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Building a DAW with Pulsar II on P4T-E or P4B266 mobo, I'll have to choose the harddrive. I'm going to buy a 80 Gb 7200 rpm ATA-100 one. What would you suggest: IBM, Maxtor, Seagate or maybe something else? Any particular models? Thanks.

IBM: not, because IBM has <a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/08030205.htm">problems</a> with longterm reliability of their drives.
Seagate: YES, because the Barracude IV is the most quiet of them all with a very constant throughput over the whole platter. I use a 60Gb (for system) and an 80 Gb (for Audio data), both on 1 IDE bus.
Maxtor: no opinion.

Rob

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rvberkel on 2002-03-15 00:56 ]</font>

Thanks a lot rvberkel.

Now waiting for anyone to say anything about Maxtor...

The Seagate Barracuda IV might definitely be the disk to have in a DAW. I'm getting one soon.

I wouldn't discount IBM on the basis of a reputed, undated conversation between nameless people. That's just hearsay.

But I would discount it on evidence from IBM (below)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Spirit on 2002-03-14 09:55 ]</font>

I've had an IBM crash on me once.. but that was like 3 years ago so I wouldn't know if their newer drives have that problem.

I have Glyph firewire harddrive, and I know it uses an IBM 7200RPM disk drive, which I know is build for DAW applications, so my guess is that IBM is a good option to keep in mind.

I have the 40GB Barracuda IV. It is a very nice HD. It is VERY silent. IBM makes quicker HDs, but Unless you do extreme things, I do not hink, you will feel the difference.

Immanuel

IBM was my favorite drive for awhile, but I wouldn't suggest them as even recent interviews w/ people from IBM state they shouldn't be used more than 10 hours a day or it could result in failures!

Maxtor drives, particularly the newer liquid bearings, are pretty quiet, run cool, and I would suggest them.

I still think the Seagate Barracuda IV's are my first choice, since they have amongst the best <i>sustained data rate across the entire platter</i>, which is important for recording audio, even more important than seek time (which is where the Maxtor has the edge). The Seagates do get a bit warm though, presumably because they use insolation for noise.

My last personal drive (used 24 hours a day for 2 years) was the Maxtor 27.3gig 7200RPM drive. Awesome but LOUD. My current drive is the Seagate Barracuda IV 80gig. I love it so far, got it in early October2001, still very quiet.

Maxtor!!!
The new drives have ATA133. None of the other companys have this in there IDE hard drives yet.
Make sure you get the Maxtor made in Japan. In the barcode you will see a J at the end of it. They are the best hard drives at the moment. Very relible.

Forgot to mention that I'm going to work with A LOT of audio tracks (likely 24-bit) simultaneously.


2 subhuman:

So your advice is Barracuda IV, isn't it? Thanks.


2 WayneSim:

Ok, ATA-133... And what mobo does support this? I did mention that my mobo will be either Asus P4T-E or P4B266. Well?

ATA133 means nothing with current drives, just marketing hype. Most fast IDE drives rarely peak above 70MB/sec!

2 WayneSim:

Ok, ATA-133... And what mobo does support this? I did mention that my mobo will be either Asus P4T-E or P4B266. Well?

Ok I jumped the gun. However maybe when you upgrade in the future. Your new mobo will support ATA133. The Maxtor HD's are the same price as the others and you can still run them with ATA100 with your mobo. So why not get it if its the same price? It would maybe help you in the future. That's nothing to overlook.

Also have you considered buying 2 40Gb hard drives and running them in RAID. I don't think those mobo's support RAID. But it may be something to consider. It may cost you a little more to set-up a RAID array but it would be worth it. But it does come down you and your buget. These are only idea's. I'm not trying to make it harder for you to know what to buy. I'm just letting you know your options.

But anyway I'm sure you will be happy with the mentions HD's, they all are meant to work well. The only one I've heard is bad is the IBM, even though there specs are better they aren't as reliable.

I do not see much reason in buying ata133 to be futureproof, unless you plan on buying a new mobo in the near (½year or so) future. Serial ata is comming up.

Immanuel

I have the Seagate Bar. IV and it works greats... very quiet...

the new Maxtor whould be very quiet with their FLB, and fast.

Don't worry about the ATA133/100 spec, you can't really push that limit with only one drive. If you got two on the same IDE channel, then yet, maybe it's worth considering...

i'm wary of ATA133, my father has that luxury with dual maxtor ata133 drives and a KG7. Yet his single drive performance is not on par with my ATA100 maxtor of the same size. suggesting that the driver base has not matured for this kind of setup.

I can recommend maxtor, apart from one thing no not malhandle them, they seem to be quite sensitive, this is true of all hdd. But we have had one drive DOA. And another fail as a result of computer upgrade, I did not perform this upgrade though. So perhaps he knocked it too hard.

BIG PLUS POINT FOR MAXTOR DRIVES: 5 YEAR SWAP OUT WARRANTY!!!!
both the above drives were swapped out through our trade supplier no questions asked.
So if you are in the UK, and want maxtor drives contact me.

Also have you considered buying 2 40Gb hard drives and running them in RAID. I don't think those mobo's support RAID. But it may be something to consider. It may cost you a little more to set-up a RAID array but it would be worth it.

I'd be careful to choose RAID as most mobo's (if not all) offer raid instead of the second ATA-bus, their data consuming bandwidth from the PCI-bus. After participating in this forum for a while and out of my own (VIA-chipset) experience I now know you have to keep your PCI-bus as clean as possible. I did that by running my 2 Barracuda's on the first ATA-bus, the CD-stuff on the second bus of my Abit TH7-II (the one w/o raid, P4/1.7). Result is a very stable and well performing DAW. (11 masterverbs <A HREF="http://www.berkel.net/mv.gif" TARGET="_blank">running</A>!)

Rob


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rvberkel on 2002-03-18 02:03 ]</font>

2 WayneSim:

Ok I jumped the gun. However maybe when you upgrade in the future. Your new mobo will support ATA133. The Maxtor HD's are the same price as the others and you can still run them with ATA100 with your mobo. So why not get it if its the same price? It would maybe help you in the future. That's nothing to overlook.

I guess when I intend to buy new mobo, I will buy new hdd anyway.

Also have you considered buying 2 40Gb hard drives and running them in RAID.

Yes, I did consider RAIDing, thanks.


2 remixme:

So if you are in the UK, and want maxtor drives contact me.

Nope, I'm in Russia. Still I have a friend in UK, so maybe. Thanks.

Ever hear the line from IT managers that "no one ever got sacked for buying IBM". Maybe things will change with their dud drives. Oh dear.
http://www.tech-report.com/onearticle.x/3494

hey i'm afraid he he now that i've seen your comment for ibm.
I've got one of 75go-ata-ibm dtla-307075
for now 2 years or more (no problem for now:)-under mac os.has worked now i think around 4000 hours with no problem.
see you:)