I hear IBM is the best. I bought a Quantum 9.1 7200rpm ata/66. Paid 157 for it with shipping. Haven't used it yet since I just got it today. Plus I'm waiting till I get my promise card, either that or find a mobo that supports the 66. Look at www.pricewatch.com and search for hard drives. Then click on 7200rpm then find one with that and 66. Just don't buy from Components Direct. Took them almost two weeks to send it to me, plus they overcharged me for it. I saw a Quantum 13.6 7200rpm with 66 for 209 on pricewatch as well. But from what I hear IBM is the best.
I just got a Western Digital Expert Series AC418000 7200 RPM, ATA66 drive. They also have a AC29100 9.1Gb Expert Series Drive (same specs, half the capacity).
The nice thing about these drives is that have 2Mb of cache on them. In my system, it benchmarked right at 2x the transfer rate of a WD AC28400 8.4Gb 5400 RPM, ATA66 drive with 512Kb cache.
The WD Expert Series drives are definitely fast. Mine is very quiet and runs cool also. I am running mine in ATA33 mode, since I don't have an ATA66 compatible motherboard, driver board, or ATA66 cable. But because the drive is 7200 RPM and has a lot larger cache, the drive access speed is much faster than any of the other ATA33 drives I have.
Price was $240 for 18Gb, $167 for the 9GB at www.buy.com .
[This message has been edited by MGP (edited 07-11-99).]
I agree with MGP, except I got the Promise Controller and have had a slight increase in speed. Go with the Western Digital, I have read somewhere that even though the IBM and Western Digital drives are based on the same technology, the IBM are a lot lower in ratings and the Western Digital are far better quality.
IBM made a few announcements recently about their ATA/66 7200rpm HDs, they have a 22GB and a 34GB HD (34GB is Desktar 34GXP). I think they mentioned selling the 34GB for $389. Don't think you can get these yet, though. But I'm sure they'll show up soon (I think the 22GB HD you can get on Dell PCs).
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