Maxtor or Western Digital? Getting new drives which to get?

[rive22]

Hey what's up. I'm going to be getting a couple new drives. For starters I just need another 160 gig for storage. So Im looking at the two with 8meg catches on newegg and the WD is ten bucks cheaper than the maxtor and it offers a 3 year warrenty over maxtors 1 year. I have maxtor drives right now and I have had one fail on me before after only 8 months. Either way, what does everybody reccommend? What's better and why?

[hokatichenci]

My main system was going to be largely western digital [planned on 1x 200, 3x 120, 2x 80 8mb's]. I had one 120gb failure which was replaced quickly by RMA, and that sort of turned me off from getting the last two 80gb drives by WD. I went and purchased Maxtor 2mb cache (with the one year crap warranty) and had one of them die after just two years of use. I originally had case cooling problems but have since fixed that (excessive heat is the assumed reason for the death of the WD, whereas the Maxtor just plain died). I'm very happy with my Western Digitals, as they have taken quite a beating (I do some video editing), though I still am a little miffed about the Maxtors. I'd suggest WD's over Maxtor because WD has a great RMA program/warranty.

On the up side for maxtor, i have a very old 10gb fireball II (or something like that) that just refuses to die.

Good luck,

-hoka

[Dephcon]

wasn't fireball made by quantum?

Anyway, I'm currently using WD 2x120 SE and a 60 SE in my computer. They are soild. The 120s were made before wd switched over to new bearing so there is a bit of motor noise which pisses me off but the quality and performance is top notch. The 60 is dead quite.

On my old computer (now my parrents) which i didn't build myself, it came with 30gig maxtor which failed after 1 year and was replaced with another one which has been running since 2002 i believe, it doesn't get much use tho so i dunno.

Since drive quality is pretty much even I'd go for WD over maxtor because of the warrenty and its also cheaper, in your case. Personally, I'd get a seagate. I missed the big seagate buzz when i got all my drives and my next purcahse will definetly be a seagate, and with a 5 year warrenty, you cant go wrong.

[rive22]

hmmm, intersting thoughts guys. Oh yeah that's the other thing... So do all the new WD's now have the FDB's? That was one of the main things that I was thinking about but forgot when I posted it. My maxtor that i have now is dead silent too. After having such peace and quiet that is definitly a must. So why would you reccommend seagate dephcon? I have seen a lot on here about people liking seagates so much. 5 year warrenty definitely is a very good plus! how about performance?

[Metallica_Band]

WD is ten bucks cheaper than the maxtor and it offers a 3 year warrenty over maxtors 1 year.Really??? Mine has a 5 year warranty...which is why I haven't replaced my (original) WD 200GB (which got RMA'd < 1yr.) with my Maxtor 200GB (which I got at a lower price than WD)...totally opposite experience for me...:p

[rive22]

Really??? Mine has a 5 year warranty...which is why I haven't replaced my (original) WD 200GB (which got RMA'd < 1yr.) with my Maxtor 200GB (which I got at a lower price than WD)...totally opposite experience for me...

hmm, i guess it just depends on which drive model you get.

ok guys, here are the 4 drives that I am looking at now. Which should I get? Thanks. :)

http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishList.asp?DEPA=1&position=current&submit=add&item=22-144-322

[Metallica_Band]

I only see one thing...:confused:

[Dephcon]

The reason why i want to go with seagate next is that i haven't had any of ther drives before and I like to mix it up. They have been getting alot of possative feedback and they are the quietest drvies on the market. Their perfomance suffers a bit but i dont think its anything notcable. The 5 year warrenty is just too good to not take advantage of, and it shows that seagate is really confident in their products.

Although now that WD uses fuild barrings, i might be tempted to try them again as i've had nothing but success, other then the whine of my 120s which isn't terrible, but if they've fixed that then its all good. Plus their SATA drives have molex plugs! :D

[GeneG]

I just purchased a Seagate external 160gb. I bought the Seagate based on their 5 year guarantee. I used Seagates many years ago, without problems. I drifted over to WD's then Maxtors. I noticed in my stack of old drives that there were an awful lot of dead WD's. I have had better luck with Maxtor's. Now I will give Seagate a try, again.

[AMD T-type]

I have 5 drives

4 of them are WD's

1 is a Seagate


Get a Seagate

I got love for WD but the Seagate drive is faster, quieter, and has a longer warranty

[Dephcon]

can you actually tell a diffrence in speed? I'm pretty sure its been proven in benchmark after benchmark that seagate si the slowest of the top brands but its totally indistinguishable during practical use

[RedChief]

I currently have a WD 20gig, 2x80 (on a mirror), 2x120 w/8meg and 1 120 w/ 2meg (in external case). Havnt had a problem with any of them. The only drives I've ever had go bad on me were Seagate.

I also have a 4gig Fujitsu sitting in a win2k server box doing nothing but basic mail/dns/etc. Thing seems to be running forever.

[Soujiro]

Go WD. My maxtor drives died too fast.

Speaking of drives that run forever, my 12GB quantum fireball drive comes to mind. :)

[Milez6]

go with wester dig. i've owned 2 maxtors and they both died on me. not only that but the maxtor in my parents computer and a good friends died too. they all seem to last about a year or so then without any warning they fail. if you must go with maxtor buy one of the diamond max drives.

[DeViLdUdE]

I got both brands
(All IDE)
1 Maxtor 80gigs 8mb (As master)
2 WD 80gigs 8mb (1 as slave as back up, 1 died on me like a day or so last december)
1 WD 250gigs 8mb (As back up in an external enclosure >Macally 3.5 ex enclo< usb)

All from Newegg cept the WD 250gigs bought it from Frys a week ago for $109 very good deal I guess. The 2 80 gigers Maxtor and WD are working fine.

Note: I didn't turn my computer off since Dec 27 2003 (with the Maxtor) Did some few restarts coz of updates.

[Synful Serenity]

I'm using a Maxtor now, and i've only had a WD drive fail before, a 1 gig quite some years ago. Seagate always seems to be the first when it comes to drives, I remember the first 7200rpm, the first 10,000, the first 15,000....I say go for seagate 15000rpm!

[Compfreak999]

Seagate

[obyj34]

Whichevers cheaper/better warrenty. Looks like the WD is for you.

[I(illa Bee]

I have allways used Maxtor, at least 15 of there drives, never one problem....I currently have 2 raptors, for the OS and maxtors for the rest of my crap. Maxtors do get loud over time, but that it..

I belive the fastest ATA drive other than Raptors ar ethe newer Hithicia drives...8mb cache, 7200rpm, u133, 8.5ms seek time... i herd there quite and cool running too..

[rive22]

aren't the raptors sata? hey how is the noise on those as well by the way, because i think i am going to get one of those as well. im placing my order probably tomorrow, so i still got a little time. What would be better and faster for my boot drive, a 36 gig raptor or two 40 or 80 gig 7200 rpm drives in raid 0? It's just a windows and installed applications drive, the risk of raid 0 is no issue. The 160 gig is going to be for my files. What yall think?

[spacefarts]

You'll get more HD space with a WD drive than you will with a Maxwhore drive.
Maxtor's are cheaper yes but price per pound you get more with WD.

80gig Maxtor you'll posibly get 75gigs
80gig WD you'll end up with 78gigs

3 gigs is 3 gigs

[I(illa Bee]

aren't the raptors sata? hey how is the noise on those as well by the way, because i think i am going to get one of those as well. im placing my order probably tomorrow, so i still got a little time. What would be better and faster for my boot drive, a 36 gig raptor or two 40 or 80 gig 7200 rpm drives in raid 0? It's just a windows and installed applications drive, the risk of raid 0 is no issue. The 160 gig is going to be for my files. What yall think?

to awnser that question from experence the singal raptor, as it has faster seek times i guss. Before i got 2 raptors, i ran a singal drive vrs my 2 80gig drives in RAID 0. the raptor was abit quicker in the OS.

I guss because of the seektimes, and the bandwith of raid 0 is nice for a game and files drive....IMO. but now i run 2 raptors raid 0....

[rive22]

Coool, thanks for the advice guys. My order came in yesterday and I hooked everything up. I got a 36 gig raptor for boot and apps, and a wd sata 160 gig for storage. Good stuff, I like. :) Now i think i want more though. The single raptor alone is not as fast as I expected it to be. Even in the benchmarks, the only thing it is faster in vs. my 7200 maxtor drive is the 5ms decrease in the seek time. Which is very good no doubt, but read and write speeds seem to be equivelant to the 7200 drive. I don't understand that. :confused: You can definitely notice some speed differences though. Not counting format and partitioning, windows installed in 6 minutes to boot, not bad :D . Took 11 minutes on my 7200.

Anyway, I'm now thinking of ordering another one of each. That was I can run Raptor RAID0 for boot, and RAID1 on the 160 gigs.

[I(illa Bee]

Coool, thanks for the advice guys. My order came in yesterday and I hooked everything up. I got a 36 gig raptor for boot and apps, and a wd sata 160 gig for storage. Good stuff, I like. :) Now i think i want more though. The single raptor alone is not as fast as I expected it to be. Even in the benchmarks, the only thing it is faster in vs. my 7200 maxtor drive is the 5ms decrease in the seek time. Which is very good no doubt, but read and write speeds seem to be equivelant to the 7200 drive. I don't understand that. :confused: You can definitely notice some speed differences though. Not counting format and partitioning, windows installed in 6 minutes to boot, not bad :D . Took 11 minutes on my 7200.

Anyway, I'm now thinking of ordering another one of each. That was I can run Raptor RAID0 for boot, and RAID1 on the 160 gigs.
'


you will find that even 2 raptors wont be as fast as you expect, and really wont make a lickin diffrence in you system preformence..... : ( thats jsut how it is.

[mosin]

I just purchased a Seagate external 160gb. I bought the Seagate based on their 5 year guarantee. I used Seagates many years ago, without problems. I drifted over to WD's then Maxtors. I noticed in my stack of old drives that there were an awful lot of dead WD's. I have had better luck with Maxtor's. Now I will give Seagate a try, again.
I have the same experience, except that I have found Maxtors to be slower and noisier than Seagates. There is an incentive to buy a Seagate now more than just that great warranty that beats the others by years. Outpost.com has the Seagate Retail Pack 200GB on sale for $69.95, after manufacturer's rebate.