Anyone have a Seagate Barracuda V?
Been thinking about replacing my current main drive since I've been having some anomolous behavior lately. The drive is getting fairly old and has been booted at least once a day for the last couple years....
I looked at the Seagate's specs and they're pretty impressive. ATA100, 40GB, 9.0ms, 7200 rpm, and transfer rates approaching 70MB/s.
Given that I have an ATA/66 bus, this might be about the best drive performance I can get since drive specs are usually more like peak numbers than average ones. Meaning I can come close to saturating the drive bus / not worry about drive issues anymore. My current IBM 60GXP does about 39-40MB/s on average, so a boost up to even 55 or 60 should make a big difference with Photoshop and other tasks. It's only $95 - can I go wrong?
Comments?
I looked at the Seagate's specs and they're pretty impressive. ATA100, 40GB, 9.0ms, 7200 rpm, and transfer rates approaching 70MB/s.
Given that I have an ATA/66 bus, this might be about the best drive performance I can get since drive specs are usually more like peak numbers than average ones. Meaning I can come close to saturating the drive bus / not worry about drive issues anymore. My current IBM 60GXP does about 39-40MB/s on average, so a boost up to even 55 or 60 should make a big difference with Photoshop and other tasks. It's only $95 - can I go wrong?
Comments?
Comments
For cheaper drives, however, check out <a href="http://www.techbargains.com"; target="_blank">Tech Bargains</a>
[ 10-11-2002: Message edited by: Patchouli ]</p>
It is a Serial ATA (SATA) drive.
<a href="http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC=418349"; target="_blank">http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC=418349</a>;
Is EIDE Ultra ATA the same as Serial ATA? Maybe I should get a Cuda IV to be safe / save a few bucks? I've read some reviews though, that would indicate the CIV is not as fast as competing WD Caviar drives (which surprises me). The testimonials at XLR8 for this drive aren't tool helpful though.
For some reason hard drives reports no longer come with the benchmark scores Mike used to request with each review. There are no data specs at all. I need to know this thing will move several extra MB/s before I'll buy it - "real quiet" doesn't cut it for someone on my budget.
I did check out storagereview, which is where I got the above info (about the Caviar (800JB) performance).
[ 10-12-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</p>
Ive got an 80gb IV and like it, Ive had good experiences with Seagate drives, Ive got 4 at the moment, from an ancient 135mb up, and they all run well.
The cuda IV's are not the fastest drives around, but I think they are the best balance of speed and noise.
They all run pretty hot though.
The WD's are faster as are IBM's, but Im no big fan of either.
I'm surprised the Seagate's aren't faster than the IBM's. given they both have 2MB buffers. Either way, I can't find any benchmarks for any of these drives as far as sustained transfer rates.
The cuda IV can do something like 40+ MB/s sustained, which is plenty fast enough for me.
I dont like IBM drives because they come with the "Dont run 24/7" proviso
Basically, my current drive does around 39 MB/s and it's over a year old...if one of these drives can't be shown to move data at a steady 44+ MB/s, there's really not much point to upgrading. Wish they would just come clean and publish the data rates....
[ 10-14-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</p>
[quote]If you?re however looking for a harddisk that offers an impressive combination of performance and low noise then look no further than Seagate?s ST380021A Barracuda IV, it really is an engineering marvel that combines the best of both worlds <hr></blockquote>
Thanks for that link btw - that's a pretty good one.
I ended up getting the Seagate drives because they were supposed to be the quietest out there, they have acceptable benchmarks (not highest, but not low either), and Seagate is known for their reliability.
Once bitten, twice shy. I am extremely happy with these drives.