Which 500 GB hard drive?

F

feanor1024

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
161
Which of these should I get? They're all SATA 2, 7200 RPM, and have 16 MB of cache. I'd be using it for storage now, and maybe as a boot drive next time I reinstall XP or Vista. I'm a fan of Seagate, but is the 7200.10 really worth the $60 more than the Maxtor?
 
I am more of a WD fan than anything, but I have used Seagates in the pass (and soon to receive 6 Seagates today for some RAID action :)). I would go with:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3500641AS 500GB - 149.99
Seagate Barracuda ES ST3500630NS 500GB - 249.99
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB - 149.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB - 199.99

Starting with price, the ST3500641AS and WD5000AAKS win first. The WD5000AAKS is a bit newer technology based on the KS series (which are the quitest drives out there), but this drive has 1 less platter than the KS models, so the AAKS is 3 platters. I don't know if that would use less power or not, someone who is more knowledgeable that me will have to chime in on that. The ST3500641AS has 4 platters and is a great drive too. The WD5000AAKS has a 3 year warranty where ST3500641AS has a 5 year warranty. Between those 2, you will not make a bad decision.
 
protias said:
the AAKS is 3 platters. I don't know if that would use less power or not, someone who is more knowledgeable that me will have to chime in on that. The ST3500641AS has 4 platters and is a great drive too. The WD5000AAKS has a 3 year warranty where ST3500641AS has a 5 year warranty. Between those 2, you will not make a bad decision.
Click to expand...

All else equal, drives with fewer platters will use less power. Question remains: is everything else the same?

I'd probably get either of these two:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101258
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101259
since they are the cheapest. If you want a 5yr warranty I would get this:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101258-9
thought people suggest not using the YS drive in a desktop, so get that instead.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101451

I would be hesitant to pay a $30 premium for 2 years warranty and the chance to play the "spindle motor lottery", if I could just get the YS drive with the same warranty for $10 less and without the lottery.

I would order from ZZF, since I prefer their packaging. Their prices are lower than newegg as well. I have just ordered a C2D CPU, mobo and RAM from newegg yesterday.
 
Hi,

I just wanted to get the WD5000KS, but the store only had the WD5000AAKS, so I took that one. But I could not find any Information on the WD website.

Based on my first measurements, the WD5000AAKS is definitely a 3x166GB PMR disk instead of 4x125GB LMR disk as the WD5000KS. It's a question whether you trust a LMR disk where they squeezed out the maximum (125-133GB per platter) or a "first generation" PMR disk.

My main computer is busy with mpeg encoding, and the disk maxed out the SATA CardBus adapter of my Notebook, so I can only tell that the *slowest* media zone is around 42MB/s, the fastest zone might be somewhere between 80-85MB/s.

I'll let you know when I found the time to do a full test on my PC.

Hans-Jürgen
 
Isn't maxtor owned by seagate and is pretty much just a cheaper drive or same drive without as long as a warrenty and stuff?

I'd go with the 7200.10's from Seagate
 
oplin said:
Isn't maxtor owned by seagate and is pretty much just a cheaper drive or same drive without as long as a warrenty and stuff?
Click to expand...
I think they're still selling Maxtor-designed drives, at least until the stock clears out. I don't know if more Maxtor drives are being built.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top