new HDD for xmas/uni

hi,

im looking for a new hdd for xmas that i can put to good use at uni next year (dsl connection, woo!).

i have a 20gb now, and its almost full. i was thinking around the 80gb range, and just adding it to my 20gb (ie. 80gb partitioned, but main drive, 20gb with all my downloads).

i need a fast one, that runs pretty quiet, and not too hot. seek time or ata doesnt matter, neither does money.

i was also told to stay away from IBM, that right?

maxtor or western digitals sound the best, something called caviar i think?

any suggestions welcome,

thanks!

Western Digital special edition 8mb cache is so far the best hard drive ive seen. I saw very nice reviews. Also alot of people seem to have high overclocks and are using them. Maxtor the other hand I havent heard too much about.

the d740x maxtor seems to fare up on high fsb speeds. and its nice and quiet im getting one of those soon

WD might have the 8mb cache..but i still dont like them, 2 that i've installed for my father and friend have made funny noises out of the box, but havent given me any problems, i usually stick with maxtor, if you dont care about seek times then the cache size wont matter.. the only thing the cache is used for is to store info on the most commonly used files.. if your like me you want shear capacity over speed..i would suggest maxtor over WD..they are cheaper than WD now ( at least in texas they are ) and i've never had a problem with them. and the new maxtors are really thin

I would recommend the IBM 120GB Deskstar. It a nice quiet drive that i found pretty nice. I am cureently using one and have no probelms with it. I find the quietness about it the best feature. i paid 200 cdn for it.

I would recommend the IBM 180GXP 120GB or 80GB, it's the fastest IDE out there now. Western Digital are nearly as fast but they are quite noisy and a bit old now - they are one year old. The IBM's don't have problems - only the old 60gxp and 75gxp did. If you want the best IDE drive get the IBM.
If you want the quitest drive you can get get the Seagate Barracuda V, it's very very quite.
look at reviews here: www.storagereview.com