8MB Cache HDD - who?

[kannibul]

I'm looking at the Maxtor 120GB Diamond Max 9 Plus and the Western Digital WD1200JB.

I currently have an IBM Deskstar 120GXP, 80GB, that is starting to develop a whine to it, so me thinks that I should get another...

Worth noting, this box is being used for audio recording, so performance is definately a premium.

I would get a 160GB drive, but no one locally has one - though there's always www.pricewatch.com

Thank you for any advice that is provided.

[NooNoo]

Wouldn't the IBM still be in warranty?

[kannibul]

Originally posted by NooNoo
Wouldn't the IBM still be in warranty?

I bought it as OEM, so I'm not sure if it would be or not. Even if it is, I think it would be complicated, since IBM no longer is in the HDD business.

There's always Ebay - the drive might be fine, just a little louder than I think it should be.

In comparison, my new Maxtor Atlas IV U320 10K drives, are quieter (both of them put together!)

[DocPC]

Originally posted by kannibul
I bought it as OEM, so I'm not sure if it would be or not. Even if it is, I think it would be complicated, since IBM no longer is in the HDD business.

There's always Ebay - the drive might be fine, just a little louder than I think it should be.

In comparison, my new Maxtor Atlas IV U320 10K drives, are quieter (both of them put together!)

OEM drives made before October of last year stilll have a 3 year warranty on them and all drives are being RMA'd by Hitachi......

http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/pre_rma.htm

[Woody01]

See what PC World thinks about hard drives. http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...18,pg,1,00.asp

[RejectionMan]

for Uber performance look into harnessing yur HDD with a promise controller with on card cache slot, up to 128mb by addig a DIMM module(not sure if it supports DDR yet!)

[kannibul]

Originally posted by RejectionMan
for Uber performance look into harnessing yur HDD with a promise controller with on card cache slot, up to 128mb by addig a DIMM module(not sure if it supports DDR yet!)

For Uber performance - I go SCSI - but since I have only one PCI slot, which is used by my M-Audio Delta 44, SCSI isn;t an option, and neither is using an extra card.

Also, DDR on a PCI device would show no benifit, since the maximum speed of a standard 32bit/33MHz PCI slot is 133MB/sec - PC 100 already blows that out of the water - 800MB/sec.

[kannibul]

Originally posted by Woody01
See what PC World thinks about hard drives. http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...18,pg,1,00.asp

I love thier comparison - they list out the features, run a couple of mock tests and time them, and give ratings. The only difference with features of the maxtor Diamond Max 9 Plus, and the Western Digital model, is the ATA133 interface, versus the ATA100 interface.

I've always regarded that magazine as a smoke+mirrors hype machine. Sorry!