Seagate or Western Digital?

[PeteRoy]

I have 2 questions:

1. Can SATA2 Hard drive work on SATA 1 motherboard?

2. I plan to buy a new hard drive soon, I could go for either

Seagate 160GB SATA 8MB Buffer 7200 RPM

or

Western Digital 250GB SATA 8MB Buffer 7200 RPM

Both cost the same at the same store, is there a special reason Seagate cost more for less space?

Thank you.

 

[killershroom1985]

Originally posted by: PeteRoy
I have 2 questions:

1. Can SATA2 Hard drive work on SATA 1 motherboard?

2. I plan to buy a new hard drive soon, I could go for either

Seagate 160GB SATA 8MB Buffer 7200 RPM

or

Western Digital 250GB SATA 8MB Buffer 7200 RPM

Both cost the same at the same store, is there a special reason Seagate cost more for less space?

Thank you.

My WD 250 SATA drive is LOUD! You can hear it spin up and it whines...I don't know if it is going out or what, but it hasn't even reached a year old. Very annoying, but I'm stuck with it for now...hope the damn thing doesn't fail. Don't go WD!

I recommend going Hitachi. Quiet as hell and wonderful performance.

 

[F1shF4t]

Yes SATA2 is backward compatible i believe.

And i prefer wester digital as much as segate, in fact western digital more than segate.
I recon go for the one thats cheper and more space, in this case WD one.

 

[Gamer X]

WDs are more reliable than Segates.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: killershroom1985

Originally posted by: PeteRoy
I have 2 questions:

1. Can SATA2 Hard drive work on SATA 1 motherboard?

2. I plan to buy a new hard drive soon, I could go for either

Seagate 160GB SATA 8MB Buffer 7200 RPM

or

Western Digital 250GB SATA 8MB Buffer 7200 RPM

Both cost the same at the same store, is there a special reason Seagate cost more for less space?

Thank you.

My WD 250 SATA drive is LOUD! You can hear it spin up and it whines...I don't know if it is going out or what, but it hasn't even reached a year old. Very annoying, but I'm stuck with it for now...hope the damn thing doesn't fail. Don't go WD!

I recommend going Hitachi. Quiet as hell and wonderful performance.

The raptors are loud i have 2 WD 200 gig and they are silent, maybe since that one is 250 gig they might have different platter etc but meh.

 

[stevty2889]

MyWD 250gig is nice and quiet as well. I have had no problems with either seagate or western digital drives, they are both good.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: killershroom1985

Originally posted by: PeteRoy
I have 2 questions:

1. Can SATA2 Hard drive work on SATA 1 motherboard?

2. I plan to buy a new hard drive soon, I could go for either

Seagate 160GB SATA 8MB Buffer 7200 RPM

or

Western Digital 250GB SATA 8MB Buffer 7200 RPM

Both cost the same at the same store, is there a special reason Seagate cost more for less space?

Thank you.

My WD 250 SATA drive is LOUD! You can hear it spin up and it whines...I don't know if it is going out or what, but it hasn't even reached a year old. Very annoying, but I'm stuck with it for now...hope the damn thing doesn't fail. Don't go WD!

I recommend going Hitachi. Quiet as hell and wonderful performance.

OMFG some BAAAAD advice here....

Hitachis are known as deskstars aka DEATHSTARS becasue they fail so damn much..

WD is a great drive Ive got WDs in my box from 4 years ago still along side of 2 brand new WD Sata 300 drives..

never 1 bit a trouble with them..
Seagate is great too and thier 5 year warranty rocks..

 

[fredhe12]

I don't think you could go wrong with either brand. Don't know why the difference in price in your case, but online, prices on similar capacities seem to be comparable.

 

[Makaveli]

Hitachis are known as deskstars aka DEATHSTARS becasue they fail so damn much..

That is incorrect, it was the IBM drives that were known to fail and only certain models. IF your gonna be making blanket statements like that please be accurate. Now that Hitachi owns it, i've yet to hear of any High failure rates or anything in general that would be out of the ordinary for Standard Hard drives.

 

[Eddieo]

Anything but a WD.

Maxtor FTW.

 

[killershroom1985]

Here's the noise if you want to hear it. It starts up at about the 13-14 second mark. The clicking at first is me letting the lense cap hit the computer, so ignore that :laugh:

http://home.comcast.net/~airmanchad/hard_drive.MOV

 

[GrammatonJP]

Originally posted by: Gamer X
WDs are more reliable than Segates.

If you're going to make a statement like that, I hope you have some proof to back it up

 

[GrammatonJP]

Drives are mechanical, all drive will fail, if not now, eventually, theres nothing you can do about it.

Your only option are backups.

Seagate have 5 year warranty, only higher end WD have 5 year warranty. Rest have either 3 or 1.

I rather buy something with 5 year warranty and send it back for replacement and stick to my backups

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: Makaveli

Hitachis are known as deskstars aka DEATHSTARS becasue they fail so damn much..

That is incorrect, it was the IBM drives that were known to fail and only certain models. IF your gonna be making blanket statements like that please be accurate. Now that Hitachi owns it, i've yet to hear of any High failure rates or anything in general that would be out of the ordinary for Standard Hard drives.

Yes, the issue was entirely limited to the 60GXP and 75GXP drives, which were made by IBM before the sell-off. And the problem has since been fixed with a firmware upgrade. The drives were (and reportedly are) quite good performers other than that one, correctable, problem.

Hiatchi's current crop are supposed to be rather good.

 

[imported_Imp]

I used a Seagate SATA for a while before going to an IDE WD due to my crappy mobo. However, I can say that I liked the Seagate more since it was dead quiet; I never heard any sounds from it. With the Western Digital, there is a lot more whirring and the headpark on shut down scared the crap out of me initially. Besides that, the Seagate is stilling kicking after 4 months in another system, my WD is still kicking fine after 2 months. Then again, my side panels are off right now, so the sound is probably more apparent that you'd normally get. Also, Seagates have 5 year warranty and WD have 3 so if I were to get another drive right now, I'd go with either company, whichever is cheaper.

 

[killershroom1985]

Originally posted by: killershroom1985
Here's the noise if you want to hear it. It starts up at about the 13-14 second mark. The clicking at first is me letting the lense cap hit the computer, so ignore that :laugh:

http://home.comcast.net/~airmanchad/hard_drive.MOV

Anyone able to figure out if this sounds normal or I should be hurrying out to buy a new drive ASAP?

 

[EndGame]

Get the Seagate.........quieter, 5 Year warranty.

 

[smthmlk]

i havent seen so much bunk information in a thread in a long, long time.

To the original poster: Obviously everyone is divided on what brand is best. Read some reviews of both drives (not opinions by users on forums who've had less than 20 drives in their entire lives) from actual review sites, and probably most importantly, check out http://www.storagereview.com . Consider what you need most (space vs. noise vs. heat vs. performance vs. cost vs. reliability [this last one requires research in the right places, anandtech not being one of them]) and then pick whatever works.

I tend to buy WD and Seagates when they go for cheap with rebates (outpost.com / Frys electronics) because both are good brands and they go on sale often (I like to buy big drives under $0.50/GB). But that's just me. Good luck in your research and eventual purchase.

 

[Shivindragon]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake
Yes SATA2 is backward compatible i believe.

And i prefer wester digital as much as segate, in fact western digital more than segate.
I recon go for the one thats cheper and more space, in this case WD one.

Are you sure about older Mobo who support SATA1 are compatible with SATA2 drives? Because I'm thinking of getting a new SATA drive soon and looking through some online retailers its hard to find just SATA1 drives. I have a MSI K8N Neo2 Plat. by the way.

 

[Markbnj]

I have two WD drives. The 74g raptor is loud, but blindingly fast loading Windows and games. The 400g SATAII is quite as can be.

The Raptor is about six months old, while the 400 is only three months old.

In the past fifteen years I have used a lot of WD drives and have always been happy with them. I have also bought my share of Seagates and Maxtors, and have had no reason to complain about either.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Originally posted by: Gamer X
WDs are more reliable than Segates.

Word....
I still have a 2 gig caviar from an ancient build (k6-233 mhz maybe?) running in an external enclosure for moving files around. Service has been great for the one time i did have a WD drive die and will ALWAYS give them the nod

 

[Electric Amish]

I would recommend the Hitachi. I have installed several of them and own one myself. They are quiet and fast.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Among IDE drives:
Seagate 7200.7=VERY reliable. 7200.8 not so, 7200.9 too soon.
IBM/Hitachi 75GXP and 60GXP lines=very unreliable. 7k250 about average, others too soon.
WDs are generally below average, but have an occasional line above.
Maxtors just behind WD.
Samsung is pretty much average
Fujitsu is quite low.

Taken from the reliability database at storage review, the "average" includes SCSI drives but my quick summary does not. (SCSI drives are rarely unreliable)