New 250GB hard drive - your opinion

M

Manvol

Newcomer
Hello people!

I am about to buy a 250GB hdd and I am a little bit confused. Many models on the market I guess...

Here is what I found from the e-store I buy in Greece (www.e-shop.gr) :


- SEAGATE BARRACUDA ST3250824AS 250GB 7200RPM SATA2 NCQ
7200.9, SATA 2, NCQ, 8MB CACHE, 5 years warranty 89.00 €

- SEAGATE BARRACUDA ST3250620AS 250GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA2
7200RPM, 16MB BUFFER, 8.5MS, 5 years warranty 90.27 €

- MAXTOR 6V250F0 HDD 250GB - 16MB - SATA2 BULK
7200RPM, SATA2, 16MB CACHE, <9MS, 3 years warranty 90.30 €

- MAXTOR 7V250F0 HDD 250GB - 16MB - SATA2 BULK
250GB, 7200rpm, 16MB BUFFER, SATA2, 5 years warranty 94.70 €

- WESTERN DIGITAL 250GB 16MB WD2500KS 7200RPM SATA2
7200rpm, 16MB CACHE, 3 years warranty 87.50 €

All of these drives are around the same pricepoint. I want to use the drive as a gaming drive + storage (50%-50%).

What interests me is 1) speed 2) reliability

Thanks in advance! ;)
 
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the difference in speed between the drives wont be noticeable, get the one with the longest warranty. EDIT: And stick with models that have 16MB cache.
 
I've been running three WD2500KS drives for about 5 months now 24/7 with zero problems. They were the cheapest at the time so I bought them. They get the job done nicely.

I have 2 with a firmware bug that tells me the wrong temp (like 10 C higher than should be), but I would imagine that has been fixed by now. The drives run lukewarm at best and I have seen others with drives with the same issue from back in January when I bought them.
 
Keep away from Maxtor at any price. They die regularly on overheating.

WD gets my vote. The second candidate would be Samsung if there are any in stock there.
 
_xxx_ said:
Keep away from Maxtor at any price. They die regularly on overheating.
Click to expand...

Completely agree on that. The only drives i've had die on me were Maxtor drives. The WD are still going strong. If I were getting any newer drives, I'd opt for Seagate for their 5-year warranty.
 
I'm a Seagate and WD guy for the most part, and then Hitachi if I want the best performance.

With those choices I'd get the WD, the Maxtor's make me scared, and the WD is the only one with a 16MB cache that doesnt make me scared.
 
I'm surprized Maxtor drives have such a bad reputation in this forum...I thought they were pretty much reliable, especially the Maxline series. :rolleyes:
 
Manvol said:
I'm surprized Maxtor drives have such a bad reputation in this forum...I thought they were pretty much reliable, especially the Maxline series. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

They've got a bad reputation on every forum I've been to. Especially the Diamond Max 9 line, which every single drive made seemed to fall rather quickly.

Maxtor may be improving, they were recently bought out by Seagate, and Seagate makes some great drives as far as reliablity and warranty.
 
_xxx_ said:
Keep away from Maxtor at any price. They die regularly on overheating.

WD gets my vote. The second candidate would be Samsung if there are any in stock there.
Click to expand...

Comments like that really dont make any sense. Its the same as someone saying Fords always break down, so stay away from them.

I have two Maxtors right now, no problems. And none from years past. Some people have problems with only WD's, some with Segate, etc. The Maxtor he listed has a 5 year warranty, while the WD has just 3.
 
fallguy said:
The Maxtor he listed has a 5 year warranty, while the WD has just 3.
Click to expand...

That's right. I've done this choice cause the cheapest 250GB WD hard drive in the list with 5 years warranty is the WD2500YD and it costs (in the same shop) 101.85 €.

That makes him alittle bit more expensive, and I've not seen a single review that states this hdd has something special to offer apart from the 5 years warranty (and the others already offer that). :???:
 
Skrying said:
They've got a bad reputation on every forum I've been to. Especially the Diamond Max 9 line, which every single drive made seemed to fall rather quickly.
Click to expand...

That's the problematic series, yes. Diamon Max 9, three of them died on me within less then 2 years and they weren't really in heavy use.

Also, if you look at RMA statistics, you'll see that Maxtor gets RMA'd more then all other manufacturers together. So no, it's not my personal war on Maxtor, they're just bad quality, that's all.
 
I'm of the same opinion, even though I've had two DM9+s for ages with no problems (thought one was dying at one stage but it turned out to be a crappy cable).

Jut ordered a DM10 300GB - really looks very good for the money. I guess I like to live dangerously (and have no principles). :D

Though I usually use Seagates in builds, I've been put off the 7200.10 due to complaints about the noise levels.
 
I haven't had a Maxtor since a 10 GB I had way back in '99 or so. It was the worst drive I'd ever dealt with. It could not handle PCI bus overclocking at all (the only drive I've ever experience a problem like that with). Naturally that was a real nightmare on my 440BX-based Abit BH6 cuz this was WAY before the days of PCI/AGP lock. It also would corrupt or just do generally strange stuff like not work at all if it had another HDD on its channel. It was a POS, but it was also fast lol.

Now, I dunno about what they make today, but if they're still known to be problematic, well that's not a good sign. I've never had problems with any other maker. I even have a working IBM Deathstar 75GXP that was a real champ for me for years!

edit: Oh wait, I had a 210 MB Maxtor in my 486 that worked real nice!! :)
 
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some drives are more reliable than other but they all die at some point (while still getting exponentially bigger with time). next time I do a HDD upgrade I'll go RAID 1 (even if it means I stick with my 2Ghz athlon XP)
 
Except for one Samsung, all drives that broke down on me for the last years (in servers as well) were Maxtor or IBM. Some of the IBM were of the last few series they made, others were just really old (like a 810 MB 2.5" drive yesterday, that had been running constantly for about 8 years).
 
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