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Seagate or Maxtor?

M

Mijae

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 19, 2003
Messages
95
I am about to get a new HD, and I have to decide whether it should be a SATA Seagate or a SATA Maxtor.

Which is more silent and generates less heat?
 
I would get the Maxtor, if you are looking for the noise/heat issue. Maxtor has the fluid dynamic bearings down almost perfect these days. If it was SCSI, I would probably say go with the evil giant (seagate). But, one vote for Maxtor!
 
Hmm...here where I live almost everyone with a Maxtor complain about it :-\
 
Seagates are going to be quieter, and mine all run pretty cool. The Seagate 7200.7 SATA drive is great, I have two of them and the performance is pretty decent as well. Maxtor drives are good, but I've had much better reliability out of Seagate's drives.
 
Seagate, hands down. They're faster and more reliable. Both of my last 2 Maxtors died on me.
 
depends, do you value your data? if not go maxtor, if you do, go seagate, plain and simple. ive only ever had one seagate fail, where as maxtor, ummmm over 50 at work.
also, seagates are some of the quiest drives to date, we use them in our machines we sell at work becuase they are so quiet, (i cant hear them spin up with the cover on, or access with the cover on)
 
Another vote for Seagate. They're one of the few brands of HDDs I actually trust.

You might also want to look at Samsung (Spinpoint) HDDs. These are quite comparable to Seagate HDDs, including noise production and reliability.
 
I have never had a problem with Maxtor and they have always been considered great drivers.

And, just to complicate matter, I understand Seagate is a bit quieter, but that they run a little hotter because of the type of insulation used.

It will be a good choice either way.
 
my personal preference has always been Western Digital.
If I had to rank, I would rank the 3 top HD manufacturers as follows:
1. Western Digital
2. Seagate
3. Maxtor

But for your two choices I'd pick seagate.
 
Let me put it this way: My 40gb maxtor just overheated and died 5 minutes ago. My 160gb Seagate is running just fine. The Maxtor model I have has the fluid dynamic bearings if that's any consolation. The ambient temp in my 2nd floor apartment is about 85F right now but I have a fan in the window going so it's cooling down gradually. :(

I'm hoping I can salvage my KOTOR saved games off the Maxtor. This is the first hard drive that has ever failed on me and I have owned IBM's too. :mad:

The Seagate has been by far the most impressive and quietest drive I've ever had and I probably wont switch to another brand if they keep making them like this. :)
 
I also have an IBM drive and I hope that it doesn't fail on me. I'm to lazy to grab another one and ghost it.
 
I've had multiple maxtor failures, just drives I have owned.

Maxtor 80gb 2mb cache 3x failures life 2 years
Maxtor 80gb 2mb cache 3x failures life 2 years
Maxtor 160gb 8mb cache 3x failures life <1 year on the third rma they sent me a 200gb back, I hope it lasts longer.
 
pirateface said:
my personal preference has always been Western Digital.
If I had to rank, I would rank the 3 top HD manufacturers as follows:
1. Western Digital
2. Seagate
3. Maxtor

But for your two choices I'd pick seagate.
Click to expand...

i agree with this. although i still tend to stick with seagate for client's systems for the peace-of-mind factor ;)
 
i've never had a hard drive fail, with the exception of the 300MB Maxtor in my 486.

that being said, i've been very happy with all the Seagates i've owned. they're quiet, fast enough, and i've never had a problem with them running hot.
 
pirateface said:
my personal preference has always been Western Digital.
If I had to rank, I would rank the 3 top HD manufacturers as follows:
1. Western Digital
2. Seagate
3. Maxtor

But for your two choices I'd pick seagate.
Click to expand...

precisely my thoughts! only I wouild put maxtor (crapstor) about at 100 right by the IBMs. :D

I used to, in 2001 or so, be head tech for a computer business. we used WD exclusively, installed tons of em. never had any problems at all with the new ones and the RMAs on the few that came in users' systems that had failed, RMAs were a snap and customer service was impeccable! that alone makes them even better in my opinion.

on the other hand, maxtor were butts on the RMAs, and I had to replace lots of failed ones. what a headache!

Seagate seems nearly as reliable as WD, the only reason I dont use them anymore (cept for their SCSI drives) is their RMA department isnt as courteous or quick.
 
Well, certainly a mix of opinions. Just to add... on the SCSI side, I like Maxtor/Quantum's. The most replaced SCSI drive we have in the data center is Seagate... always the OEM'd ones that Sun, HP send as a part of the machine. I've never had to replace a Maxtor SCSI yet.

On the IDE/ATA side, looks like nobody is a clear winner. I think all of the manufacturers need to at least offer a "quality" line of product (3-5yr warranty). I guess we can't stop the 1 year "cheapies"... which are needed because most folks just go by price... but we should at least have an option. None of the vendors make their "quality" lines very clear. Maxtor is pretty bad in the confusing line of products arena. But I don't think I'd choose WD over Maxtor or Maxtor over WD.... though I've seen more WD drive failures from my own experience.... but you know, it only takes ONE failure to make one upset.
 
it's been said before, but I would like to make it pretty clear that whether you go with seagate or maxtor or WD, all are just as likely to fail. Most drive manufacturers also have pretty good warranty/RMA services, so don't really fret too bad over it, I would go for whichever is cheaper and/or has the best performance (storagereview is a good source on that). these hitachi's are looking pretty hot these days.
 
I have both, not SATA however. Lately, I give the edge to Seagate. My 120 Seagate is maybe the best drive that I've ever owned. It's very quiet, and plenty quick. One thing that doesn't need to be frogotten is that Seagate has a three year warranty, and Maxtor has only a year.
 
I've never bought a Maxtor Hard Drive in my life, nor will I start. If anything I wouldn't even rank Maxtor at all. But hey, at least with Maxtor being around they keep the Prices of WD and Seagates relativetly cheap compared to the quality and preformance (longvitity) you'll get from WD and Seagate.

I've never had any bad experiences with WD or Seagate, both are extremely good, the only reason why I would rank WD slightly better than Seagate is that the newer drives seem to be quieter than the Seagates, by that I mean just the SATA drives. I find that the Seagate SATA tend to be way louder than my WD SATAs. But besides that, WD offers 3 years Warranty on their Drives and a 5 year warranty on the Raptors. Wheras with Maxtor and Seagate they only offer 2 years.
 
Most people say the Seagates are quiet. I have 2 WD 1200JDs (120GB SATA) and they make a VERY annoying whining noise. My roommate last year would always complain about it. And it bugs the hell out me of me, too.
 
Get whatever has the longest warranty (i.e seagate). I'd never buy a hard drive that has a 1yr warranty while one just as good has a 3yr warranty. Seems seagate stands behind their product.
 
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