PDA

View Full Version : Hard Drives, good Manufacturers?



Timz
11-11-2004, 02:50 PM
currently im using a western digital 100GB hard drive, works great for two years now. However, ive heard that many people have been having trouble w/ their drives and that their support is horrible. Any recommendations for a good second hard drive?

zapjb
11-11-2004, 02:51 PM
Seagate.

Timz
11-11-2004, 03:05 PM
Seagate.

will this work together w/ my western digital hard drive?

Storm
11-11-2004, 03:37 PM
haha, without a problem

most computer components will work together without a problem............ cept the obious like socket A mobo and a pentium CPU...........

also, WD is a good manufacturer, as is maxtor............... Seagate has the advantage that they are usually quiter than the other 2.........

Timz
11-11-2004, 04:40 PM
if i bought it from NewEgg or TigerDirect, does it make a difference if i use buy the OEM or Retail version, performance and reliability wise?

fkdup74
11-11-2004, 04:51 PM
WD is a good manufacturer, as is maxtor............... Seagate has the advantage that they are usually quiter than the other 2.........
i got two WD caviars, they dont make any noise worth noticing
my seagate external makes more racket than they do :P
but its damned quiet too, so no complaints from me

only thing, is the WDs (mine anyway) run HOT
55 C max, and i've had em up to 48 C or so (w/o HDD fans)
but you get some air on em and theyre fine (35 - 40 C, better than 48)
or sink some dough into a HDD cooler and keep em at 29 C :P

but even with em runnin that close to their max,
i didnt notice any read/write errors, pretty fkn impressive to me

Tifosi
11-11-2004, 04:54 PM
I've got a few WDs and they've all been faultless for me. I agree with fkdup74 that they tend to run a tad hot, but it's not too excessive. These days hard drives are very samey. The differences between similar specced drives from different manufacturers is small.

Storm
11-11-2004, 05:08 PM
i got two WD caviars, they dont make any noise worth noticing
my seagate external makes more racket than they do :P
but its damned quiet too, so no complaints from me

well external cases are usually less massive than a PC case, so they will vibrate more, thus cause more noise........


if i bought it from NewEgg or TigerDirect, does it make a difference if i use buy the OEM or Retail version, performance and reliability wise?

OEM is just the harddisk, retail is a OEM in a nice box, maybe a manual........
yes, you pay extra for the box you throw away as soon as you have taken the drive out.........

for drives and such its usually a good idea to go with OEM since its cheaper and you dont need the extras (with something like a cpu thats different since you might want the stock cooling)

Timz
11-11-2004, 06:17 PM
hmm, are OEM products, sold, then used... then sent back to the reseller, maybe fixed (if it was defective) then resold again, cuz if so im not sure i want to go through the agravation of having a defective hard drive

{I}{K}{E}
11-11-2004, 06:20 PM
Maxtor

Tifosi
11-11-2004, 06:25 PM
hmm, are OEM products, sold, then used... then sent back to the reseller, maybe fixed (if it was defective) then resold again, cuz if so im not sure i want to go through the agravation of having a defective hard drive

No, OEM products are new.

Virtualbody1234
11-11-2004, 06:49 PM
I prefer Seagate drives too.

OEM is the same reliability as retail.

Timz
11-11-2004, 08:52 PM
whats the difference in the way they connect, ie. SATA, IDE, ULTRA ATA etc. Are they all able to be used w/ RAID?

clocker
11-11-2004, 09:37 PM
Most newer boards that support SATA have built-in RAID also.
I have even seen a board ( can't remember the model) that supports cross platform RAID (i.e. SATA and IDE combo).

Personally, I prefer Seagate drives, not only because I think they are quieter, but also because they have a 5 year warrantee as opposed to the three year industry standard.

Timz
11-11-2004, 10:42 PM
if i have two different hard drives, of different size, can they be used together w/ RAID?

bigdawgfoxx
11-11-2004, 11:42 PM
Seagate hands down....fast and quietest

lynx
11-12-2004, 12:10 AM
if i have two different hard drives, of different size, can they be used together w/ RAID?
Yes, but your combined drive is only as effective as the smaller of the two drives.

If you are using raid 0 (totally useless IMO) you effectively get a drive twice the size as the smaller of the two drives, the rest of the larger drive is wasted.

If you are using raid 1, you get a mirror of the smaller drive on the larger drive, the rest of that drive is wasted.

The fact that you ask this question makes me wonder if you even know what raid does. If that's the case it almost certainly isn't what you want, so forget about it.

Storm
11-12-2004, 12:27 AM
hmm, are OEM products, sold, then used... then sent back to the reseller, maybe fixed (if it was defective) then resold again, cuz if so im not sure i want to go through the agravation of having a defective hard drive

dunno.......... but if they are, itll be the same with retail.........

the only difference with OEM is that they dont have to put it in a fancy box (those things cost a surprizing amount of money), and no manual (like you need a manual for a HDD) and such......... OEM is for companies that build PC's (who dont give their consumers the boxes of all the separate parts)........

you usually get the drive in an anti static bag........, sometimes with bubblewrap around that....... but protected enough for shipment to you......

edit: internet acting screwy, didnt see these questions were allready answerd........

anyway, RAID is kinda useless of home users,

RAID 0 doesnt give any noticable speed increasment for home users (although lovers of the placebo effect will tell you elsewise), and if one of the drives fails, you lose ALL data on both drives
RAID 1 is very secure, but it costs alot of space (effectively you waste half of your drives)
RAID 0+1 has the benifits of both of the above, (very secure, yet fast) but you need at least 4 drives to let it work, and you're still effectivly not using half of your disks

check here for a full RAID guide:
http://www.acnc.com/04_00.html

IMO RAID (for normal home users) is useless........

zapjb
11-12-2004, 04:28 AM
Check this out. Might be just some Seagates. But think recently they upped all warranties to 5 yrs!

clocker
11-12-2004, 04:58 AM
No, OEM products are new.
Yup.

OEM=original equipment manufacturer

An OEM part is identical to the "retail box" version, lacking only the box and frills ( manuals, cables, etc.).
In many cases ( AMD CPUs for instance) the OEM part carries a shorter warrantee than it's full retail sibling.

Storm
11-12-2004, 06:39 PM
Check this out. Might be just some Seagates. But think recently they upped all warranties to 5 yrs!

yup......... that was reason for me to spend 4 buck less on my 2nd hard drive ;)