Simple hard drive question

RichyX

I'm looking to buy a new HD. Thing is Komplett have 120GB drives that are ATA 100 and 133. My PC is a 2 year old Dell 1.8ghz P4. My current drive is a 60 gig WD Caviar.
Will a ATA133 HD be ok for my system?

Col_Loki

You wont notice any difference between ATA100 and 133 so dont let that affect your decision.

Basicly .....

Western Digital -> Best performers, Noisiest
Maxtor -> Mid performance and noise
Seagate -> Lowest performance, Lowest noise

Samsung are -> Mid performance, Low noise

Your system should be fine with either.

RichyX

So it doesn't make any difference at all?
I just wanted to be sure 133 wouldn't cause me any trouble.

I was never a fan of any Sansung stuff. My DVD drive is a Samsung and its a complete piece of junk. Had an old 3GB Samsung years ago that wasn't great either, was extremely noisey.

Is there any of the 120GB HD's in this list anyone would personally recommend?

Samsung SpinPoint P80 120GB 8MB IDE ATA/133 8MB cache 7200RPM: €93.30
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB 8MB IDE ATA/100 8MB cache 7200RPM: €91.09
WD Caviar 120GB IDE ATA/100 Special Edition 8MB cache 7200RPM: €94.34
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB 8MB IDE ATA/133 8MB cache 7200RPM: €97.28

Col_Loki

Well i have 2 Western Digital hard drives in my other system and one of them is the 120gb 8mb cache. Have also tried seagate and maxtor (and am using samsung at the min). Generally happy with the WD's and the only reason i canged is because i was changing to a very quiet system.

If your not trying for a really quiet system then the Western Digital shouldnt bother you and its the best performer so thats the one i would go for. HardDrives just arent fast enough to fill ATA100 nevermind ATA133 so no performance increase.

unkel

Have had numerous WD Special Edition 8MB cache drives over the last 3 years and their performance is excellent albeit a bit noisy. Have recently got rid of all of them and now using 2 Samsung SATA 160GB 8MB cache drives in a RAID0 configuration in my main rig

Very pleased with these drives, performance is very good and the drives are very quiet

Have read several reviews of the drives prior to purchase and it seems that Samsung (although having manufactured hard disks for years) came from nowhere in the retail hard disk market with their current Spinpoint ATA and SATA drives

COL_LOKI's table above is crude, but true

jozi

What do you's mean with noisey!

you mean when the pc is busy reading from the disk or just in general?

have 2 maxtor, 60gig ata 133 and 80gig sata. did notice the sata drive to be more quiet when reading from the disk.

as i cant complain about the noise of my drives (if any) so i'm wondering does it really make it worth paying extra money for a silent drive?

a friend of mine has a 120gig maxtor noticed it was very hot to touch when messing with his pc the other day, just in case keeping system temp down is a factor.

jozi

Col_Loki

Generally the noise wont bother you unless your going with a really quiet system in the first place. Most case fans will drown out the noise of your hard drive but if you've water-cooling, quiet fans .... etc then your going to notice and get annoyed with your noisey hard drive!!

Generally you dont pay more for a silent drive, infact sometimes there cheaper. You have to weigh up hot hot the drive will get, its noise, and its performance and weigh it on that.

Dr Bolouswki

I've read good reviews of maxtor diamondmax series 9 and the samsung spinpoint P80's...

If noise is not really an issue I'd recommend getting one that has 3 year warranty - put it somewhere where you can position a fan to blow over it if you're worried about heat...

AFAIK, performance boost between IDE 100 and 133 is minimal, SATA might be significant, but your machine mightn't have SATA...

RichyX

Originally posted by Killah_B
AFAIK, performance boost between IDE 100 and 133 is minimal, SATA might be significant, but your machine mightn't have SATA...

I've got a 1.8ghz P4 Dell mobo, what are the chances I have SATA? The prices seem very close to the IDE drives.
Hate to bring this topic up again but I've been forced to make a decision and get a HD in the next week.

Col_Loki

I would say chances are very unlightly. Have a look inside your case for SATA connectors on the motherboard to make sure i suppose, but TBH i think theres practically no chance.