The Best Hard Drives

[alter-ego]

Here's my situation, I have 2 320 GB 3.0GB/s Seagate Barracuda SATA2 HDD's installed in my main rig. Unfortunately I was stupid enough to not have done my research prior to picking them up as if I did I would have known to stay away from the 7200.11 firmware versions as I've read there not exactly reliable.

Well, one of these two drives was a system drive and it has now failed completely. There have been signs of this becoming an issues for many weeks now with registry errors, driver issues and most recently, software related issues/bugs.

I'm quite sure this is not the work of a Trojan or some other type of nefarious or rogue program.

I'm now faced with the task of replacing this drive but I'll be replacing it with 2 separate drives as I was stupid enough to have some games on it too such as my entire Steam platform.

My questions are:

1. Any recommendations on a good system drive (C:\)? I want this drive to be a smaller drive and I DO NOT want to partition it, it will ONLY be a dedicated system drive.
2. What is a good reliable HDD for gaming?
3. Do I need to take into account aiming for a larger Cache 16MB - 32MB?

As mentioned above I'm a gamer but my rig is not exactly current so I'm squeezing it a bit to get all I can from it. My specs are as follows:

• Intel Conroe E6600 2.4 Dual Core CPU (overclocked to 2.7)
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS @ 640MB DDR2
• 2 x 1 GB Kingston DDR2
• Antec NEO HE 550 Watt PSU (504 Watt nominal)
• Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS
• Windows XP SP3

Incidentally, I live in New Westminster BC (Canada) so I'll be shopping either NCIX or Atic.

Also, I'm obviously a bit leery of Seagate now for obvious reasons so unless you're very confident in your selection, please do not recommend them.

I'm hoping to pick up a new drive in the next few days because working off this old backup will drive me closer to insanity with each passing moment.

Thanks for your help.

Ken

[alter-ego]

I'm actually considering the following as a system drive:

http://www.atic.ca/index.php?page=LongDesc&sku=44868

or

http://www.atic.ca/index.php?page=LongDesc&sku=39653

This one also looks like it might be good too although it's a lot of capacity I won't be needing (however it is cheap):

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...20Digital%20WD

[Brave7]

I will buy this for the system drive:
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...20Digital%20WD

and this for the data drive:
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...D&promoid=1192
or depending on your budget for the data drive this:
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...20Digital%20WD

I had a few Western Digital Raptor/Veliraptor and I can tell you they are fast and reliable. If you can find the Western Digital Veliraptor with 300GB it is even better.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=494
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=488

[alter-ego]

Thanks for the links NE, much appreciated!

I should have mentioned that times are a bit tough in camp alter-ego so I really can't blow too much coin atm.

The best I can hope for right now is sticking with 7200 RPM for the system drive such as Caviar Black you linked to:

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...D&promoid=1192

Incidentally I've read the blacks are meant more for server applications so they tend to be a bit noisier than the regular WD Drives. Is this a fact or simply an opinion based off a few wayward reviews?

[Brave7]

If an Hard Drive perform well in term of speed and reliability, I can live with the annoying noise. I remember that the first Western Digital Raptor 76GB I bought was very loud, but it was damn fast.

The Western Digital Caviar Black are excellent, I've got 1T actually on my computer for data. Just try to get the capacity you want with the maximun cache which should be 32GB and you will be ok.

[Hades]

I'm now faced with the task of replacing this drive but I'll be replacing it with 2 separate drives as I was stupid enough to have some games on it too such as my entire Steam platform.

Steam shouldn't be a problem since the games that you purchased are associated to your account, simply login with the new system and it will download your games automatically and for free. Also if you didn't switch yet, use the Steam Backup feature (here's how), you can burn your games to DVDs and install them to the other HD.

1. Any recommendations on a good system drive (C:\)? I want this drive to be a smaller drive and I DO NOT want to partition it, it will ONLY be a dedicated system drive.
2. What is a good reliable HDD for gaming?
3. Do I need to take into account aiming for a larger Cache 16MB - 32MB?

The WD Velociraptor that Natural Elements recommended you is very good for both System HD and gaming, it has a very fast response. Unfortunately after some time it gets noisy but I think every HD does.

I have it since a year ago and I'm having a great time with my games, of course that performance also depends on the other components but that HD is a very good choice.

[gammaRascal]

I'm also a fan of the WD's.

I don't know if you know this or not but newegg has a new .ca version, www.newegg.ca , of their site now - might want to check prices against them as well. They have a decent user review and return policy - I don't know the other sites you mentioned so I'm not comparing them, just saying.

[alter-ego]

Thanks for all the great feedback here folks, very much appreciated.

I think for now since money is tight (I should have put that in the title), I'll be looking for one of the lower priced WD options and maybe upgrade to the 10,000 RPM Velociraptor down the road (likely when I move to Windows 7).

The one question I do have though is will I notice a huge leap in performance between a 16MB Cache and a 32MB? I realize 32 is double but will it represent a hugely noticeable difference in a system drive for anything other than rebooting the system?

[Hades]

People looking for HDs for personal usage usually despise the difference in cache size, and take other things into account when buying a HD (price, capacity, warranty length), the difference in cache size is not noticeable.

The cache size determines how much data can the HD hold before writing it, so unless you run applications that need to write a lot of data into the HD (video processing, batch processing, heavy databases, etc...) you won't notice any difference. If your computer has slow HD access it is usually due to other factors (lack of memory, slow processor, bad fragmentation, etc).

[Brave7]

Yes Hades is right, you have to take into account some other things if you want a very fast system.

Here a few points to take in consideration to increase the speed on a resonable priced system:
CPU
Motherboard Bandwidth Speeds
Memory RAM speed and capacity
Graphic Card speed and capacity
HD speed and capacity
and OS

It really depends of what workstation/computer you need, what kind of softwares you run and off course your budget.

Between 16MB cache and 32MB cache you will see a very little difference.

[Hades]

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

CPU
Motherboard Bandwidth Speeds
Memory RAM speed and capacity
Graphic Card speed and capacity
HD speed and capacity
and OS

I might also add cooling as a crucial factor if it's a gaming rig. Alter-ego said he's a gamer, so I would suggest keeping that GeForce 8800 under 60ºC whenever possible to get steady frame rates.

[Brave7]

That's right I forgot the cooling system good catch

Ok a good configuration is a powerful power supply even if you don't use all the power, it will remain cool.

A good CPU cooling system. I use a Big Thyphoon made by Thermaltake
Avoid IDE connections which take too much space compare to sata.

Put as many fans as you can, check often if they run properly, clean your computer with air can.

I've got a Radeon HD 4850 and it is very reliable on hot temperature.

[alter-ego]

Thanks again all, great info here.

I actually built this PC and tried to address all issues when putting it together. I did a lot of homework to make sure I was putting together the best possible system at the best possible price (at the time). I made sure to match components or only purchase recommended components that worked flawlessly with one another (example: Asus and Kingston).

My previous PC had a fan die on the chipset which actually deformed the motherboard enough to destabilize the system and eventually fail completely, this represented the last system I ever purchased pre-assembled.

At the time of assembling this PC I picked up an P5B Deluxe WiFi because I liked the radiator dissipating CPU heat along the back of the mobo; this also represented my move from Gigabyte (the nicest layed out boards in the market IMHO) to Asus (36 month warranty as opposed to 12). Both airflow and cooling have always been one of my top priorities which was the reason for the NEO HE as detachable cables means less wiring to block airflow.

I currently have 9 fans going in my rig at any one time 3 of which are dedicated to the gfx card alone. The only NVIDIA software I use are the display drivers as well as DDS utilities for Photoshop (vehicle skinning), everything else graphics is all controlled via Riva Tuner.

I also monitor overall temperatures as well as load via additional tools such as CPUz and TaT.

The games I play are a bit demanding such as ArmAII so I'm constantly tweaking my rig to squeeze out a few extra frames here and there. I'm also big into simulators which you gotta play at high details for them to feel "simlike". Lastly I like racing however I don't enjoy playing a racing game unless my website skins are on my vehicles for example:

[Brave7]

I've got a similar Abit board which runs 1060Mhz and 1333Mhz. Asus, MSI, are also very good brands. Gigabyte is a lower quality, I had one before and was disappointed with the reliability and parts that break just after the warranty

Anyway, that just fun to build a computer

[thumbtak]

Western digital is always way to go. They are cheaper and much more reliable. For $100 about you can get a 1TB WD now a days. I think at best buy for an external one it is $104. They seem to have the cheapest. I know this because my friend has one and it is a my book brand.

Segate has its issues over time and die quicker then WD.

[Dielectric]

I used to prefer Maxtors in the early 2000s but then their QC went down the drain, and I had a few maxtors fail prematurely during 2004-2005. Since then I've avoided maxtors, and prefer WD, Hitachi or seagate. The most reliable drives I've had so far have always been WD. Last year 2 brand new 500GB Seagate 7200.11s failed on me in quick succession in just 2 weeks of use, so I am avoiding seagate for now.

[flaminjo]

I personally dont have much Idea about the computer components, but during my last trip to South Africa, i had found this company and purchased one 1TB WD HDD, and trust me it is one of the best drives have used, i can caryy it anywhere i go, my data is always secured, i can plug into different computer and have my complete data.

[totsky]

Seagate the best hard disk for me and trusted

[thewebhostingdir]

Refer the below mentioned link:

http://compreviews.about.com/b/2009/...ard-drives.htm

[naumanx2]

yes i am also the fan of Seagate HardDrive.
It is best for me from when i start to using it...