Per A J Andersson wrote:
-------------
> Hi!
>
> I'm just wondering if there really is as much evidence to judge a whole
>manufacturer, considering drives. Maybe there is, and then I'd like to know if you
>all think so.
i've heard from a friend who's worked with allot of machines that
quantum's have always been good. in general it's best to talk to people
who maintain allot of macs or have worked where there are a large number
of machines, obviously a single user is not likely to use enough drives
often enough to have a good general idea. i have used allot of quantum
scsi drives, for scsi they are definitely one of the best, so far i've
been very happy with the one quantum ata drive i've used and use as my
boot and primary drive (60g cut into several partitions of varying
sizes, a main boot, a backup/experimentation boot, a couple scratch
volumes just slightly larger than a cd, and a main partition where i
keep nearly everything). there are of course also reviews of various
models of drives on the web, it might be worth doing a web search for
them though i've never worried about it myself. you can also ask the
vendor, though obviously they might be biased. definately shop around
for price and for clearance bargains, one of my favorites is
dirtcheapdrives.com, they also have good jumper info. one brand to
absolutely avoid, even if free is micropolis, warranty work is basically
what drove them under, i got a dead micropolis drive cheap on ebay just
to see if it was an easy fix. i have to say it had the absolute
sloppiest assembly i've ever seen, and i am a tech. it looked worse
than what most begining solderer's would produce by hand!
> >From the above, it seems like (at least when used with Macs)...
>
> WD - bad
> IBM - good
> Quantum - good/faster
> Maxtor - bad/slower
> Seagate - bad
> Fujitsu - OK
>
> My own demands considering drives are:
> 1) reliable
> 2) quiet
> 3) fast
>
> Based upon this my own experiences for the last decade have been...
>
> WD - no experience
every one i've ever heard of with a western digital has had major problems.
> IBM (2 drives) - fast, fairly quiet but not always reliable (the 30MB GXP75 UATA was
>a horror story with my 7300 w/Tempo card - it's just sitting here, despite the seller
>tested it OK twice - anyone want to buy it?).
that may be the one model they had problems with. can someone who knows
remind us which model of ibm was a lemon? otherwise they are great, and
at least reasonably quiet.
>
> Quantum (3 drives) - quite slow, often quiet, one of the three went prematurely dead.
i've always had great luck with quantum scsi drives, i've got a quantum
ata drive now that seems fast and no louder than the maxtor, but i've
only been using it for about 6 months. it's the same speed as the
maxtor but faster for "medium" size data transfers, otherwise they run
neck 'n' neck. i have had allot of experiance with the older quantum
scsi drives and they are very quiet, but i haven't played with enough of
thier newer drives to really know about the newer ones.
> Maxtor (1 drive) - very reliable and quiet, acceptably fast (the 20GB drive in my G4
>Cube)
i had to replace the maxtor in my machine after less than a year, but
otherwise it worked fine. my beef with maxtor is the hell they put me
through on another drive a couple of years ago, apparently "no quibble
warranty" meant that i wasn't supposed to quible when they said no, buzz
off. (i had to beat them severly about the head, neck, and shoulders to
get any satisfaction). the point being that the true test of a supplier
is when things don't work, and maxtor was terrible to me on this point,
obviously as long as nothing breaks every one is always happy.
> Seagate (1 drive) - fast, reliable but noisy (a 6G Medalist Pro)
the older ones are definately loud, most of the seagates are probably
ok, but i've heard some of the newer ones aren't so great, companies
tend to go in cycles, at least it's not uncomon for a brand to be great,
get poor, and sometimes become great again.
> Fujitsu - no experience, heard they have very quiet ones, but the reseller said it
>couldn't be formatted for my Mac (w/Tempo card). Is this true?
not likely, they are probably just an ignorant anti mac pc user, get the
model number and look it up on fujitsu's site. i've used a couple of
fujitsu's and they were good, and i think quiet (not usually one of my
considerations, i usually have other things like the tv making noise
when i surf or frequently other drives running besides an air purifier
(actually one more quit than most so it's not too bad) and often a fan
to cool me.
Re: sound level, probably best to look at the data sheets for the
particular drives you are considering. i always go to the manufacturers
website and download everything i can about all the drives i own/use.
some of the manufacturers also have useful general info about drives,
scsi, and ata. of course you also have to consider the fan noise from
your machine. i haven't had time to play with mine yet but i know
several people have been able to quiet them down, i can see a couple of
design flaws in mine that i plan to eventually fix that should make it
both more quiet and cooler. it also helps to have drives spin down when
you aren't using them, although the energy saver seems to want to keep
them all going or shut them all down (at least in os 9, seems like i
never have to wait for the backup drive to spin up).
--
Philip Stortz, mad scientist at large. --Every 13 seconds an American
gun owner uses a firearm in defense against a criminal. gun ownership
deters crime, it doesn't increase it. gun control increases crime and
cost lives. <http://www.pulpless.com/gunclock/framedex.html>
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