need advice on a new hd

[fireware]

My bro is buying another HD, this time a 250GB to add to his existing 80GB.

He wants to spend under $100. I found thison newegg. Is it a good deal?

~ Fireware

[LiquidSage]

well...some people swear by WD, some people don't. I personally have seen too many die way too quickly. IMO their standards of quality have dropped considerably. Other HD's in that class cost more and for good reason.

I would pass on that and go for a seagate or a maxtor.

I'm sure you are gonna hear the other end...that WD makes the best, top quality, etc....

It all comes down to ones preference....so I'm just gonna say what should be said for any HD you buy...

Make sure you have adequate cooling for them.

[ripken204]

get that hdd! one of the best out for the price, 16mb is the big plus on it and sataII makes it even better.

[Maleko]

If that was british pounds, wud be a BRILL deal!

an defo bonus with the 16MB cache!

[nmX.Memnoch]

get that hdd! one of the best out for the price, 16mb is the big plus on it and sataII makes it even better.

Agreed...that's an awesome price for that drive!

As to the comments about WD's quality...that may have been true several years ago but they're now back as a major contender in the HD market. I run a mixture of Seagate's and WD's at home...and we almost always purchase WD's as spare drives at work (we got Seagates last time, but only because we got a better price).

I wish they would get back into the SCSI market...more competition is needed there.

[LordFett]

I personally dislike WD. I have a 4.3g WD with 3.some gigs of bad sectors. It is so bad in fact I can't even get it to work enough to have the WD website test it to see if it is bad. And WD's customer service wouldn't help until that had been done.

I've got a Maxtor 300g 16mb cache SATA drive I'm really happy with. I got it for $96 at costco but it was a pricing error. It was supposed to be $149.

[nmX.Memnoch]

The 4.3GB drive you have was probably acquired during the time period their quality was questionable (I would consider anything from them between 4.3GB to the 10.1GB drives as questionable). Their drives from that last few years have been top notch...especially the latest models.

[LordFett]

during the time period their quality was questionable

First impressions are lasting impressions.

I currently have a 250gb WD hard drive that I loathe. Only reason I have it is I clicked on the wrong link when purchasing from eBay. I will replace it soon I hope.

[nmX.Memnoch]

You can't really do that with hardware...AMD is a prime example.

[LordFett]

You can't really do that with hardware...AMD is a prime example.

Their subpar customer service doesn't help either. Especially when you get 3 different stories from 3 different people.

Care to go into detail about the AMD example? I've never had a lick of trouble with anything AMD.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Their subpar customer service doesn't help either. Especially when you get 3 different stories from 3 different people.

I've never had a single problem with their customer service. Even when we had a bad batch of 10.1GB drives they replaced every one of them...no questions asked. Those drives couldn't/wouldn't finish their diagnostic utility either.

Care to go into detail about the AMD example? I've never had a lick of trouble with anything AMD.

According to your statement...first impressions are everything. Well...my first impressions of AMD back in the 386/486 days wasn't all that good. They were pretty much considered "that other CPU company" in their pre-Athlon days. It wasn't until the K6/K6-2 that they started really getting noticed for their CPU business. Even then they were catching a wave of people who didn't want to give up on Socket 7. You wouldn't catch anyone serious about keeping their corporation up and running using those systems though. Granted, they're still "the other CPU company", but look at what they're doing now...the quality and performance is much better and you find more and more business/enterprise class machines using AMD CPUs.

Hell...I was even a believer in Cyrix back in the 5x86 and 6x86 days...they just screwed up everything after that. The current C3 from VIA (who now owns Cyrix) has it's own niche market, but it's nowhere near the performance of Intel's and AMD's CPUs.

[Thauzar]

I want to buy a new computer and install hard drives on it. So I think here is a good place for my question without starting a new topic.

Can sata2 drives be plugged in raid mirror? if yes, is this an efficient backup solution? the drive will be used for data only. I would take 2x 250GB 16mb WD drive, and i was thinking of getting a small 36gb raptor 10k as system drive

Edited February 26, 2006 by Thauzar

[ripken204]

I want to buy a new computer and install hard drives on it. So I think here is a good place for my question without starting a new topic.

Can sata2 drives be plugged in raid mirror? if yes, is this an efficient backup solution? the drive will be used for data only. I would take 2x 250GB 16mb WD drive, and i was thinking of getting a small 36gb raptor 10k as system drive

you can do that

[DonDamm]

Hmm. I've heard pros and cons for just about every make of drive there is out there. Seems they all screw up at one time or other.

Take a look at the 250GB Samsung from the the same vendor. It's almost the same price and, IMHO is a much better deal. Why? First they are QUIET, and significantly more so than the comparable Hitachi, WDs, or Maxtors. The current Seagates are comparable in dB ratings,but ... Secondly, the Samsungs run up to about 10 degrees cooler than just about any other disk out there. The Seagates run hot! and so do the Hitachis.

If you are running more than one disk in a box these become important considerations. Otherwise, not to worry. :^)

[Thauzar]

can I have more arguments concerning mirror option as a good way of backup, cause I have to justify the costs of 2 disks and my boss thinks it's useless, while I feel it would be pretty stupid to invent a system like this if it was not for backup purposes... but you guys seem to know best than us two

imo samsung hitashi all that sounds strange and untrustworthy. i work in electronic and samsung often breaks so if their computer parts are like that... i had an WD and never got a problem, same with my maxtor, never tried seagate but they all seem of equal quality. the cooling factor you mentionned is really a good point to watch though, never paid attention to that before.