• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

WD vs Maxtor vs Seagate?

A

Arklight

Gawd
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Messages
831
I'm starting anew build this coming week and would like your thoughts on these HD companies.

This will be a gaming rig so performance is important so currently I am looking at the Raptor in SATA, Maxtor 250GB or more SATA, and Seagate 300GB SATA. The raptor obviously runs the fastest but is only 74GB. The Maxtor and the Seagate seem very similar in performance but Maxtor offers a HD with 16mb cache which Seagate does not.

Cost is not really factor but I am dead-set on SATA so any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Thx!
 
I'd say seagate, if you really need more than 74GB. If you can get by with 74GB (or can buy two HDs), get the raptor.
 
doormat said:
I'd say seagate, if you really need more than 74GB. If you can get by with 74GB (or can buy two HDs), get the raptor.
Click to expand...


Interesting. The reason I'm asking is because I heard the new 16mb Cache Maxtors are pretty damn good performers, not to mention pretty darn stable. I'm new to this whole 16mb Cache thing.
 
You should definitely find a second opinion on this, but it seems that the Seagate 7200.8 and 7200.7 drive families have the speediest level loading times of all Serial ATA drives.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2396&p=13

Realize that any hard drive you buy will only speed up loading times. No modern hard drive will improve framerates by a perceptible amount.
 
I have found some data that explains Anandtech's results with the 7200.8. Seagate's latest drives are locked in "quiet" mode until the drive detects an NCQ host and observes that NCQ has been enabled. It then switches to "performance" mode, which delivers faster seeks in exchange for a higher noise profile. There is no user control over this function, although the drive's behavior after NCQ has been enabled for the first time can be somewhat bizarre. Some report that the drive stays locked in performance mode even after NCQ is disabled, while others report it instantly reverts back to quiet mode.

With this revelation about NCQ's relationship to the 7200.8's acoustics settings, the difference in benchmark results between StorageReview and Anandtech is at last explained. SR noted a rather anemic seek time, that fell far short of Seagate's claimed 8.0ms, on their 7200.8 sample. However, they never enabled NCQ. It is possible that the drive could indeed make the 8.0 ms seek figure in performance mode (attained after NCQ is enabled), which with any buffer strategy at all would make the drive an absolute monster with crazy fast seeks for an ATA drive and the highest commercially available platter density - a combination that would make it nearly unstoppable. Perhaps I can get either Eugene at SR or Puray at AT to run some tests and see if this theory is correct. Actually, I may be able to get someone here with a 7200.8 drive to find out for us - The HDTach random access quote should be enough if the difference is as big as the gap between the SR and AT results. However, if this is true, I am extremely disappointed that users must jump through such hoops and have NCQ (with its penalty to localized access) forced upon them.
 
I'll be waiting anxiously for an answer since I never realized the 7002.8 was such potential competition to the DM10 untill down.
 
Arklight,

First off, take everything in that Doug is saying, as he is quite knowledgable in this area.

Second, my opinion would be for you to have 1 74 gig raptor for your OS and a second partition for all your games, and possibly put your page file on this drive. And have a second, high-capacity storage drive. What you should see coming out soon are the Seagate 7200.9 SATA II which includes up to 500 gigs and 16meg cache, and the Western Digital 2500KS, which is a 250 gig SATA II also with a 16 meg cache.

For your perusal, here are the links:

Seagate 7200.9

Western Digial 250 Gig

You can do what I'm doing, and get the Raptor now, keep your current drive as the temporary storage until these new drives come out and sufficient time has passed for reviews to surface. This will help future proof your system, as you'll be purchasing the next gen SATA II technology, along with 16 meg cache.

Of course we all know "future proof" when it comes to your computer is an oxymoron because the minute you install it, it's obsolete :D :p
 
n64man120 said:
Why not go OEM, (unless it's not available?). Longer warranty IIRC.
Click to expand...


Same warranty, 5 years.

I don't know... I've just never been a fan of OEM products.
 
Just to throw in, the IBM/Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 drives seem very competitive. Just one more drive to compare.
 
Thanks for all the info everybody!

I'm still looking around but have taken what you guys have said to heart.

Thx, Doug and Scroatdog, you guys have been a big help!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top