Fastest hard drive for around 5-60 quid

ocukcustomer · 7 May 2006 at 02:15

Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)

What do you think? been going through reviews and this looks like great bang for buck. Is it worth it? what about raid 0?

Messiah Khan · 7 May 2006 at 11:03

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB ST3250824AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-058-SE)

or if you can stretch an extra £5 then;

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB ST3250624AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-058-SE)

or

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)

Edit; I didnt read you post properly an missed the 'fastest' bit. Ive specked for reliability there mainly. Although you not likely to see a huge difference between manufacturers.

id10T_error · 7 May 2006 at 11:09

If it's a boot drive then I would go for the IBM/Hitachi as it's the fastest. If it's for storage then I would get a Seagate as they come with 5 years warranty and speed is not as important compared to a drive used for OS/Programs/Games.

james32 · 7 May 2006 at 11:56

seagate drives are the slowest look at their acces times 15.5ms ah thats why it dont even list them in the specs compared to Hitachi's 8.5ms

fatest 1 raptor
2 Hitachi
3 WD & samsung
4 Maxtor
5 seagate

thats why seagate can give you a 5 year waranity over other manufactures
running slower = living longer if their cooled.

PureAppleJuice · 7 May 2006 at 11:56

Seconded, using that drive to boot for my new system, tested it out and it seems good enough. Gonna get some nice Seagate's set up in RAID for storage

ocukcustomer · 7 May 2006 at 12:03

Sounds like the hitachi is the bad boy to get for big storage and speed for little money.

If I get 2 in raid0 will it be faster than the raptor?

GuruJockStrap · 7 May 2006 at 12:38

Transfer times yes, access speed no.