Hoo-boy are they expensive, but it sure would be nice to have. Till the price comes down I'll probably stick to the 300GB/16MB Maxtors, which run about $130 (in the states) vs the $400 or so they're asking for this one. I figure the extra potential transfer speed isn't worth the price, I'd get another 400 gigs or so for the same price by getting three of the Maxtors. Product line makes no sense imo, they go from ATA/100 2MB cache to SATAII-300 16MB cache...
I have to agree that it would be better to get 3 250Gb drives for similar money, but I've been reading that Seagate are offering a 5-year warranty on the 7200.9 drives. (When some other manufacturers only offer 12 months!) Although the couple of UK dealers I've just looked at only offer the 500Gb drive, this range goes down to 80Gb. (Link to Seagate's product page)
WD's sataII 16mb drives are only 90 odd quid for a 250 gigger raid 0 2 of them, you've got much better performance thna a single 7200.9 for less money. Ok its 2 drives but still....
Just a quick note to say that if you're going to use it, 300GB HDDs tend to be about £5 cheaper per 100GB then 250GB HDD's in the UK right now. The 300's are in the sweetspot.
I've seen the 500GB models on sale for about a week now, but no sign of the lower GB models. Where could they be?
That's right. You should really base price PER GB as its easier to determine value. I bought two 300GB HDDs at 39p per gig (or £39 per 100gig). That was back in March, now you can get 300GB's for less than 33p per gig). To compare, The 500GB seagate will cost you 52p per gig and a 250GB will cost about 35p per gig. 300gigs are in the "Sweetspot" for now.
yeah but a year guarantee and speeds almost rivalling the raptor are not to be sneezed at.. you get what you pay for. The 5 year guarantee is worth it alone IMO
Definitely. I'm in the market for a new drive and I think that the good experiences I've had with Seagate (as well as their huge warranty) justify the premium.
Slightly off topic, but has anyone with one of newer drives seen good performance. Just wonder if this 16mb cache really makes much of a difference?
not had one hands on, but it is supposed to be incredibly nippy. For most people (myself included) the noise (or lack of) this thing makes is the main selling point, it'll be perfect for the next project i have in mind.
all i can say is if you choose a maxtor over a seagate even if the maxtor is for less money your hopping on one leg and shooting yourself in the foot.
all I can say is that I have had dozens of maxtor drives and had one fail, and have had dozens of seagate drives and had one fail
Not really, I paid £100 for my Maxtor Maxline III, a Seagate of equivelent status would have been £115, both came with 5 year warrenties, both came with 16MB cache, but the maxtor was cheaper, and was rated as being better by storage review.
Too right, Seagate anyday over Maxtor. Maxtor are known to fail so much more than Seagates. Right now, if I had to pick a drive, i'd be buying Seagate or Samsung, no question about price.
what im saying is, ive had a single maxtor fail and a single seagate fail, and have had dozens of each (maybe even a few more maxtor, but whos counting) no question about price? fujitsu any time
I've used drives from each of the "big three", only brand I've had fail is a Seagate. Got it replaced, no problem with any drive since. Oldest working drive I have is a Maxtor (some old 13gb thing I bought used). So far it totals up to a 300/16 Maxtor (Maxline III), 2x 80/8 Seagate, 1x 80/8 WD, 2x 36/8 WD Raptor, and looking into another 300/16 Maxline III. Overall pretty good experience with all of them, each have their own benefits imo, I choose what fits the situation best. buzz_lips - yep, the extra cache does seem to give the drive a snappier feeling. Keeping your drive well-defragged helps more, but it helps a bit.
Well, maxtors are generally known for failing a bit, I know a friend who has had 4 maxtors fail in less than 2 weeks. Crazy as it might be but that's what happened, however maxtor do have an excellent returns procedure and you get can get a replacement drive extremely quickly. I personally never had a drive fail on me but would rather go with seagate rather than maxtor.
Hmm, all drives fail, I've had 4 maxtors, one of which failed but it was a year after its warrenty ended, so 4 years isnt bad for a drive. Redundency or backups are the only sure thing when it comes to not losing data in hard drive failures, you can't just pick a brand and be sure that it's going to last.
