what program would be recommended to benchmark/stress test a new HD to see if it is free from any initial manufacturer defects?

HD Tune works -- so do the utilities offered by most drive makers themselves.

MikeC, thank you very much.

offtopic: in about a week or two i hope to have finished my project of lowering the noise of my computer, and when i am done i will report back with a write-up (with photos!) of my journey .

without a doubt everyone here at spcr have been patient and receptive!

I prefer running a boot-cd but I don't know how reliable the manufacturer's software is though.

I would agree. Maximum 40 degrees C is what I feel comfortable with. But I've seen many drives running hotter than that with no problems either short-term or long-term.

My Samsung 2.5 drive runs +50 degrees C so I use a notebook cooler all year around. I've never had any performance issues or otherwise due to high temperature though. But longevity is probably severely affected.

I have been running my seagate 7200.12 at 45C for about 1 year without any ill effect in my passive HTPC

Mine run 24/7 4 drives range in temp from 29c to 34c with case inside temp at 24.1c with Media Center running and surfing, naturally in summer temps go up, but i will adjust the case fans to some extent to compensate for increase for temp increase. Drives are all WD Black Editions . P-182 case.

Heat is a huge deal. So much so that I have my drives mounted in the three 3.5 inch slots in the front with the center drive bay empty and the cover off entirely. That's my intake. I can touch the drives and they aren't even warm to the touch. The same drives without air flowing over them almost singe my fingers. Also, by funneling a good 30cfm or so in negative pressure through a small opening, it creates an accelerated jet of air that's virtually identical to what a slower speed fan would do. I can put my fingers in the opening and feel noticeably colder air rushing past due to this effect.

I went from drives dying every 1-1.5 years to not at all so far, and it's been 3 years that I've been running this raid array.

Is this even a debateworthy topic anymore?

From Google's study, which was the largest of its kind (at least when they conducted it):


This is not a religious topic, where people can just imagine the truthiness.

Problem is that the evidence contradicts the "gut feel". So people tend to choose to ignore the evidence, and will go to great lengths to come up with reasons why the evidence is wrong, the Google study is flawed, etc.

I do know that in the past I had Maxtor drives, and they were known to be horribly unreliable. Yet running a fan over them resulted in 10+ years and half a dozen systems that I used them in and not one failure.

If it's too hot to touch, it needs cooling.

Maxtor well let's just say I saw too many dead ones but a few oldies that were still plugging away I never bought a Maxtor and now I avoid Seagate as well.
I note on the Hitachi models I just got they say max operating temp of 60 degrees celcius I would not get even a bit concerned until temps hit up to 50 degrees and they barely go above 40 even on heavy use. I have 2 Samsungs from 2004 with heavy use and they were at around 45/46 degrees in the Sonata case with no front fan.

Makers specify operating temps so I would be guided by that. Note some models have breather holes on top not to cover those up!