SPCR

PC World have a rather good deal (yes, wouldn't of expected it myself) on this Packard Bell Store & Save. Here's the spec. Anyone know what it's like for quiet running and general performance? What manufacture do they use for the hard drive? Could do with something to dump all my data on and 400GB certainly sounds good.

I would say go for it. PC World have an excellent returns policy, and I recently tried out about 6 hard drives from them at no cost; if you return the item within 14 days they give you a full refund (delivery included!). This only applies to items you have delivered to you though; don't choose the Collect@Store option.

By the way, how are your P4M rigs coming along? (I used to post in your forum )

Thanks for the returns tip. Might give it a try.

Good to see my name is still recognised! I shut down the forum after the last spam attack as I just don't have time to maintain the site (running my own web design business now). Today I'm hoping to get round to removing that embarrassment of a home page once and for all, maybe putting something worth reading up there.

Sold that last of my spare MP4M's a few weeks back. That guy has had lots of fun getting a 1.7GHz rated chip up to 3.2GHz, at which point he could raise the FSB any more. Needless to say, he wasn't interested in the silent computing aspect of it! Meanwhile I'm running a MP4M at 2GHz on 1.1v and the only fan in my case is the PSU which stays quite slow. Core temps around 34C for idle, 40C load thanks to the Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-4 Freezer 4. Bargain!

I'm actually considering getting back into selling quiet pc products for the UK market since I'd like a new side project and there does seem to be room for a lost cost vendor selling only silent pc products, with guarantees that they are the model/variant/batch that you hope they are (e.g the right motors, fans, etc). Still just a thought at this stage.

That guy has had lots of fun getting a 1.7GHz rated chip up to 3.2GHz

I'm running a MP4M at 2GHz on 1.1v

That's excellent. That's with the BSEL1 pin mod right? I (foolishly) chose not to have the pin mod done when I bought it from you, and I can only get it up to about 1.5GHz before it craps out. Just to clarify, it's the fifth pin from the right, 3 pins up if you are looking at the chip from the bottom (ie the pin side, not the die side), is that correct?

You know I must have broke about 50 of those damn pins but I still can't remember which it is. Double check: http://will.dashwood.me.uk/pentium4m.htm

Great deal for the money, crap warranty though, and its mady by Packard Bell, purveyors of Shite.

I would rather spend more to get something better, but I like quality.

You can shop around for the drives, but here is a suggestion.

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products ... _uid=81603
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products ... _uid=99223

The drive is a SATA, the caddy is SATA, and the drive has a 5 year warranty, and its not a "W"anky "D"rive, a "Deathstar", or a "MAX"imum shits"TOR".

The PATA drives are £25 less, the PATA caddys are the same price.


Andy

PS: this is really good if you have a spare laptop drive. http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products ... _uid=74822

I don't think I really need 400GB anyway. Saving the pennies at the moment anyway.

>and its not a "W"anky "D"rive
What are your personal experiences with Western Digital? I have had 5 of their drives, a 2GB, 3GB, 20GB, 120GB, and 160GB. The 2GB was loud but worked. All the others are great, and teh 20, 120, and 160 are all very quiet.

I have experienced drives from every manufacturer on the current market and some that are no more.

As a computer engineer, I see many drives of many manufacturers in many machines of many OEM's and small manufacturers.

I have personally experienced NO problems ever with Seagate or Samsung drives. I currently have 3 Seagates and one Samsung. One Seagate is 24 hours old, so its reliability is irrelevant, the Samsung is 6 months old, the other 2 Seagates are 18 months approx and 2 years approx, and are still working perfectly.

I have only seen 4 Seagate drives that are defective (apart from U-series drives which are every bit as bad as other manufacturers parts), one was a heavily used Cuda IV (I replaced it for the customer as it had bad sectors, you only get more). One was DOA (7200.7, without the manufacturers original label), one was an 18 month old 250GB 7200.8 PATA with bad sectors (it was in a USB caddy and has visited many countries on its way from China, and went home on sunday). And the last one was an 18 month old 7200.7 identical in every way to mine, but alas it was in a Shitebox HP with a 12 month warranty.

I have used/sold a LOT more Seagate drives than "Excelstor" (Hitachi derivative, identical drives), or "Maxtor" which I used to use.

My experiences with both of these manufacturers started off well and became a mess. I became concerned with Maxtor, when we bought 5 drives, sold one, the second one made clicking noises (my ears say BAD), the second and third drives did the same, I didnt open the 5th one. They all got returned, and were replaced with Hitachi Drives, the 1st Maxtor was replaced and returned as well. Hitachi/Excelstor were looking good, while duff Maxtors started appearing (under warranty 9-18 months old), Hitachi/Excelstor drives have also come back in bulk so dont think they are better, I have had to use data recovery S/W on my best freinds Excelstor 60GB (18 months old).

I have had 2 120GB 2MB DM9's one died on the 13th month (12 month warranty) the other is still going (I dont trust it) and doenst have anything important on it.

You may be wondering where WD get mentioned in this, well as we have only ever sold 1 DM drive and have not seen it back, it must have the best reliability % wise, however I dont trust WD at all in any shape or form.

The reason why I dont trust them is that their diagnostic software LIES. On several occasions I have run their software (latest version, full scan) it has claimed that the drives are OK, when they are blatantly faulty. Would you trust a manufacturer who lies and says "dont worry all of your precious data is perfectly safe". I will never even try a WD drive until their software actually detects their drives as bad when they are so BLATANTLY bad, and I nearly forgot, we see quite a lot off WD drives, I would say they ae no more or less reliable than Hitachi (Excelstor) or Maxtor.

Any more questions about my experiences with drives are more than welcome.

I now have a 90% hit rate of identifying Hitachi Travelstars by their noise, they are unique sounding, and about 25% of them are faulty, this is to be taken with a pich of salt as 75% of the laptop drives I see are Hitachi, dont let this frighten you unless you own one


Andy

PS: I pulled a WD 160GB drive out of someones HELL machine 2 weeks ago, I hope its not the same batch as yours 14ish months old, DUFF, oh yeah I nearly forgot WD say its fine, so I best save all of my important data onto it right now.

Thanks, andyb. btw, my WD 160GB was made in sept. 2004, and my 120GB made iirc in Feb. 2005. My 20GB is iirc 2002. BTW, my nonworking laptop has a Fujitsu drive. How are those?