rsilves Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 I'm gonna buy a 500GB drive tomorrow. I have a dying LaCie 250GB HD (+2 yrs old) which has a WD drive inside, but I assume that the newer WDs are better. I also have a 250GB WD (aaks SATA2, 2 months old) which works good, with low noise. Should I buy a Western Digital or a Seagate? I heard that Seagate drives are noisier, but better? Would a Seagate work as good as my WD on my Hackintosh? (no compatibility problems?). Will the 32MB buffer of the Seagate make any difference compared to the 16MB of my WD? Thanks, Rodrigo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaporATX Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 I like WD drives because they are quiet and run cooler. You'll hear all kinds of arguments on drive choice, but keep this in mind: All consumer HDs are about the same. The best drives on the market are Fujitsu drives, but those are expensive SCSI and SAS server drives. My advice... if you have no drive loyalty buy what you can find cheapest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsilves Posted May 5, 2008 Author Share Posted May 5, 2008 I'd buy the Seagate if I knew that: 1) the buffer difference will improve something noticeable. 2) there can't be any compatibility problem with my Hackintosh. 3) it would normally not make much more sound than the WD. (read many posts of people complaining about the disk's noise, but were not recent posts). Read too many "WD vs Seagate" (or similar) topics on the web where people recommend Seagate. And I know how hazardous it is to believe on the brand or price, but I have a dying WD disk, and all of the cases of dying disks I know were with cheap brands (Maxtor, Hitachi, etc). Thanks, Rodrigo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knewsom Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 now, I've had two seagate drives die on me, and I believe only one WD. I've also had four Maxtor's die, but never a Hitachi. However, on the web I've read tons of people calling Hitachi "death-stars", and singing the praises of Seagate. One thing I will say for SG, they have a 5 year warranty, and they'll honor it, and quickly. $20 for them to ship me a new drive 2nd day air with prepaid shipping costs to return my existing one. They even offered data recovery. (which I turned down, so I dunno if it costs more) Most other editors I know trust Hitachi; G-Technology uses them in their drives... but hey, like vaporATX said, most consumer drives are essentially the same piece of junk. You want a GOOD hard drive, you need to purchase the enterprise edition of whatever drive you're looking at, then we're talking about a high quality product. good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsilves Posted May 5, 2008 Author Share Posted May 5, 2008 OK, thanks for that, but my question about the cache, compatibility and noise was not answered yet. I'm buying a Seagate or a WD drive today, and I want to be sure that, among other things, it won't make a high bad noise. -- Thanks, Rodrigo.. -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knewsom Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 I don't know of any brand of hard drive that is not compatable. As for the noise, my seagate is not particularly loud. Do some searching around the web for the noise levels info, I don't have anything more than a subjective opinion on the matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knewsom Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 as for cache, more is generally merrier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snerler Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 I have had a WD die on me, and I haven't been able to trust them again. Seagates can noisy and very hot, but the 320 GB one I have is very quiet and cool. Also for what its worth, Vista gives the Seagate a 5.8 hard drive rating, and a Samsung a 5.3, and both are SATA II, so the extra must be helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsilves Posted May 6, 2008 Author Share Posted May 6, 2008 Bought the Seagate. When I first started the computer it made some clicking noise, but then stopped. It is working great without noise. Temps (from S.M.A.R.T. sensor): WD 250GB (system) 33ºC Seagate 500GB (idle) 28ºC Moved a 2GB file from the WD to the Seagate, and then put it back on the WD: WD 250GB (system) 34ºC Seagate 500GB (working) 28ºC Thanks everyone for posting, Rodrigo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaporATX Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 My WD GP 500GB drives always run around 25-28c. I don't trust those sensors because my case temp is like 30-31c on a digital themo probe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts