WD800JB, MAXTOR 80GB 8MB Cache or Maxtor SATA 8MB??

[chachmarach]

I am having trouble deciding between these three drives. The maxtors are about equal or slightly faster in performance then the Western Digital from what I have read. The Maxtor's have only 1 year warranty when buying OEM. The Western Digital SE's have three years. Western Digital drives are a little cheaper then the Maxtors. It looks to me like there are more complaints or threads about Western Digital drives breaking down then Maxtor drives. I was thinking of getting Western Digital but I am really concerned about their quality control issues. I have seen a lot of threads about WD SE drives being noisy, clicking, and just quitting all together. Any opinions on this? I know it has been asked before. Anyone know of any reviews putting these drives against each other? Does anyone work at a computer shop/store and know what the RMA rate is for Maxtor or WD? Thanks for any help or insight into this.

[stan03]

I just bought the maxtor sata drive... many people here like WD drives and praise them, but then same with maxtors. I don't think your gonna go wrong by getting either one. And i believe OEM maxtors have 3 year warrenties while the Retails only have 1.

[chachmarach]

Thanks for your help, I am also looking at the Seagates as well. They seem to be dependable and very quiet. There is a link at Hardocp pointing to a review of several SATA and ATA 8MB cache drives. The review is at

http://www.hardwarezoom.com/viewcontent.jsp?ReviewID=154&PageNo=1

[99'erForever]

From my experience I would avoid the Western Digital. Being on my third drive in less than a month, I am really concerned about their quality. I don't really know if I will buy WD again. Sometimes it is just the luck of the draw.

[Trashcan]

I'm in the market for a new HD as well. It has to be SATA for me because I want to put in on that controller.

I've heard good things and bad things about Maxtor and WD. The problem with Seagate is their drives seem to be a lot slower compared with the others, and I think they only have a 1 year warrenty.

But I will probably be getting a WD 120Gig SATA 8MB cache that comes with a 3 year warrenty. It also has the regular power connector so I don't have to go out and buy a converter so I save $5. :p I've also considered getting a PATA drive and getting PATA to SATA converter, but in the end just getting a SATA drive is just as cheap.

But after seeing 99'erForever's post, I'm not so sure now about the WD drives now...

[99'erForever]

It's really the luck of the draw. I heard users on this forum having great luck with WD. Others didn't have such luck. I am just happy that I bough retail and could just take it back to get another one. WD does have a three year warranty. I just wish that all these companies would produce better products. Everything seems to be built so poorly. Just my two cents though.

[Jarlax3]

From my expirence and from everything I read you really can't go wrong either way. Each drive has a chance of being defective, but the overall number of defective versus the number out there running great isn't enough for you to worry about. Go with who you like more!

[Caffinehog]

I say SATA. Why? Smaller cables make for better cooling. They'll be compatible in the future, even when PATA disappears. Also, new SATA controllers support things like RAID 5, which you won't find cheap with PATA.

[soundfx4]

I have never had any problems with my two WD hard drives, however, I would have to suggest the SATA drive as it would be faster. I have never used SATA, but they are supposed to be faster then IDE, so if you are leaning more twords performance, then get SATA. Other then that I'd have to suggest the WD simply because 3 year warranty, and I havn't had problems with them. hope this helps a little

[soundfx4]

Originally posted by stan03
And i believe OEM maxtors have 3 year warrenties while the Retails only have 1.

Are you sure about that? Oem drives aren't supposed to have warranties at all.

[Axion]

Originally posted by soundfx4


Are you sure about that? Oem drives aren't supposed to have warranties at all.

no, they dont *have* to have a warranty... they are not *supposed* to cost more, come with manuals, packaging or cables.

anyway, most OEM products do have warranties; but invariably shorter that their retail counterparts

[Super Nintendo]

for right now since what happened to IBM the companies are doing which I know WD is doing OEM drives with 2 mb cache has 1 year warrenty and the WD 8 mb cache has 3. I think its true for WD retail drives. Most of the time just see what warrenty it has when you buy it and I would try and get one with 3 year just in case.

[BrianS]

i have 3 wd's, 120gb and 2 80gb all SE's. one of the 80gb was corrupted and got an RMA. I just ordered a raptor and cant wait for that. i love them. but then again, my 2+ year old ibm 60gxp has yet to die either, so you never know. dying harddrives might be a heat issue though.

[mayagrafix]

Back up your important files. Hard drives are mostly all the same: low quality asian built mass produced. As long as you can get a new one if it fails, no problem. Also look into RAID 1 if you wanna keep all your files forever :0

[soundfx4]

Originally posted by Axion


no, they dont *have* to have a warranty... they are not *supposed* to cost more, come with manuals, packaging or cables.

anyway, most OEM products do have warranties; but invariably shorter that their retail counterparts

Really? That is very interesting, and good news for me! Cool, thanks for the info!