I want a 2-300GB drive ! Whats the fastest , quietest , ......... ?
Seagate , Maxtor .......? I will be doing a lot of digital video transfer from vid. cam to dvd and maybe some tv rec. /vid card, just want to know the best drive to get .

Fastest imo is Maxtor Maxline III (for 2-300GB). Quietest is debatable, most people tout Seagate but their 7800.x line is nothing close to quiet.

If you don't care about heat and not so much about noise, the Hitachi 7K500 is getting favourable reviews as a top notch performer.

Might I suggest:

www.storagereview.com for more performance info

and

www.silentpcreview.com for more noise info.

You'll also need to determine if you have SATA capable motherboard or if you only have ATA-100.

If you can, SATA-II drives are the fastest (economically) drives available.

I just picked up a couple of 250 MB Seagate Barracuda SATA for $125 each. They are almost dead silent even under high load and very fast. I find the newer Seagates stay quiet as well. Most PC drive manufacturers use fluid bearings now. They are significantly quieter than many drives just several years old.

I just bought a seagate 250GB as well. It runs 2 to 3 degrees lower than my year old seagatw 120GB (at about 40 c). Cannot hear them in my Sonata case. BTW. If you want to buy Seagate, the 250 GB has two platters (newer technology) and the 300 GB has 3 platters. So it is better to buy the 250 GB.

For storage on my system, I bought a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA150 16MB Cache drive for $118. It's fast and quiet, being much quieter than my Raptor drives. I keep my computer in a compartment in my desk so noise is not really an issue for me.

Watch the cache sizes on drives as larger cache sizes usually means a slight performance increase.

The Hitachi 7K500 and the Western Digital Caviar SE16 400 are the "king of the hills" with the WD being much cooler than the Hitachi. However, you pay to play with these two. $439 for the 7K500 and $278 for the WD4000KD at my local computer store.

Regards,
Dan the HDTV Man

Thanks for the quick replys ! You all gave me the knowledge to at least know where to look , Thank-You !
This forum is sure good for dummys like me !
Hagg.

are they any good

I have two (6GB, 40GB), neither of which has given me any trouble.

are they any goodYes and no.

But seriously, if you want to ask a question here you need to give us lots of information first about what you want/expect. What is your computer like, how much space do you need, what sort of apps are you running, how much do you expect to pay, are you running ATA, SATA, SCSI, USB, etc. etc. so that we can give you a proper response.

are they any good

This type of question will always get a lot of "yes and no "answers.

However, I have a 250 GB installed, and am pleased with it - especially for $89 a few months ago at Future Shop. Right now, it's available as a "Web Only" special for $99.

Probably not the "best" Hard Drive out there, but a great deal at that price.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10073149&catid=10484&CMP=NLC-email_weekly

Apparently best price today is on the unit with 250GB. I intend to get at least one 250 GB unit as I want to develop a PVR machine. Indeed Maxline III is very fast but also runs very hot which can be a problem during the summer. JS series from WD is SATA2 capable and also very fast and cooler but a tad more expensive. I have SATA1 and PATA controllers.

I am looking for a 300GB SATA harddrive online. Anyone know where I can get a good deal....with decent shipping charges or maybe even Free Shipping?

www.1click2computers.com

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/

NCIX (http://www.ncix.com/)

They have a 10th anniversary sale on right now and a Maxtor 300GB (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17402&vpn=6V300F0&manufacture=Maxtor&promoid=1068) drive is $119.99 and $8.99 express shipping.

I would buy Western Digital. I have never been stung with one of their products. I can't bring myself to support Maxtor anymore after numerous failures . (my own equipment and friends)

I, for one, lost 200GB of data on a Western Digital drive last summer - just started up the computer, heard some bad sound, smelled smoke.....no more hard drive.

Nothing personal about anyone who has posted their preferences here... but this debate on "which HD brand is better" for home computer use has been going on since the early 1980s and is still going strong. :)

Nowadays there are very few HD manufacturers so I suppose its a bit easier to just pick a brand that you trust and stay with it if you are satisfied. If you're not sure which brand to buy, see this article and the comments below it:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Seagate_Buys_Maxtor_for_19_Billion/1135181344

I can most definitely say with all confidence and assuredness that the absolute best HD that money can buy is...
open to debate. ;)

Seagate this is one I just bought been great so far (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13632&vpn=ST3300831AS&manufacture=Seagate)

I've been burned too many times in the past by Western Digital drive failures - usually within a week of the warranty expiring.

I've had very good luck with Maxtor drives to date. When I went to get a new drive a few months ago, there was a shortage of Maxtor drives, so I bought a Seagate drive instead. Works great for the video editting I do.