harddisk(s) for shuttle SN95G5

stigje · Post by **stigje** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:45 am

Hi all! this is my first post in these forums

I need 300 GB of storage for my new shuttle SN95G5 box. These are the alternatives I am looking at :

1) Samsung spinpoint 160GB x 2 (with NIDEC motor)
2) Maxtor Maxline III 300 GB
3) Seagate Barracuda 7000.8 300GB

Priorities for me is mainly heat and noise, with performance coming in second.

So my questions are :

a. Which of these alternatives would produce less heat?
b. Which would be the most silent(this is in a SFF box, so heat would also affect this by activating the shuttle fans)
c. What are your thoughts about the performance of these alternatives? With x2 samsungs I would run the OS and programs on one disk and use the other disk for multimedia and cd images, would this be a better alternative than one maxtor or seagate?

What would YOU choose?

Stig

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:03 am

A. A single drive would produce less heat which is esp important in a cramped shuttle case.

B. The Seagates would be better than 2 Samsuns IMO.

C: Having Windows on one drive and the page file on the other drive is slightly better for performance. But just partition the Seagate drive and you will have the benifits of seperated storage areas.

While I'm happy with my 2 Samsungs I would go for the single Seagate in the confined space of the Shuttle case.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:15 am

I would agree with Jordans point of view.

More Drives = More heat.

The Samsungs seem to be the quietest large capacity drives available at the moment, but if 160GB isnt enough then, Seagate is the answer.

Do NOT get a SATA Seagate until there has been a serious review on the noise, all SATA Seagates make more noise than their PATA equivelents.

The Maxtor Maxline III is a very fast drive, but has loud seeks.

Partitioning a drive will NOT in any way shape or form make the Page file (swap files old name) work any faster, having a fixed size Page file can help, but more RAM is the sensible choice.

Andy.

spacey · Post by **spacey** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 9:11 am

well you definately only want 1 drive so the samsung pair is out.

i would look for some reviews of the maxtors and seagates. find out which is quieter. or even just find a store that will let you return them if you don't like them.

i run two 80 gb segate 7200.7 sata drives in my sn95g5. the 80 gb versions are much quieter than 120 gb because there is only one disc platter i believe.

i'm not sure about the new .8 drives at all.

here are some temps: