New hard drive

Alright, just some quick questions here. My friend and I are both going to pick up new hard drives tomorrow. I finally realized mine won't install windows xp or 2000, and my friends is toast. (I tried an old drive in my comp and it installed win 2000 fine, but its only 1.2 gig's, too small for me)

We were thinking of picking up a Maxtor 80-120 gig drive, Ultra ATA133, 8MB cache, fluid dynamic bearing. I was wondering what the community would suggest. Should we stick with Maxtor? Is the fluid dynamic drive really worth it? and last, one drive mentioned something about SATA150, is that going to work with our computers? (both are IDE, i think we have ATA100's right now) I'm guessing its just faster.

Any input is appreciated, and thanks in advance!

Dave

yes those new drives will work, but only at the fastest ata speed that your motherboards wil support which is probably ata100 or ata 133, only the newest motherboards support sata150, mainly becuase that is the new standard, if you are thinking of upgrading anytime soon go with the sata 150 drives then you will be able to use the new technology when you upgrade. hmmm wait, im a tad drunk, the new sata150 drives may not work with your old ide system, i think the connections are different, you may just want to wait untill you want to fully up grade to a new system./

The Maxtors that I have had in the past 20-60GB have all run pretty hot. Fast, but hot. Watch the heat in your case and make sure it is well ventilated.

Like Alphaflux said, check your MotherBoard spec for your hard disk controler speed. Don't bother buying a hard drive with more speed Ata-100 or Ata-133 if your disk controler can only take a Ata-33. I have a old Maxtor and I make a lot of noise recently but it's not fluid dynamic drive but I ear that fluid dynamic drive is good.

I have a couple of Maxstors that are over 6 years old, and no problems. I personally like the deskstar which used to be IBM but I do not know what they are like now. Definite NO to fujitsu :mad: They have a big lawsuit coming up next year could cost them big bucks compensating people for dead drives (I knew I kept those two dead ones for something more than the handy fridge magnet inside :p )

As suggested, heat is a big enemy.....invest in one of those mounting units with a cooling fan(s) in front.

Also if you have a subwoofer keep it well away from the base unit..........HDDs don't like vibration.

Cheers

Well, thanks for the replies. I settled on a Maxtor DiamondMax 9, 80GB, 7200 RPM, UltraATA/133, 8MB cache, fluid dynamic drive. It runs like a dream, very quiet unless it gets really busy, runs much hotter then my old Fuji, but at least it works! (win 2K installed right away, no problems, and I'm very surprised how fast the drive is.)

And nihil, don't worry, I got the computer on the far far right and the sub on the far far left with a good 4 feet inbetween the two! :D

Thanks again ppl, and as of now, I do recommend Maxtor DiamondMax9's!

Dave