'Hitachi DeskStar 7K250 160GB SATA hard drive: Thumbs up or down?

[Konfucius]

My computer has been acting up lately and I have a strong feeling my 3 year
old Maxtor 40GB is about to croak. So I did some Googling and visited a
variety of Toronto-area computer store websites to see what's available. I'm
also an avid reader of Maximum PC and have come to the conclusion that the
Hitachi DeskStar 7K250 is my best bet.

Have any of you bought this drive? Is it noisy or extremely quiet? Is SATA
the way to go over IDE? How smooth is the operation? It's listed at
tigerdirect.ca for $174CDN. Are their prices too good to be true?

Here's my system config:

INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.53GHZ
INTEL D845PEBT2 MOBO
SAMSUNG 512DDR PC2700 DDR SDRAM
MAXTOR 40GB (7200RPM) HARD DRIVE
MAXTOR 20GB (5400RPM) HARD DRIVE
ATI RADEON 8500 128MB AGP VIDEO
SB LIVE! VALUE SOUND CARD
ATI TV WONDER PCI
YAMAHA 20X CD-RW
SONY 16X DVD-ROM
WIN XP PRO

Thanks people!

[[[Konfucius]]]

 

[J. Clarke]

My computer has been acting up lately and I have a strong feeling my 3
year old Maxtor 40GB is about to croak. So I did some Googling and visited
a variety of Toronto-area computer store websites to see what's available.
I'm also an avid reader of Maximum PC and have come to the conclusion that
the Hitachi DeskStar 7K250 is my best bet.

Have any of you bought this drive? Is it noisy or extremely quiet? Is SATA
the way to go over IDE? How smooth is the operation? It's listed at
tigerdirect.ca for $174CDN. Are their prices too good to be true?

The drives work fine--I've got two of them that give me no trouble at
all--can't hear them running.

Can't see any real practical advantages for SATA over IDE (more precisely
"PATA"--Parallel ATA) except that it makes use of a couple of connectors on
your motherboard that would otherwise be sitting idle. The Silicon Image
Si 3112 host adapter on your motherboard (yes, lurkers, it's an Intel board
but if you check the Intel site you'll see that it has an Si 3112) has its
own drivers--it doesn't run on the standard IDE driver--not a problem but
something to be aware of.

Note that the lurkers are going to come up with all kinds of theoretical
advantages for SATA--in practical terms I don't see any difference at all
other than needing a driver that I don't need for IDE.

Here's my system config:

INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.53GHZ
INTEL D845PEBT2 MOBO
SAMSUNG 512DDR PC2700 DDR SDRAM
MAXTOR 40GB (7200RPM) HARD DRIVE
MAXTOR 20GB (5400RPM) HARD DRIVE
ATI RADEON 8500 128MB AGP VIDEO
SB LIVE! VALUE SOUND CARD
ATI TV WONDER PCI
YAMAHA 20X CD-RW
SONY 16X DVD-ROM
WIN XP PRO

Thanks people!

[[[Konfucius]]]

 

[GTS]

My computer has been acting up lately and I have a strong feeling my 3 year
old Maxtor 40GB is about to croak. So I did some Googling and visited a
variety of Toronto-area computer store websites to see what's available. I'm
also an avid reader of Maximum PC and have come to the conclusion that the
Hitachi DeskStar 7K250 is my best bet.

Have any of you bought this drive? Is it noisy or extremely quiet? Is SATA
the way to go over IDE? How smooth is the operation? It's listed at
tigerdirect.ca for $174CDN. Are their prices too good to be true?

Here's my system config:

INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.53GHZ
INTEL D845PEBT2 MOBO
SAMSUNG 512DDR PC2700 DDR SDRAM
MAXTOR 40GB (7200RPM) HARD DRIVE
MAXTOR 20GB (5400RPM) HARD DRIVE
ATI RADEON 8500 128MB AGP VIDEO
SB LIVE! VALUE SOUND CARD
ATI TV WONDER PCI
YAMAHA 20X CD-RW
SONY 16X DVD-ROM
WIN XP PRO

Thanks people!

[[[Konfucius]]]

I just took delivery of a PATA 7K250 160gb. Its a fine fast drive, but I do
have one issue with it - vibration. Maybe I was unlucky, but it vibrates a
lot, and apart from the noise this causes, which is irritating, I could even
feel the vibration through my desk! My boot drive is a Maxtor plus 9 7200rpm
and I have never had any noise or vibration from that. I used the Hitachi
DOS testing utilities and they reported no excessive vibration...
In the end I have used 1/2" rubber tap washers with a hole drilled though on
each of the mounting points and this has cured the problem, fingers crossed!
Mind you I don't know what effect this will have on heat as the drive is no
longer in contact with the case.
I have also heard the famous 'cat miaowing' noise these drives make, but
only once a day or so.
For hundreds of users experiences with the 7K250 visit
www.storagereview.com - they have rated the Hitachi drive as the best 7200
on the market at present, and in the forums many users have reported
problems with noise, and how they alleviated it...
Graham

 

[crypto]

I just took delivery of a PATA 7K250 160gb. Its a fine fast drive, but I do
have one issue with it - vibration. Maybe I was unlucky, but it vibrates a
lot, and apart from the noise this causes, which is irritating, I could even
feel the vibration through my desk! My boot drive is a Maxtor plus 9 7200rpm
and I have never had any noise or vibration from that. I used the Hitachi
DOS testing utilities and they reported no excessive vibration...
In the end I have used 1/2" rubber tap washers with a hole drilled though on
each of the mounting points and this has cured the problem, fingers crossed!
Mind you I don't know what effect this will have on heat as the drive is no
longer in contact with the case.
I have also heard the famous 'cat miaowing' noise these drives make, but
only once a day or so.
For hundreds of users experiences with the 7K250 visit
www.storagereview.com - they have rated the Hitachi drive as the best 7200
on the market at present, and in the forums many users have reported
problems with noise, and how they alleviated it...
Graham

Interesting. I have 2 of these same drives myself (PATA) and they do
not vibrate at all. So, I talked my brother into getting one and it
vibrates big time so it's not just yours. I bought mine several
months ago, how old is yours? I believe the one I got for my brother
had a Mar 2004 date on it and mine were from last year. His is
mounted with rubber grommets which help but something is different as
mine do not vibrate at all like his does. It passes all the tests, of
course and other than the vibration, seems fine.

Now I would hesitate to buy one of these again. I have the cat noise
every 10 minutes but that does not bother me as much as the vibration
would except mine don't vibrate, his does.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

My computer has been acting up lately and I have a strong feeling my 3
year old Maxtor 40GB is about to croak. So I did some Googling and visited
a variety of Toronto-area computer store websites to see what's available.
I'm also an avid reader of Maximum PC and have come to the conclusion that
the Hitachi DeskStar 7K250 is my best bet.

Have any of you bought this drive? Is it noisy or extremely quiet? Is SATA
the way to go over IDE? How smooth is the operation? It's listed at
tigerdirect.ca for $174CDN. Are their prices too good to be true?

The drives work fine--I've got two of them that give me no trouble at
all--can't hear them running.

Can't see any real practical advantages for SATA over IDE (more precisely
"PATA"--Parallel ATA) except that it makes use of a couple of connectors on
your motherboard that would otherwise be sitting idle. The Silicon Image
Si 3112 host adapter on your motherboard (yes, lurkers, it's an Intel board
but if you check the Intel site you'll see that it has an Si 3112) has its
own drivers--it doesn't run on the standard IDE driver--not a problem but
something to be aware of.

Note that the lurkers are going to come up with all kinds of theoretical
advantages for SATA--in practical terms I don't see any difference at all
other than needing a driver that I don't need for IDE.
Wotanidiot.

Here's my system config:

INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.53GHZ
INTEL D845PEBT2 MOBO
SAMSUNG 512DDR PC2700 DDR SDRAM
MAXTOR 40GB (7200RPM) HARD DRIVE
MAXTOR 20GB (5400RPM) HARD DRIVE
ATI RADEON 8500 128MB AGP VIDEO
SB LIVE! VALUE SOUND CARD
ATI TV WONDER PCI
YAMAHA 20X CD-RW
SONY 16X DVD-ROM
WIN XP PRO

Thanks people!

[[[Konfucius]]]

 

[GTS]

Interesting. I have 2 of these same drives myself (PATA) and they do
not vibrate at all. So, I talked my brother into getting one and it
vibrates big time so it's not just yours. I bought mine several
months ago, how old is yours? I believe the one I got for my brother
had a Mar 2004 date on it and mine were from last year. His is
mounted with rubber grommets which help but something is different as
mine do not vibrate at all like his does. It passes all the tests, of
course and other than the vibration, seems fine.

Now I would hesitate to buy one of these again. I have the cat noise
every 10 minutes but that does not bother me as much as the vibration
would except mine don't vibrate, his does.

You may be on to something with the date of manufacture - mine is also March
2004, same as your brothers...

 

[crypto]

You may be on to something with the date of manufacture - mine is also March
2004, same as your brothers...

Well that may be so but I am not sure what he can do about it. The
drive still seems to work fine and is not too bad with the grommets.
I know were it mine, I would be pissed about it. I am not sure what I
would do either. Sometimes I think that perhaps I should simply not
but computer parts anymore but after 20 years of building computers,
that ain't gonna happen.

 

[David Lesher]

Do they come with one or three year warranty?

 

[Scott Backular]

Ummm getting the 120gig version in a few days its as good as a 10,000
rpm Raptor HD in most areas.

But when i get it ill bench it and let you know my opinion

See ya.

 

[Scott Backular]

The place i bought it from has a 2 year warranty so if it gos tits
up within that time iam covered, but if it don't die within the first
year it will prob last forever anyway