Need to choose between Seagate and Western Digital Drives 2

[hungrier]

Hello. Can someone please give me some advice. I am choosing between the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB and the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3250824AS 250GB internal hard drives for my Dell 9100. The WD has 16MB cache vs 8MB for the SG and an 8.9ms seek vs 11msec for the seagate. they are both SATA II at 300MB/sec transfer rates. The catch is the seagate warranty is 5 years vs 3 years for Western digital. the price is the same. Which is better??? performance?? reliability? What to do???? THANKS!!

 

[sydspirit2]

My wife works for WD and I have had very good luck with them but that being said I would opt for the longer warranty. I don't think you will see a performance difference at all.

 

[dbadmin]

Go for Seagate. I had problems with WD many times and I am a supporter of Seagate after that.

 

[firewolfrl]

I prefer the Seagate drives...Just because over all they seem to have an edge over the WD. at this level of technology...its like comparing oranges to apples. its all a matter of taste

 

[paparazi]

Not always the fastest but in our experience we see fewer returns per quantity sold from Seagate.
If only we could get our hands on official figures (I'm sure all the manufacturers are fully aware of there own return rates)
something along the lines that they carry out for motor vehicles (most reliable car servey) lol
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[johnbullas]

Just Had a WD 20GB go "toes up" with little warning, never had a SEAGATE go ( maybe used 3 fit & forget) ...... MAXTOR!!!! Never again, had three fail (1 progressively, bad sectors)

What about Hitachi? they are the stocking trade of PC Wrold in the UK

 

[hungrier]

Thanks everyone!!! The response was universal....impressive. I bought the 300GB Seagate with NCQ and 300MB/sec transfer speeds and 16MB cache. I will just have to live with the 2 extra milliseconds, but small compromise for something that is likely to work for a very long time. Thanks again for all of your responses. Now I have to figure out how to transfer all my data/XP prof to the new drive. It sounds like it's pretty tough, and you are better off just reinstalling everything. any thoughts?

 

[firewolfrl]

For big drives I like to use ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE when I am copying the whole drive. Its nice and fast.
Any of the Acronis type products will work.

http://www.acronis.com/

 

[ngkatsaras]

You just rewarded Seagate for offering a 3 year warranty and punished WD for their 5 year warranty. It's because of poor consumer choices like this that Seagate continues to offer only a 3 year warranty. In my mind, the length of the warranty is proportional to the manufacturers true relative expected reliability of the product. It's a guarantee. That being said, I go with Maxtor drives...

 

[firewolfrl]

ngkatsaras,
just because you shop by warranty length does not mean the those drives are all that great. WD and Maxtor are just OK drives....not all that spectacular either way...Seagate has been a great product for me and my customers...very few complaints(user causes the issues not the drive)....Samsung I have seen a High failure rate. (lots of RMA returns....so much for warranty length)
Hitashi ....IBM sold that line for a reason (BLAH!).

LOL!!!

that being said. I don't shop by warranty.I shop by what I don't have to RMA for warranty.

 

[hungrier]

ngkatsaras......... you got it backwards. my Seagate that i bought has a 5 year warranty. the WD that i did not buy has only a 3 year warranty. check the web sites or stores. i think i made a good consumer choice.