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#1
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Hitachi/IBM 120Gb hard drive. Good or bad? RFC please.
I'm curious. Thinking of getting a winchester drive of 120Gb. In the
past I've I've had a 15Gb and now using a 40Gb drive, both IBM branded. Former drive behaved perfectly and current drives behaves perfectly. Yes, I know IBM sold the storage division to Hitachi. So, what are your comments? I saw in another thread that Maxtor is something to avoid and that there are times when any of the manufacturers can end up sending out a batch of bad winchester drives. |
#2
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"Myron" wrote in message ... I'm curious. Thinking of getting a winchester drive of 120Gb. In the past I've I've had a 15Gb and now using a 40Gb drive, both IBM branded. Former drive behaved perfectly and current drives behaves perfectly. Yes, I know IBM sold the storage division to Hitachi. So, what are your comments? I saw in another thread that Maxtor is something to avoid and that there are times when any of the manufacturers can end up sending out a batch of bad winchester drives. Uhm... they don't make Winchester drives anymore... All the manufacturers have cut back to a 1 year warranty from 3 years. If you can still find one with 3 years at a reasonable price, I'd go with it. All the manufacturers are about the same for quality, except IBM has a crappy history lately. Not sure what Hitachi has done with it though. |
#3
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I'm top posting to annoy all the bottom posters. [=:
Anyway, I know IBM don't make Winchester drives any more (the old name for `hard disk`, but still the same). Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've been recommending the (latest) IBM drives before IBM sold that division to Hitachi to others and so far, not a single problem. That's just my observation and experience. I know IBM was crap. Seems they got their act together, then sold out to someone else. "Some One" wrote: "Myron" wrote in message .. . I'm curious. Thinking of getting a winchester drive of 120Gb. In the past I've I've had a 15Gb and now using a 40Gb drive, both IBM branded. Former drive behaved perfectly and current drives behaves perfectly. Yes, I know IBM sold the storage division to Hitachi. So, what are your comments? I saw in another thread that Maxtor is something to avoid and that there are times when any of the manufacturers can end up sending out a batch of bad winchester drives. Uhm... they don't make Winchester drives anymore... All the manufacturers have cut back to a 1 year warranty from 3 years. If you can still find one with 3 years at a reasonable price, I'd go with it. All the manufacturers are about the same for quality, except IBM has a crappy history lately. Not sure what Hitachi has done with it though. |
#4
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I've got two 80GB IBM's (120GXP family) both working fine, one is almost
two years old the other about 9 months (one is used as a Ghost backup of the other). Very quiet drives and still benchmark very well. I've got two newer 120GB IBM/Hitachi (180GXP family), no problems here either. Both are about 3 months old, EXTREMELY QUIET! The only family that I believe got all of the bad press was the 75GXP family. I have two of these (45GB) running fine. These are, however, refurbished units that replaced two that crapped out after 2.5 years of very heavy use. The refurbs seem to be fine (IBM replaced faulty controller boards on both). I've always liked IBM HDs going back to the 22GXP family. I have several Travelstars in my IBM Thinkpads, again, no problems other than the two 75GXPs that crapped out...I will continue to buy IBM/Hitachi drives and will not consider anything else regardless of what other people say or do, IBM has ALWAYS done fine by me and now it's Hitachi!! The warranty's on all Hitachi drives are 1 year except for the 8MB cache drives, I believe. FYI, I believe in adding additional cooling for HDs regardless of vendor make/model (7200 RPM). In both of my desktop systems (Antec cases) I have 80mm fans mounted in front of the HD cage pulling in cool air and blowing it across the bottom of the HD (where the controller board resides). These fans do help keep the drives cool. On my 75GXPs I mounted a Vantec twin-fan device that attaches to the bottom of the HD in an aluminum heatsink. These work very well also and cost less than 10 USD. Larry Myron wrote: I'm curious. Thinking of getting a winchester drive of 120Gb. In the past I've I've had a 15Gb and now using a 40Gb drive, both IBM branded. Former drive behaved perfectly and current drives behaves perfectly. Yes, I know IBM sold the storage division to Hitachi. So, what are your comments? I saw in another thread that Maxtor is something to avoid and that there are times when any of the manufacturers can end up sending out a batch of bad winchester drives. |
#5
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On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 21:49:12 -0700, JW
wrote: Hey Larry! Excuse me for digressing, but I see that you know something about cooling fans. I have a PIII 450MgHZ with the standard configuration of one Power Supply fan and one CPU fan. One expert's advice is to have FOUR fans as standard: one Power Supply, one CPU, one case, and one Video Board or Sound Card, or HD, or....whatever. Any comments? JW Newer systems create more heat, need more fans. A newer hard drive migth benefit from additional cooling if the chassis isn't designed to route adequate airflow past the drive, but otherwise such systems work fine with no extra fans unless there's an unusually high ambient temp. Dave |
#6
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On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 20:35:10 GMT, Larry wrote:
.... .. .. .. FYI, I believe in adding additional cooling for HDs regardless of vendor make/model (7200 RPM). In both of my desktop systems (Antec cases) I have 80mm fans mounted in front of the HD cage pulling in cool air and blowing it across the bottom of the HD (where the controller board resides). These fans do help keep the drives cool. On my 75GXPs I mounted a Vantec twin-fan device that attaches to the bottom of the HD in an aluminum heatsink. These work very well also and cost less than 10 USD. Larry Hey Larry! Excuse me for digressing, but I see that you know something about cooling fans. I have a PIII 450MgHZ with the standard configuration of one Power Supply fan and one CPU fan. One expert's advice is to have FOUR fans as standard: one Power Supply, one CPU, one case, and one Video Board or Sound Card, or HD, or....whatever. Any comments? JW |
#7
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On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 22:07:52 -0700, JW
wrote: On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 04:32:29 GMT, kony wrote: Newer systems create more heat, need more fans. A newer hard drive migth benefit from additional cooling if the chassis isn't designed to route adequate airflow past the drive, but otherwise such systems work fine with no extra fans unless there's an unusually high ambient temp. Dave I imagine that the spinning of the drive itself may contribute to some of its cooling, is that right? JW No, that would only help if there were significant external, cooler air to exchange the heat. It's more-or-less sealed so no heat is exchanged by airflow... there is a very very minor pressure "value" to equalize internal pressure to external, but it's quite low airflow and filtered. The spinning is actually what causes quite a bit of the heat, from friction of the platters against the air and the bearing and/or shaft rotation. Dave |
#8
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On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 03:35:28 GMT, Larry wrote:
JW, I still have a similar setup, a PIII-500 system (still works like a champ!).... .. .. The Panasonic Panaflo L1A's are EXTREMELY quiet ( I have 4 of 'em in my primary rig and you cannot hear them at all!)...the Vantec Stealths are also very quiet. Larry Thanks for the cool insight, Larry. I checked out the sights. The Vantec looks interesting. I'll have to see if I get it here in Montreal. My friend mentioned that he uses a slot fan to cool two things at once. Such a fan pulls air off one thing and blows it over another (usually cooler than the first). It works quite well, apparently. JW |
#9
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On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 21:38:18 -0700, JW
wrote: On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 03:29:03 GMT, kony wrote: No, that would only help if there were significant external, cooler air to exchange the heat. It's more-or-less sealed so no heat is exchanged by airflow... there is a very very minor pressure "value" to equalize internal pressure to external, but it's quite low airflow and filtered. The spinning is actually what causes quite a bit of the heat, from friction of the platters against the air and the bearing and/or shaft rotation. Dave I see. Have you heard of refirigerated computer cases? Are they worth the money, or is a good fan system all that is necessary? JW Refrigerated computer cases are a mistake, would cause massive condensation... when refrigeration is used on single components it's controlled and extra measures needed to control condensation. It could be done but the benefit is not worth the extensive design & construction time, parts, expense, etc. Easier would be to just keep the room air-conditioned if ambient temp is excessive, but beyond that a case with good design to route airflow and/or fan(s) actively forcing air past the drives is sufficient. Hard drives, being moving parts, will fail sooner than many parts in a PC regardless of the measures taken. The best strategy is to make regular backups and periodically replace them before they fail, before their expected lifespan has elapsed. Dave |
#10
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On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 13:21:55 -0700, JW
wrote: This may or may not be your field (of expertise), but, what is a good (reliable) air conditioner? Hard drives, being moving parts, will fail sooner than many parts in a PC regardless of the measures taken. The best strategy is to make regular backups and periodically replace them before they fail, before their expected lifespan has elapsed. Which make of hard drive do you recommend, Dave? JW I have no idea about the best air-conditioner, though that would be something more for your own personal comfort than the computers, since a well though-out system can stand more heat than a person can. Just be sure attention is given to the hot-spots more than total airflow, since a gale-force wind does little if a chip burns through it's top... any-old heatsink does wonders to spread heat a little bit. As for hard drives I usually use Western Digital and Maxtor... the Maxtor are quieter and have pretty much equal sustained throughput but the Western Digital with the 8MB cache are better for multiple access requests, though IBMs should still be best in that department... I just don't trust IBM drives yet. At any rate I consider data more valuable than the system and retire all drives by the time they're 2 years old, move them into a RAIDed network storage box. Dave |
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