Is this one of the best HDDs out? (link: http://www.wdc.com/products/Products.asp?DriveID=27 )

I heard that WD makes GREAT HDDs but, are there better ones out there? (EDIT BEGINS HERE) I'm currently looking at a WD drive. Here's the stats/info:

Western Digital WD1200JB Hard Disk Drive

Performance
Rotational Speed 7,200 RPM (nominal)
Buffer Size 8 MB
Buffer To Disk 602.0 Mbits/s (Max)
Read Seek Time (Average) 8.9 ms
Write Seek Time (Average) 10.9 ms (average)
Track-To-Track Seek Time 2.0 ms (average)
Full Stroke Seek 21.0 ms (average)
Average Latency 4.2 ms (nominal)
Mode 5 Ultra ATA 100.0 MB/s
Mode 4 Ultra ATA 66.6 MB/s
Mode 2 Ultra ATA 33.3 MB/s
Mode 4 PIO 16.6 MB/s
Mode 2 multi-word DMA 16.6 MB/s

Configuration
Cylinders 16,383
Number of Heads (Logical) 16
Number of Heads (Physical) 6
Sectors Per Track 63
Formatted Capacity 120,034 MB
Interface EIDE
Actuator Type Rotary Voice Coil
Number of Platters 3
Bytes Per Sector 512
User Sectors Per Drive 234,441,648
Servo Type Embedded

Dimension & Environmental
Height (English) 1.028 Inches (Max)
Length (English) 5.787 Inches (Max)
Width (English) 4.00 Inches (+/- 0.010 inch)
Weight (English) 1.32 Pounds (+/- 0.14 pounds)
Operating Shock (Read) 65G, 2ms
Non-operating Shock 200G, 2 ms
Idle Mode 35 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 0 39 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 3 37 dBA (average)

I'm pretty new to HDD shopping so, I need you help on this one. (EDIT ENDS HERE) Can anyone tell me what to look for when buying a HDD? If so, what should I be looking for if I want the TOP THREE HDDS? THANKS FOR ALL OPINIONS/HELP...

Last edited by ali92 on May-16-2002 at 07:47

Need some info...
What type of connector do you have to connect to the new HDD?
ATA100? ATA133?

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quote:

Originally posted by ali92 Is this one of the best HDDs out? (link: http://www.wdc.com/products/Products.asp?DriveID=27 ) I heard that WD makes GREAT HDDs but, are there better ones out there? Can anyone tell me what to look for when buying a HDD? If so, what should I be looking for if I want the TOP THREE HDDS? THANKS FOR ALL OPINIONS/HELP...

ok, you need to define BEST and you need to define how much money you are willing to shell out.

1. if best means quietest, then the Seagate Barracuda IV (4) series is for you

2. if best means largest, then there is a 160GB IDE drive made by maxtor, or the Seagate Barracuda 180 for SCSI

3. if best means the freaking fastest Access time, then there is the Seagate Cheetah X15 36LP, which has a 3.6 ms access time, it is SCSI though and it will set you back ~ 300 US$ at least.
for IDE, i would say the best access time is the WD1200JB, since it has a huge cache (8MB)

so, if I were to assume that you want the best all round deal, I would say the WD1200JB is the best thing you can buy, but there are better drives for other applications (I WISH i could afforc a cheetah X15)

for more info, you should visit www.storagereview.com

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quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r Need some info... What type of connector do you have to connect to the new HDD? ATA100? ATA133?

How do I find this out? I just bought this PC on 2001/09/17 and I'm (still) unfamiliar with the internal components. What does it look like? I have a COMPAQ Presario 5000 Series, Model 5080US.

quote:

Originally posted by drizzt81 ok, you need to define BEST and you need to define how much money you are willing to shell out. 1. if best means quietest, then the Seagate Barracuda IV (4) series is for you 2. if best means largest, then there is a 160GB IDE drive made by maxtor, or the Seagate Barracuda 180 for SCSI 3. if best means the freaking fastest Access time, then there is the Seagate Cheetah X15 36LP, which has a 3.6 ms access time, it is SCSI though and it will set you back ~ 300 US$ at least. for IDE, i would say the best access time is the WD1200JB, since it has a huge cache (8MB) so, if I were to assume that you want the best all round deal, I would say the WD1200JB is the best thing you can buy, but there are better drives for other applications (I WISH i could afforc a cheetah X15) for more info, you should visit www.storagereview.com

I'm definitely going to check this site out! Thanks! Oh, by "best", I mean most reliable (no sudden data losses and the LEAST crashes).

quote:

Originally posted by ali92 I'm definitely going to check this site out! Thanks! Oh, by "best", I mean most reliable (no sudden data losses and the LEAST crashes).

well, if you mean most reliable, you will have to go with SCSI, since the MTBF (mean time between failure) is much higher with those drives, but i am not sure if you are willing to shell out that kind of $$$.

In the end, it might be cheaper to go with an IDE-Raid 1 solution that to purchase a SCSI solution.

seeing that you have a compaq, i am sure that you don't have a SCSI card, so you'd need to buy a SCSI controller + SCSI drive, which will set you back a fair amount.

I may suggest not going with IBM drives, since I heard a _LOT_ of bad stories about them.

in the end, a IDE based RAID1 solution is prolly the best thing you can do in terms of reliabilty, though I heard that you should not do RAID with the Seagate Barracudea IV drives.

If you go with maxtor drives (dx..), make sure you get teh ball bearing version, since it appears that the dynamic fluid version craps out really fast.

I can also recommend that you take a look at www.hardforum.com and check their harddrive forum. people in there have a lot of knowhow

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I see your 4 Crushs and raise you 3 As The Rush Comes. - Yan from PvD's first summerstage event in '03

1. i need a job
2. i need to work for a few months
3. i need to buy myself a mator D540X 160 gb!!!!! i already have a 60 gb of the same catagory, and it is a very nice drive!

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quote:

Originally posted by drizzt81 well, if you mean most reliable, you will have to go with SCSI, since the MTBF (mean time between failure) is much higher with those drives, but i am not sure if you are willing to shell out that kind of $$$. In the end, it might be cheaper to go with an IDE-Raid 1 solution that to purchase a SCSI solution. seeing that you have a compaq, i am sure that you don't have a SCSI card, so you'd need to buy a SCSI controller + SCSI drive, which will set you back a fair amount. I may suggest not going with IBM drives, since I heard a _LOT_ of bad stories about them. in the end, a IDE based RAID1 solution is prolly the best thing you can do in terms of reliabilty, though I heard that you should not do RAID with the Seagate Barracudea IV drives. If you go with maxtor drives (dx..), make sure you get teh ball bearing version, since it appears that the dynamic fluid version craps out really fast. I can also recommend that you take a look at www.hardforum.com and check their harddrive forum. people in there have a lot of knowhow

Also, that's something I forgot to ask: What is RAID and what'd teh difference between a non-RAID drive and a RAID drive?

Skuzzi all the way!

quote:

Originally posted by ali92 Also, that's something I forgot to ask: What is RAID and what'd teh difference between a non-RAID drive and a RAID drive?

RAID

Redundant Array of independent/Inexpensive Disks.

you would need two hard-drisk to build a RAId array. There is a lot of article written about this out there, as IDE-RAID solutions are quite poplular now. The Idea with RAID-1 is that you would buy two identical disks and write the data to both disks whenever you write it. Therefore you have a "live" copy of all you data. When one HDD fails, you have the second one that will still contain the data, as it is extremely unlikely that both HDD's fail at the same time.

so basically you buy 2 disks, but have only one disks' capacity available.

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I see your 4 Crushs and raise you 3 As The Rush Comes. - Yan from PvD's first summerstage event in '03

Also keep in mind that if you go for Maxtor, don't even bother paying extra for their ATA133 interface since it is useless. Even ATA100 does not get used to it's full potential. (this is how much data can be transferred over the IDE bus). Maxtor are the only ones supporting ATA133 at this time.

there is a few out there, some SCSI ones that are incredibly fast. but limited in their size (15 gigs or so)

they are also very expensive $1000 !!!!! (AUD)

which is probably about $2 american .. hahaha jk

probably about $600

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