Upgrading PC to a 300GB drive and will use current Maxtor 80GB drive as slave storage drive once ghosted to new drive and reformat. System about a 4 year old Dell Demension 8200 P4. Looking around and have narrowed down to Maxtor or Western Digital. WD is somewhat cheaper but not enough to make a differnce if Maxtor better drive. Have a 20GB drive as a slave now and can't remember who manufacturer is and disc manager just says "standard disc drive". Opinions please!
I've never had problems with Maxtors. Between family and friends I've installed about 10 of them in the last few years and no crashes that were the drives fault.
i hate to make your decision any harder, but i have the opposite experience with maxtor. i've seen them fail 3-4 times with my family and friends. i've always had great experiences with WD. i have 3 of their drives in my machine now a 36gig raptor, a 320gig, and an 80gig.
I'm VERY greatful for the fact that I can get others opinions here at AD. I am leaning towards the WD based on fact a little cheaper at 320GB and free shipping from the supplier. Will hold off until end of the week just in case someone else has something to add. Thanks to Deadrum33 and rooster33 for taking the time to give their input. I have gotten a lot of help here at AD regarding other issues with decryption, DVD disc quality and LG v.s. NEC for a replacement burner that are invaluable.
I knew there would be more opinions! Thanks GrandpaBW. I take it by your handle you're a Baby Boomer too? Really hard at this time of life to pick up this stuff but I'm making a real effort at it. Better than watching reruns of I Love Lucy(in black and white)!
OK Grandpa, I looked at Seagate and have a question. What is SATA? Not in AD glossary and need to know if will be compatable with my Dell. I know it is an ATA case whatever that means because my son is a network administartor who said I should look for that when bought Dell 4 yrs ago. I would normally pick his brain but he is in a different State and as any parent will tell you once they grow up and on their own you never hear from them unless they need $$$$$. Really good kid but busy with his own life. Thanks again and I wait for your sage wisdom.
Sata is a relitively new thing, so i doubt your motherboard will support it, the connection is small but speed is faster... if that makes sense.
"I'd rather use a Seagate drive." Oh, don't say that. In the class of drives above 250, seagates are the LEAST reliable. (see storagereview.com)
I would also say Seagate. I know from personal experience that you won't find a Western Digital or Maxtor in servers that run 24/7/365, but you will find Seagate. They also have a 5 yr warranty where WD/Maxtor has max of 3 yrs, only 1 yr on some models. Glancing at the storagereview article I would take that with a grain of salt. The one I saw was a survey, not actual reliabilty tests. People tend to complain if they have a failure and keep quiet if everything is working fine. Also the people that would browse storagereview are probably more network/server admins than normal users so since Seagate is the predominant vendor in that field the results may be a little slanted.
Thanks to all. Went with a Seagate after looked around and found a good deal. It was more the the 5 yr warrantee that tipped the scale along with the sellers return policy and the tempoary free shipping. I do appreciate all the input and still say couldn't find a better place to get straight skinny even if a difference of opinions. Thanks to all for yor help!!!
