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[modelmaker]

I'm looking to spend max 200$ (less if possible) each on 2-500gig hard drives, 1 internal and 1 external.

For external, the local Staples store has Maxtor, Western Digital & Seagate. I've never had a Seagate, any good?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[jgreen]

Check fry's quick (outpost.com), because last week I bought a bare 500gb Seagate for $100.  I think on monday they were showing the 750gb for $199, and a Seagate 500gb external with USB 400/800 and eSTA for ~179. 

[newsposter]

keep an eye on tigerdirect.com as well as newegg.com too.....

[KingSparta]

I've never had a Seagate, any good?

My First Seagate Drive Was In Like 1987 And They Have Always Been Good To Me, Seagate Normally Will Come With A Longer Warranty.

Seagate Bought Maxtor like over a year ago, and maxtor has a nice drive One Touch III Turbo 1.5 Terabytes (two 750 Gig Drives). and it is relatively cheap. Since I Have 3 Of Them I Recommend them but the Warranty is only 1 year and that sort of sucks (All Of Mine Are Past The 1 Year Warranty).

So don't just look at the cost, look at the warranty too.

Also Raid 1 would be a bit better.

CoolDrives.Com had some nice looking enclosures.

[lepa]

Seagates tend to run hot. For internal drive, I'd say Samsung. It's fast, quiet and run colder than Seagate.

For external the Western Digitals have been successful in silentpcreview (no personal experiense with WD).

[hit_ny]

Hmm samsung is not a name i've heard good things about.

Seagate is the only drive i use for the last 5 yrs. Very happy.

My drives avg 50 degrees (ones that run at 7k, the 5.1K run little cooler), no probs.

[lepa]

Well, I only speak for my own personal experience and 5+ friends who I actually know.
Naturally, you can find internet horror stories about the every existing brand (I'm not speaking partically about your experiences).

My Samsungs are 31'c idle and about 38'c during heavy usage which is nice for a quiet htpc. Lower temperature also theoretically
expands the age of the drive.
Got couple of seagates which after one year of usage started to have bad sectors. They of course had five years of warranty, which was nice. Their noise frequency were also more annoying to my ears.

Nobody I know buys maxtor anymore after our own experiences but of course there must also be success stories with that brand because they are still selling their products.

[mlefebvre]

I have over the years been partial to Maxtor, but the last batch I bought (buch of 120 GB's) failed within two years except for one that is now usb occasionally in a USB enclosure.

I now have several 320 GB Seagates and a couple of 500 GB and the only problem was that one of the 320 GB drives did not work out of the box except in PIO mode, which is VERY slow. So I returned it to Seagate and they were very good. No questions asked and within 3-4 days of me shipping out, I received another drive.

The only frustating thing was that the replacement drive also failed after 2 days of continous service... And since I installed it as the system drive in a new machine I had just built (3 TB backup server using MS's new Windows Home Server RC 1), my server is now hosed until the replacement comes back.... But once again, Seagate's service was great.

And the warranty is 5 years. (Not that I anticipate using "puny" 500 GB drives in 5 years, but still it's nice.... ;-)).

Michel.

M.

[benn600]

I own 17 Western Digital 500 GB drives purchased spanning the past 9 months or so.  So far, they have all been running flawlessly from what I have seen.  I am having some issues with my RAID array but I sincerely believe it's the OS/filesystem and not the drives since the RAID card is happy and people keep telling me it's the OS.

I also ordered 4 320GB Maxtor drives and one arrived DOA--that's not good.  But I don't have much personal opinion towards the manufacturers.  Western Digital has been common for me buying drives but price often wins out.  I got more WD's this time so all the drives would match more closely.

[Mr ChriZ]

I find my Western Digital Noisy.

[raym]

I find my Western Digital Noisy.

I honestly think it's the luck of the draw sometimes.... I bought a 500GB Seagate last week for a new HTPC I'm building and it was the loudest HDD I've ever heard! I took it back the next day and swapped it for a WD. Much, much better. In fact, it's virtually inaudible. 

[lepa]

I find my Western Digital Noisy.

Depends on model. This one (SE16 500GB) is said to be quiet.
Samsung T166 500gt is quiet. Got three of them.

[benn600]

I have found the WD's the be quiet.  There is the special model, which costs ~$20 more, and it's quieter I've read.  I didn't pick those cause the server is already blaring with 5 high-power fans.

In a desktop workstation, it is very important.  We are all moving towards silent computing--I personally would rather have quieter than cooler/faster at this point when they are so fast.

[hit_ny]

Why is quiet important ?..unless it's in your living room, but even then i find whatever volume i'm listening at is usually much louder than the 3HDs anyway.

..alternatively can't you just stick the server in a closet or basement.

[benn600]

Quiet is very important to me.  I am also often listening to music louder than the noise--lol, ~35db noise + ~85db+ of music.  (I have a sound level meter...they're pretty neat)

But you lose some "quality" ... by hearing the background noise, you are probably more than cancelling out any benefit flac provides.  I am nowhere near silent computing but I try to make each PC a little quieter.  That means less heat, noise, power consumption, and newer components.  I would like a 100% silent PC...and I could almost have it.  The hard drive isn't a big culprit.  Besides, most my data comes over the network from the server.  I wonder if I could get one of those new solid state HDDs from Sandisk?  If they aren't outrageous--under $200--I might consider it.  Of course then I'll be spending more to get passive cooling on everything.  What about the CPU?

Or just buy a readymade, silent PC.