[John151]

I'll be using a AMD Athlon x2 3800 W/2 x 512K cache.

Sweet!

[SCUBADON]

I Agree with ScottMayo.  I am using 3 Segate 300GB external usb hard drives.  The third one is about full now, uncompressed .wav, and I paln on a 4th Segate 300GB.

Even though I have all the original CD's in storage, I plan on backing up my drives.  It's not if but when one of the drives will fail.  I am just hoping I can hold off long enough for a single TB hard drive to use and keep my 300GB Segate drives stored an an off site location.

BACK UP!!!!

[ooheadsoo]

How do you guys deal with the vibration of the drives themselves?  My hdds are by far the loudest part of my system.  Some of them even make a high pitched whine at times.  I think it's the metal enclosure I have two of them in vibrating against the drives.

[SCUBADON]

These are the drives I use:

http://stores.tomshardware.com/rating_getprodrev.php/product_id=5805426/id_type=M//

They are no louder than the HD in the notebook computer I use as the server.

Placing them in the area behind the plasma TV also helps.

With USB, 16ft cable length is fine, so storage away from your system is also possible.

Good Luck

[bubba966]

Bubba,

I'd be knocking on wood, if I were you!    Although buying a "better" hard drive might help, it's still a matter of statistics:  a certain percentage of drives are going to fail.  And all it takes is one failure of a drive in order for one to learn a valuable lesson.  I learned mine and now back up everything (and always did, but didn't have a backup for the time I needed it).

Bob,

I'd bet that if either of my drives were going to fail before they're obsolete & replaced that they would've done so by now. As I leave my 'puter on pretty much 24/7 and it's adequately cooled I'm not worrying that they're gonna croak on me. They've run fine for over a year, maybe two.

[nathanm]

Seagate Barracudas get the from me.  Fluid bearing, thus really quiet.  I've got a Mac G4 MDD, the loudest machine they ever made, and I quieted it way down with fan replacements.  But replacing the stock HD with a Barracuda put the final smack down on the whining noise problem.  You can barely hear them spin up, they're very polite.

My PC's drive crashed a few months ago.  I got a quote from Drivesavers on what it would cost for emergency surgery:  Between $500 and $2700 for a 120GB drive!!!  No kidding!  If that isn't enough to scare you into backing up your data I dunno what is.  I lost my system disk but still have all the data stuff on another drive.

SCSI is probably more reliable.  I've been flirtin' with disaster with a 4-drive RAID-0 array for seven years and counting.  It was the IDE drive that failed, though.  I guess you get what you pay for.

[Den]

http://www4.tomshardware.com/storage/20050927/hd_round_up-02.html#the_future_is_coming_perpendicular_recording

With improved HD technology coming to market soon, bargains abound:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8  250GB   $70
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1265028&sku=THD-250A


Maxtor Ultra16 250GB   $60
http://www.compusa.com/adproducts/product_info.asp?product_code=316138&pfp=ADPRODUCTS

The Maxtor also uses fluid dynamic bearings, but Seagates are known as the quiet drives, and they have a 5-year warranty...in case a free replacement for your obsolete drive may make you feel better after losing all your data in the year 2010.  

[chadh]

I picked up the Maxtor 250 GB disc at CompUSA.  It's a rebate deal, so be prepared to pay $140 and wait for $80 to come in the mail.

The Seagate deal seems sweet - but others have warned against trusting TigerDirect to deliver rebates.

Chad