WD or Maxtor

mvern2 · Post by **mvern2** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 4:49 pm

I've finally saved up enough to upgrade my rig a bit!

One question i've got! Should i go for:

Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 7200RPM 8MB ATA100 HDD

or

Maxtor 120GB DMax Plus9 7200RPM 8MB ATA133 HDD

They are both $165 at http://www.shoprbc.com (thats Canadian funds). Any bad and/or good encounters with these harddrives? Performace, noise (hot a huge issue), life, etc.

Rainbow · Post by **Rainbow** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 4:56 pm

Myself I like Maxtor...I have RMAed far too many WD drives..I just wont give them a chance anymore....
But I'm sure youll have a ton of people jump on the WD bandwagon....another AMD vs Pentium Saga

BaLa · Post by **BaLa** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 5:12 pm

I like Maxtor..I've used them in most of my rigs and never had a prob. so far.....

most ppls will prolly recommend the WD
not sure which one is faster since both are 8mb cache drives

Shagster · Post by **Shagster** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 6:18 pm

I have a maxtor, I have a WD, my next is looking like a maxtor.

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 6:31 pm

I highly reocmmend WD

never was fond of Maxtor

Mytflyguy · Post by **Mytflyguy** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 6:43 pm

I like both , just recently order a WD , But the Maxtor has ATA-133

Go for Maxtor in my humble opinion

BaLa · Post by **BaLa** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 6:46 pm

some ppls say the ATA 133 vs. ATA 100
is not a big (if any diff)

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 6:47 pm

Originally posted by Mytflyguy
I like both , just recently order a WD , But the Maxtor has ATA-133

Go for Maxtor in my humble opinion

ATA/133 isn't anything big. Maxtor is the only hard drive maker using it. It never took off, because the coming beast that is Serial-ATA was going to supplant it.

WD drives are great performers, but they tend to be whiny.

Maxtor drives have a rep as less reliable as WD, but they do not suffer from "whininess" in my experience.

Either way you're getting a good drive...the 8 MB cache is what's important anyway.

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 7:41 pm

Originally posted by Burke
ATA/133 isn't anything big. Maxtor is the only hard drive maker using it. It never took off, because the coming beast that is Serial-ATA was going to supplant it.

WD drives are great performers, but they tend to be whiny.

Maxtor drives have a rep as less reliable as WD, but they do not suffer from "whininess" in my experience.

Either way you're getting a good drive...the 8 MB cache is what's important anyway.

my WD never were whiney...always quiet as a mouse

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 7:45 pm

wd > *

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 7:49 pm

Many years in the field, there's a comma in the amount of Maxtor/Quantum drives I'd replaced and thrown away. I rarely replace WD, Seagate, and even IBM drives.

AMPLIFRIER · Post by **AMPLIFRIER** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 11:42 am

WD here

im running a stripped raid setup with the wd 120gig 8mb cache buffer

apps launch instantly on it.

AMP

WolfgangPC · Post by **WolfgangPC** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 12:43 pm

I have used a couple of Maxtors(40Gig/80Gig) and I just switched to WD, the special edition 80Gig/7200/8mg cache and I have to say this is very impressive, much quicker than the 80Gig Maxtor(also with 8Mg cache) I was running, not to mention the Maxtor crapped out after only 2 months, so I was recommended to switch to the WD, and it's great much smoother overall.I am sticking with WD from here on in.

mvern2 · Post by **mvern2** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 3:57 pm

Thanks for everyones replys:

i think that i'm gonna give the Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 7200RPM 8MB ATA100 HDD a go! i've heard a lot of good things about them (mainly in speed which is primarily what i'm looking for since i want to maximaize my current pc's potential)...plus 120 Gb will be a huge upgrade from 40 Gb

Also i currently have a 40 Gb Quantum Fireball drive which is PAINfully slow (but not too slow) but slow enough for me to want to get a new drive...plus i only have 5 Gb left on it so its time for a new one.

Along with the WD i'm getting 512 mb RAM (Crucial 2100 DDR) on top of 256 mb so my putter should be running a bit faster after these upgrades!

Thanks once again!

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:39 pm

Originally posted by mvern2
Thanks for everyones replys:

i think that i'm gonna give the Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 7200RPM 8MB ATA100 HDD a go! i've heard a lot of good things about them (mainly in speed which is primarily what i'm looking for since i want to maximaize my current pc's potential)...plus 120 Gb will be a huge upgrade from 40 Gb

Also i currently have a 40 Gb Quantum Fireball drive which is PAINfully slow (but not too slow) but slow enough for me to want to get a new drive...plus i only have 5 Gb left on it so its time for a new one.

Along with the WD i'm getting 512 mb RAM (Crucial 2100 DDR) on top of 256 mb so my putter should be running a bit faster after these upgrades!

Thanks once again!

You'll notice a big difference with both more RAM and a faster hard drive.

mvern2 · Post by **mvern2** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 8:30 pm

You'll notice a big difference with both more RAM and a faster hard drive.

yeah...a new HD and RAM are all that i can afford right now....down the road i wanna upgrade from my GeForce 2 GTS 64mb to a Radeon 9500 or 9600...down the road!

shadrach · Post by **shadrach** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 6:17 pm

I posed the same ? a few months ago in this thread:
https://www.speedguide.net/forums/ ... did=117914

I ended up buying a WD SE 200GB and it's whisper quiet, big and fast....

mccoffee · Post by **mccoffee** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 6:25 pm

Burke is right about wd being whinny those jumper settings have to exect on all drives. If your wd is set to auto and say cdrom is on auto it wd hates it. WD makes good drives.