New HDD

G

George120

Geek Trainee
hi all.
my hdd just died, so im currently using an old seagate 20gb.
im just wondering what hdd to buy. i need a fair bit of storage space because i have ALOT of music and was hoping yous could give me some suggestions on what to buy/stay away from.
cheers :)
 
anti-trend- just so i know this in the future, why do i stay away from IBM and Maxtor?
i heard to stay away from samsung and seagate.

pelvis_3- i'm in aukland new zealand so, anything lower than $120NZD or AUD

cheers
 
Well i don't know of any online stores in New Zealand but you could get something like these for a few dollars more at a local computer shop if applicable!
SATA 160GB WD
IDE 160GB WD
Which interface do you use - IDE or SATA?
 
George120 said:
i heard to stay away from samsung and seagate.
Click to expand...
I don't know who told you that, but Seagate's Barracuda HDDs are the most dependable IDE/SATA HDD's I've ever used. They are also warrantied a full two years longer than most companies.
 
thanks anti-trend for the info.

pelvis_3 - i use SATA and i found this at an NZ shop online, so i think i'll get this.

thanks guys
 
Anti-Trend said:
I don't know who told you that, but Seagate's Barracuda HDDs are the most dependable IDE/SATA HDD's I've ever used. They are also warrantied a full two years longer than most companies.
Click to expand...

Ah, but I am currently recovering from a Barracuda crash... it did last about 4 years, which isn't bad I suppose, but don't count on it lasting forever.
 
xMTone said:
Ah, but I am currently recovering from a Barracuda crash... it did last about 4 years, which isn't bad I suppose, but don't count on it lasting forever.
Click to expand...
No HDD lasts for ever, not even the best SCSI HDD. Still, you can greatly prolong the life of your HDDs by assuring their proper cooling, something that is often neglected. Accumulated heat buildup is responsible for quite a few HDD failures, and I've never seen a properly cooled Barracuda or Caviar fail. Dirty DC power can also be blamed for many HDD failures (along with that of countless other components). I have seen plenty of properly cooled Maxtor and IBM HDDs with plenty of clean power die inexplicably, which is why I do not recommend those brands.

-AT
 
Anti-Trend said:
No HDD lasts for ever, not even the best SCSI HDD. Still, you can greatly prolong the life of your HDDs by assuring their proper cooling, something that is often neglected. Accumulated heat buildup is responsible for quite a few HDD failures, and I've never seen a properly cooled Barracuda or Caviar fail. Dirty DC power can also be blamed for many HDD failures (along with that of countless other components). I have seen plenty of properly cooled Maxtor and IBM HDDs with plenty of clean power die inexplicably, which is why I do not recommend those brands.

-AT
Click to expand...

Well, I certainly can't claim even a decent level of cooling on the PC which that occurred... strangely, the PC came with a 10K SCSI drive which lasted only a matter of months before it failed!
 
Yeah, with all those moving parts, cooling accross a HDD is pretty crucial. Heat shortens the life of HDDs substantially. For instance, I have a firewall with an 8 year old Western Digital HDD which works perfectly. I guerantee it's not as fast as it was 8 years ago, but since it had adequate cooling it's still running as if it's in no danger of failing anytime soon.
 
Anti-Trend said:
Yeah, with all those moving parts, cooling accross a HDD is pretty crucial. Heat shortens the life of HDDs substantially. For instance, I have a firewall with an 8 year old Western Digital HDD which works perfectly. I guarentee it's not as fast as it was 8 years ago, but since it had adequate cooling it's still running as if it's in no danger of failing anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Well in that case I'm certainly glad to be warned to get cooling for my sweet new Raptors... on the other hand, I still need some advice: I have one in a 5.25" CoolDrive3, but I'm out of 5.25" bays... and those crappy little 3.5" 2-fan screw on the bottom things will not fit in my case, even with an empty bay under it... how can I cool that one? If there were such a thing as a fan unit that took up the same space as a 3.5" drive, that'd be cool, but I can't find anything like that.
 
You might actually consider choosing a different chassis, emphasizing intake cooling accross the HDDs. It's pretty difficult to add proper HDD cooling after the fact since HDD coolers usually rely on recirculating hot, stale air already inside the chassis. Of course, you could always go with 5.25" HDD hot-swap bays, provided you have the 5.25" bays available in your chassis for it.
 
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