Best Hard Drive? (2 Viewers)

[Geon106]

At some point in the next few months i'm going to need a bigger hard drive, atm I have in effect, 3 hard drives in 3 different computers on my LAN all sharing files for example my gaming PC(120GB Hard Drive) has 20GB worth of MP3 music shared, my Media Centre (80GB Hard Drive) has 30-40GB of videos which include ripped DVDs/Music Videos/Downloaded TV Programs, my server has a 120GB hard drive which i'm now using for storing my media. But as you can tell its not very erm, simple? having all my media spread out over 3 computers lol.

Now i'm not upgrading out of choice, more because I have to as i'm running out of space of a rate of about 2-5GB per day. So I'm considering getting one of the following hard drives:

1. SeaGate UATA 750Gb £409 from Maplins
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=B01EI&DOY=6m10

2. SeaGate Barracuda 300Gb ATA £72 ex VAT from PC World Business
http://www.pcwb.com/catalogue/item/SEADR459

3. Hitachi Deskstar 500Gb ATA £126 ex VAT from PC World Business
http://www.pcwb.com/catalogue/item/HITDR051

4. SeaGate Barracuda 320GB ATA £61 ex VAT from PC World Business
http://www.pcwb.com/catalogue/item/SEADR451

Which ones the best value and best performance?

750Gb sounds nice, but i'm not sure if its worth it for the price lol

 

[wortelsoft]

750 GB 0,55 pound/GB
300 GB 0,24 pound/GB
500 GB 0,25 pound/GB
320 GB 0,19 pound/GB

I would go for the 500 GB model and maybe have 2 of them cheaper then the 750 model.

 

[Geon106]

750 GB 0,55 pound/GB
300 GB 0,24 pound/GB
500 GB 0,25 pound/GB
320 GB 0,19 pound/GB

I would go for the 500 GB model and maybe have 2 of them cheaper then the 750 model.

thats actually a really good idea only problem is my case only has 1 hard drive cradle, but i'm sure a bit of DIY will sort that lol. I've managed to free up 10GB by switching off System Restore.

 

[onkl]

Keep in mind that price is not everything.
I personally like a silent HTPC, so sound is very important for me. Therefore, I always look for reviews on for ideas, since their advices have not disappointed me over the last 2 TB .
I recently bought two Western digital CAVIAR SE16 500GB disks. They might be somewhat more expensive than the very cheapest available, but not that much and I don't hear anything coming from my PC but via the power amps

 

[James]

You could get a NAS box and put the two HDs on the network. If it is away from your HTPC the noise level shouldn't be a problem.

 

[jawbroken]

I read recently that some people have had trouble getting TV to timeshift/record onto NAS, because of the microsoft stream buffer engine. I hear the new TV engine should work fine though.

 

[Spragleknas]

Be aware that Seagate does not support AAM ("noise controll").
For HDDs one can use apps for controling noise/perfomance-ratio

 

[jawbroken]

The Seagate drives I have had have been practically noiseless, so I never saw much need for AAM. It may depend on the drive type, etc, though.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Agree with jawbroken.

Have three barracuda's running and cannot hear them, not even whilst searching.

Personally I like the 19p a Gb drive.

Not enough bays get a bigger case.

Cheers All

 

[alank]

I read recently that some people have had trouble getting TV to timeshift/record onto NAS, because of the microsoft stream buffer engine. I hear the new TV engine should work fine though.

I originally was trying to record to a NAS but it was failing all the time. I'm very interested to know if the new TV engine will make this better.