I was at Fry's today, and they have a huge pile of Seagate 120GB ATA/100 drives with 8MB cache. They are selling them for $140, but they come with a $60 rebate, making it an $80 120GB drive, which is a pretty good deal. (of course it will be a long time before you see that $60.)
How do these compare with the Samsung 160GB 1614N drives? I have heard those in action, and I have been puting aside a little cash to pick one up for about $110, which is a pretty good deal also.
I already have 400GB in the machine, and I don't need to access it all times, so I can let the motherboard spin down those drives so the computer would be quiet in idle. Should I grab the slightly smaller cheaper drive, or spend the extra $30 for the samsung spinpoint? Since noise of the drive is what I am mostly concerned about.
Advice on seagate 120GB ATA100 drive.
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Well, the deal at Fry's got better, so I just went and did it. The 200GB Seagate went on a 1 day sale from $200 to $150, and it had $80 in rebates, making it a $70 deal on the 200GB drive. So I just bought it.
The idle noise is great, since it is just not there, the drive is silent on idle, less noice than the 5v fans in the case, so I really can't hear it when idle. But the seek noise is there, not really noisy, but certainly the noisest part of the system when the drive is in use. I would say the Samsung Spinpoint is still a better drive, but this one is the equal in idle at least.
The idle noise is great, since it is just not there, the drive is silent on idle, less noice than the 5v fans in the case, so I really can't hear it when idle. But the seek noise is there, not really noisy, but certainly the noisest part of the system when the drive is in use. I would say the Samsung Spinpoint is still a better drive, but this one is the equal in idle at least.