64k Clusters

[KJake]

Yeah, I always thought that the old Maxtors were loud too. Supposedly they got it under control and then there is always their "acustic contol" which is just slowing down the platters actually...

[stanger89]

Originally posted by KJake
I have a real job now, and since I'm out of school I can finally afford new components and a new computer altogether.

That must be nice, I'm graduating in a month and am still looking.

Back OT, I'd suggest taking out the Live! and trying the onboard sound to see if it helps, if so, you know what to do, if not you've eliminated one potential source.

[KJake]

Yeah, I was forunate enough to land an internship 2 years ago before the job market totally went to pot and they just kept me on after I graduated last May.

I'll see how things work tonight when I get home to see if the VIA 4-in-1 helped. The Live is somewhere in the last 3 slots (has 6 PCI) where the 1st PCI would be the one next to the AGP slot. I kind of remember these issues when I was putting the computer together. It's vague, but I think I remember BSOD all over the place until I moved it to it's current slot and it's been pretty stable.

Maybe this is an excuse to buy an Audigy early :-) Here's a question, Platinum or Platinum Pro? Looks to be only about a $50 difference...

[Bubster]

Wow my maxtor hadrddrive is the noisiest piece of crap I have ever heard
I like western, not very loud compared with my maxtor and reliable

Yes, because your two hard drives are representative, aren't they?

Western Digital IDE drives still use ball bearings, whereas Maxtor, Hitachi and Samsung all use fluid dynamic bearings, which results in significantly less noise. The Samsung is virtually silent once it's inside the case, and the Maxtor and Hitachi aren't far behind.

Sounds to me like you're comparing a pretty old Maxtor against a newer Western, which is hardly a fair comparison.

- Neil.

[mikejaner]

I too have loud Maxtors, some recent some old. It is not just him. Fluid dynamic bearings, my @$$. More like grinding metal dynamic bearings. The thing is, they start out quiet, and they get louder later on. I have had at least 6 Maxtors shipped to me due to complaining about the increase in volume of the platters when they spin. They know something is up, they just aren't doing anything about it.

[Bubster]

Originally posted by mikejaner
I too have loud Maxtors, some recent some old. It is not just him. Fluid dynamic bearings, my @$$. More like grinding metal dynamic bearings. The thing is, they start out quiet, and they get louder later on. I have had at least 6 Maxtors shipped to me due to complaining about the increase in volume of the platters when they spin. They know something is up, they just aren't doing anything about it.

As I said in my earlier post, everyone knows someone who has a complaint about hard drive brand X, X being any brand you care to mention. Such tales are, however, statistically insignificant.

I have several Maxtor drives (as well as several other brands) and they have not become any louder at all. Not even a little.

Am I lucky? Doubtful: I've had three IBM drives completely die on me in the last few years, but this doesn't mean IBM drives are flaky for everyone, or even a significant number of people.

Have you guys been unlucky? Almost certainly, but this doesn't mean Maxtor drives are noisy for everyone, or even a significant number of people.

- Neil.

[stanger89]

Well, to further take this thread OT. I've got 3 Maxtor D740X's with FDB drives that are really quite, one D740X with Ball bearings that is way louder, a 45Gb Maxtor that is very loud (BB), a Quantum (Maxtor) Fireball 40Gb that's loud (BB), and a Western Digital WD2000JB (FDB) that's nice and quiet. So obviously it can vary between manufacturers, even between models. It doesn't help any that there are some drive models (D740Xs) that were/are available with both FDB and BB.

[Bubster]

I was under the impression that the WD2000JB used ball bearings, and it was the PB model that had fluid bearings.

- Neil.

[mikejaner]

Western Digitals have never been loud for me. I'm not spouting statistics cause 75% of all statistics are worthless. I know what I am sticking with in my future purchases, cause of dealing with hundreds upon hundreds of hard drives from a half dozen manufacturers, I have seen it all.

[KJake]

To get back on track, I should report that I think my website has been getting more traffic lately and because of one of my ASP components, maybe IIS is taking precedence in processing things over Sage.

I've told Sage not to startup on it's own now and made a batch file to start Sage in High priority every time. This will keep Sage from stuttering.

Another thing I noticed was that I saw the most crashes when pressing RR or FF succcesivly and quickly.

Oh, then to take the topic OT again...I thought only 43% of stats were worthless...when did it move up to 75%??

[mikejaner]

I thought only 43% of stats were worthless...when did it move up to 75%??
It went up during the .com bust. I'm about 99% sure of that. ;-p

[kny3twalker]

Sounds to me like you're comparing a pretty old Maxtor against a newer Western, which is hardly a fair comparison
actually I am not a year old maxtor and a 6 six month Western Digital in my friend computer
the maxtor is 80 GB 7200 RPM and 2 MB cache
Western Digital is 120 GB 7200 RPM and 8 MB
so you really think I am not be truthful when I say my harddrive is noisey
It is not always just sometimes especially when using the PVR
the harddrive just was never that quiet as soon as it meet the hauppauge PVR 250 (before that never noticed it)
I still think my next drive will be Western Digital

[stanger89]

kny, if you were referring to me, I was just trying to make the point that it can vary between drives of the same model, I know my Maxtors are quite old.

Bubster, I really thought it had FDB, but all I can find ATM is the storagereview review stating that the BB would have FDB as an option (there we go, another model with both kinds of bearings). If I were to judge by the sound, I'd say my JB does have FDB.

[ckron]

Originally posted by Bubster
I tend to find most claims about particular brands of hard disk being unreliable spurious at best. For every guy you meet who has lots of friends who had brand X fail repeatedly, there will be another guy who has the same story for brand Y, and brand Z, and so on.

That's not to say that, if you are having repeated problems with a particular brand, you shouldn't try switching. You probably should, as your problems may be caused by some weird compatability issues, but you shouldn't discount your previous brand as inherently unreliable. You may well find that, with your next motherboard choice, your new brand of hard disk starts becoming strangely unreliable.

If your machine is going to be in the living room, Maxtor and Samsung are very good choices, as they are known to be very quiet (esp. Samsung), whereas Western Digital drives are known for being a bit noisier.



- Neil.

Sorry guys, but I have to chime in here. I used to work for a computer manufacturer(5 years ago). Back then, Maxtor drives were exteemely loud and clunky and the failure rate was horrendous. We used Fujitsu drives and I still have some functioning 4 and 6GB drives from back then.

For the past three years I have worked for a place that buys exclusively Dell Optiplex systems. If anyone knows Dell, they will know that from one Dell to the next you don't know what brand of drive you will get. I have seen many Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital drives here. I can honestly say that 9 out of 10 drives that fail here are those lousy Maxtor drives. Just recently we received a shipment of GX270's with 80GB Maxtor drives. Out of 70 PC's, two hard drives failed in less than one month. Can you guess what brand they were? That's right, Maxtor. When we called them into Dell under warranty they sent us Western Digitals to replace them.

You could not pay me enough to rely on a maxtor drive for the safety of my data.

If you want a quiet computer, buy the right case. Antec makes a case where you mount the hard drives on rubber grommets. That thing can make almost any drive whisper quiet. The noise is usually from hard drive vibration and the grommets all but eliminate that problem.



Sorry if I was up on mysoap box too long, but I just had to vent.

P.S. Don't get me started on AMD either!

[ckron]

Originally posted by mikejaner
Western Digitals have never been loud for me. I'm not spouting statistics cause 75% of all statistics are worthless. I know what I am sticking with in my future purchases, cause of dealing with hundreds upon hundreds of hard drives from a half dozen manufacturers, I have seen it all.

I am with you there Mike. Western Digitals have always done me proud. Even when I had one going bad, I was able to pre-order my replacement drive online and copy my data over to the new drive

[TunaBoo]

And where I work, we have Fujistu after Fujistu drive fail.

Stats are stupid. By the drive with the features you want, and the noise level you want.

Watch out for warrenties though, a lot of hard drives went to 1. I try to get 3 or 5 with all my hard drives, because I know how often they can go bad.

[kny3twalker]

kny, if you were referring to me, I was just trying to make the point that it can vary between drives of the same model, I know my Maxtors are quite old.

No stranger, it was bubster with the stupid comment

Yeah I have tried to explain that mine was never that loud except when using my PVR, I added 1/2 GB of ram and it quieted down a little but I am just impressed with the Western Digitals my friend uses

He has a 20 GB that has outlasted like three or four computers
and are quite quiet in my opinion

[KJake]

It seems funny to me that this thread kind of turned into a debate on which hard drive is better. I hope this thread doesn't end up getting out of hand like this one, http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...threadid=4280.

[Opus4]

Nah... 99% of the people in this thread don't call each other names...

Sort of a made-up statistic

- Andy

[ripple]

Originally posted by KJake
It seems funny to me that this thread kind of turned into a debate on which hard drive is better.

I guess you should blame me for this tangent... I didn't intend to start a debate on hard drives either. You happened to mention recording/playback problems and were using the exact same model drive I had just returned twice in the last 60 days so I thought it might be pertinent.

It doesn't sound like the hard drive's your issue so let's drop it. Everyone has a reason for choosing the drive they use and that reason is probably right for them. (Wow, I could be a politician! )

So...back to the topic: Kjake did you see any difference with the adjusted priorities?

Kevin