmmm, thanks for the input. I doubt i will ever consider buying a Velociraptor. I don't really have 300 bucks to spend on a HDD haha.

[SmokeRngs]

I have the Seagate drive in that link. It's a decent enough drive and is currently in my main system due to the death of one of my Seagate 7200.11 500 gig drives. I have noticed that the 320 gig Seagate is slower than my 500 gig 32 meg cache drives, especially on sequential reads and writes.

I don't have any experience with the 320 gig Western Digital. If it's one of the new ones that has the single 320 gig platter, then it should be a decent drive to have. I have the WD640AAKS on its way to replace the 500 gig Seagate that died as I don't have time to wait for an RMA. However, I did read a review on the 320 gig version of the Western Digital drive and it may not be as good as the 640 gig even if it has the 320 gig platter. I believe it has something to do with the firmware and making sure the drive is quiet as the 320 gig range is starting to become the norm for OEM systems like Dell and whatnot.

I'm not sure about noise. Personally, I haven't hardly heard a peep out of a hard drive in years. Part of that is to do with how quiet the drives are now and the amount of noise I have going.

Heat could also be a concern. Right now, my 320 gig Seagate drive is reading around 37C with an ambient temp of around 80F. I'm not sure what is up with that since the drive normally did not run that hot before and the 500 gig next to it is running 30C.

As long as the 320 gig WD drive is the newer one with the single 320 meg platter, I would suggest getting that one over the 7200.10 Seagate. The WD is a newer drive and should be faster.

For the most part, I've been very satisfied with all my Seagate and WD drives over the last several years. I've had one WD drive die on me and now this Seagate drive. That is out of 8 or so drives. I also have some older WD drives I got second hand that are still running 24/7 to this day. These are 20 and 40 gig drives. You should do well with both drives but the WD is probably the better choice.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/207/1/1.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tnum=33&id=207)