Hard disk purchase advice needed

[Hurricane]

I'm planning to buy a new hard disk, but I really haven't paid much attention to tests and comparisons lately. I'm thinking of buying a 120-160 GB 7200 rpm HDD, but there is a lot to choose from. The HDD is going to be used on a ATA-100 line in a normal home-use PC.

So which one of these should I buy:

Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 (160 Gb, 7200 RPM) (€ 160)
IBM Deskstar 120GXP (120 Gb, 7200 RPM) (€ 117)
IBM Deskstar 180GXP (fluidbearing)(120 Gb, 7200 RPM) (€102)
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (160 Gb, 7200 RPM) (€ 152)
Samsung SpinPoint SP80 (160 Gb, 7200 RPM) (€ 132)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 (160 Gb) (€ 152)
Western Digital Caviar WD1600JB (160 Gb, 7200 RPM) (€ 176)

[Comraddict]

WD with 8MB cache would be my chice. Of course, look for smaller one, 80 or 120GB. These drives are fast, I have compared them with many other similar. They are quiet as well.

[Lucky]

But they get hot.
If you don´t have at least a case fan, you should get a Seagate. It´s not the fastest there is but usually the quitest and the one getting the least hot.

[ainwood]

Western digital Raptor WD360GD

Great reviews.


Edit - only 36 GB, so probably too small for your needs.

[newfangle]

It's a shame you can't consider Serial ATA. Its much faster and uses a much better cabling system. I'd almost go as far as saying its worth a mobo replacement....

[Hurricane]

Originally posted by newfangle
It's a shame you can't consider Serial ATA. Its much faster and uses a much better cabling system. I'd almost go as far as saying its worth a mobo replacement....

Yeah, I've read a bit about it, and it seems like a big step forward. But a new mobo means I also need a new CPU and new memory, and I think my next investment (after the HDD) will be to upgrade my 17 inch monitor to a 19 inch one. I think I'll manage fine with my 1.4 GHz Athlon at least a year still.