Which SATA II HD is better for gaming?

[mikeny]

I'm looking for a good hard drive for gaming (no overclocking or raid). The HD space im set on it 250GB. Who makes a good steady fast HD with 16mb cache, 250GB and SATA II 3.0GB/s.

A) Seagate baracuda
B) Maxtor
C) Western Digital

 

[f1nal_0men]

I say Western Digital, because it's what I've been using. And it's also the least expensive of the 3 major brands. Not to mention it supports NCQ (But so does the other drives). Maxtor has a 5 year warrantly on there drives while WD has 3 year. Something to keep in mind. Very fast drive, and in raid it puts even the 150gb raptor in it's place (An overpriced luxury hardware at best). I doubt you will be dissapointed with the WD.

Just my 0.02$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

 

[croc]

Seagate 320 GB drive... Not as fast as the Raptor, but still pretty fast. Perp. recording takes less platter, therefore less time for most of the drive... Its quiet, stays cool...

And has a 5 yr warranty.

(mine loads vista x64 in 42 seconds after bios post... My slightly older 300 GB seagate (non-perp) takes 1'30" to load after bios post...)

My 2p...

 

[col-p-todd]

It's hard to say but check this link out.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage.html


I would go for the WD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136010
this HD has a 5 year warranty and peforms beter then the WD SE class.

 

[choirbass]

I'm looking for a good hard drive for gaming (no overclocking or raid). The HD space im set on it 250GB. Who makes a good steady fast HD with 16mb cache, 250GB and SATA II 3.0GB/s.

A) Seagate baracuda
B) Maxtor
C) Western Digital

well... i know youve already turned down the idea of raid... ...the average failure rate for a standard 7200rpm hdd is around 1 failed hdd every 3 or so years, even though some companies offer warranties for 5 years... and some hdds will last beyond that 5 year period

going raid though, with even 1 additional 7200rpm hdd in raid 0, it will undoubtably offer noticably superior performance to a single 7200rpm hdd (particularly in where youre looking to see that benefit, in further reduced game loading times, and increased pagefile accessing performance during gameplay), with a failure rate that isnt any more frequent or likely than having just a single drive (cooling, as with all hardware, is a necessity, so as long as you have at least a fan or 2 in your tower to keep air circulated, proper ventilation, and cables out of the way so airflow isnt restricted at all... overheating of any components shouldnt be a problem at all)

and, as im sure you know... having 2 or more hdds in raid 0 will allow you to assemble a larger capacity array, thats definetly and noticably faster, and possibly even cheaper than going for a single large drive by itself

again, i know you said you werent open to raid... but its performance virtues (raid 0) are definetly above and beyond a single drive by itself... so if you do happen to change your mind at all, its definetly a viable alternative

as for brand choice, i would go with western digital... overall, ive had very good experiences with using their drives... zero failures so far (4 raptors, and 1 external caviar)

just my 2 cents though...

 

[NeonDeon]

Seagate Baracuda!
I have gone through a number of HD over the years, and WD have failed on me twice! Other than that, I have no problems! And yes go Raid 0!

 

[Hawkeye22]

I say Western Digital, because it's what I've been using. And it's also the least expensive of the 3 major brands. Not to mention it supports NCQ (But so does the other drives)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

This drive does not support NCQ, not that it is needed on a desktop platform anyhow.

I have four of these drives. They are reliable, quiet, and run cool, but aren't necessarily the fastest.