Any reason to NOT buy this hard drive?

[Ken90630]

I have a friend who needs a new hard drive. He and his wife just use their PC clone (P4, 256 RAM, WinXP Home SP2) to surf the Web (dial-up connection), do e-mail, type up small docs in Word Perfect, and store a small amount of car photos & such. That's it.

I'm planning on getting this Seagate hard drive for them. It has the 5-year warranty, plenty of space for what they do, and these drives have a reputation for quietness. Price is nice too.

Before I pull the trigger and order it, I thought I'd see if anyone has anything negative to say about this drive (or similar Seagates). Only negative comment I've heard is that these 7200.7 drives might be a bit on the slow side (but that was from someone used to 15K-rpm SCSI drives, so ...?). I checked the specs, and the seek & write times are comparable to other manufacters' comparable drives, so I can't see how these would be notably slower than them. It does only have a 2MB buffer (8MB would be nicer), but just for surfing the Web & stuff I can't see that an 8MB buffer is gonna make a heck of a lot of difference. But maybe I'm wrong?

To get a similar drive with an 8MB buffer, I'd have to step up to Seagate's 80GB model. This is way more storage than they'll ever approach using, plus it's gonna be more than $100 with tax & shipping. I really sold them on Seagate's 5-year warranty -- they really like that -- so other brands are kinda out of contention for this particular buy.

Thoughts/opinions/voices of experience, anyone?

 

[alex1122]

I have a 7200.7 160GB drive that I use as the storage drive in my pc. I don't have anything negative to say about it whatsoever. It's pretty quiet compared to my slightly louder Hitachi drive and fast too. I would definately recomemnd any Seagate hard drive to anyone looking for a quick, reliable and quiet hard drive. Granted, I have the 8mb buffer, but I don't see how the smaller 2MB buffer would hurt performance at all while doing the tasks you specified your friend would be doing. I say definately go for it and I don't think you'll find someone here that will say otherwise.

 

[Zepper]

Several of the big-box stores probably have 80GB or bigger drives for less than that (after rebate). I would hesitate to go less than 80GB these days.
.bh.

:moon:

 

[texaspsdx]

I was in Best Buy yesterday and they had Western Digital 80 gb for $24.99 after rebate.

 

[thegorx]

yes, you should be able to match that price with an 80GB drive without a rebate

and you might be able to find a good deal on 120 or 160GB

 

[Ken90630]

I would hesitate to go less than 80GB these days.

Hi, Zep,

Mind if I ask why you say that? These folks only use the computer to surf the Web, do e-mail, and store some car photos (and we're not talking about a lot of photos here either). They don't save music or video files, or do any gaming, so I can't think of anything that would take up more than 40 GB (or even half that, to be honest). Care to educate me here, in case there's something I'm not thinking about?

Thanks for the feedback.

Ken

 

[ts3433]

$55 seems like way too much for 40 gigs; I got my 80GB/8MB WD for $61 at Newegg.

 

[Zepper]

What I'm looking at is value for dollar. If you can stand waiting for your rebate, you will come out way ahead. Besides the 80GB and up have the higher areal density platters - so they would be faster just from that.
.bh.

 

[Ken90630]

What I'm looking at is value for dollar. If you can stand waiting for your rebate, you will come out way ahead. Besides the 80GB and up have the higher areal density platters - so they would be faster just from that.

Ah ... gotcha. That makes sense. mechBgon also confirmed to me recently what you say about how the bigger drives are a bit faster due to their higher areal density platters. Interesting. I'd do what you suggest, in a heartbeat, but I can't for the life of me find anyplace offering a rebate on the 80 GB ST380013A here. I tried PriceGrabber, Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, and a few others. Even Dell! The 80 GB one is gonna be over a $100 by the time I figure in tax & shipping to So. Cal.

If anyone knows of a reputable vendor offering a rebate on either the 40 GB or 80 GB Barracuda, please lemme know!