I've had a WD bite-the-big-one, a Maxtor that developed a good case of the clicks, an IBM that clicked itself to death, and another IBM that's currently click-thunking itself to death. So, it's seriously time for a new drive. I'm leaning towards Seagate for the simple reason that I haven't killed one of those yet, but the IBMs and WDs are singing their siren songs to me.  IBM blew it big time with their 75GXP line, are the new ones any better? Is an 8mb cache really a "good thing" or is 2mb good enough?

Bottom line: Western Digital "SE", Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, or IBM Deskstar 180GXP?

All those a great choices...not sure about the cache, just got one and I am playing with it...whichever of the three you can get cheapest is the one I would get. btw, hard drives usually have a 2 or 3 year warranty, check their website, you might get a swap out.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

True,

IBM blew it with the 75GXP line, new technology still in its infancy. The new "IBM's" are manufactured by Hitachi and do not have the same problems.

I am running a 120mb (8mb Cache) 180GXP and I am very happy with it, fast and quiet.

ByteTheBullet, I think you are going to find that most HD manufacturers went to a one year warranty in recent times with the exception of the IBM 8mb cache models and the WD SE models.

I used to only get the IBM drives.  I have also had a lot of trouble with the 75gxp series so I dropped them.  I have tried various Maxtor and WD drives but my new favorite is Seagate with the Barracuda series.  I have 4 going in different machines and they are rock solid and very quiet

Seagate.  Go SCSI if you can.  I've been using seagate SCSI for years without any issues.