Hey all, this is my first verbal post here at techspot (others were wallpapers I created with Bryce 5). I'm looking at purchasing a new hard drive over the Christmas break and have it narrowed down to a few selections, but honestly I have no experience in this area and was hoping for some assistance / opinions as to the ones I've found. They are as follows...

(1) Maxtor 200GB RETAIL BOX ATA/133 HD 7200RPM 9MS 8MB for $190.25

(2) Maxtor 200GB (6Y200M0) 7200RPM 8MB Buffer SATA Hard Drive - (OEM) for $165.53

(3) Maxtor 200GB RETAIL BOX SATA/150 7200RPM 8MB CACHE for $198.29

The storage on these drives is the same, therefore it is the features which distinguish the price differences. Does anyone have any knowledge about these hard drives and which ones might be best? Money isn't necessarily an option here, although I know from experience that the most expensive choice is not always the best.

I'm running a Dell Dimension 4550...
P4 @ 2.0 ghz
80 GB hard drive
nVidia 5600 ultra 128
1024 DDR


Thanks in advance for your time! :grinthumb

I would look up th real manufacturer behind those retail things. 2 nameless versus one brand device doesn't really leave an option.

Does your motherboard have a SATA controller? If not, you have to leave out the SATA devices. No point in buying a separate SATA controller.

Hey Nodsu, thanks for the prompt reply! Sorry I didn't include it the first time...all three of the hard drives are Maxtor. Insofar as the SATA issue is concerned, I'm not sure if my current har ddrive has that capability or not (is there a way to check?). Also, what exactly does SATA accomplish -- is it mainly for faster file access? For reference, my computer was purchased in October 2002.

You can check the SATA support from the motherboards manual or the computer specs or by opening it up and looking at the motherboard.

SATA (=Serial ATA) is a new hard drive interface standard that offers bigger transfer speeds, less cabling issues and better support for drive arrays. ATA 133 is the last generation of the ancient IDE/ATA specification.

Looking at the purchase date, I say your computer doesn't have SATA support.

If they are all Maxtor, then they are probably one and the same drive with different interface options. Just go for the ATA 133.

I would go for IBM/Hitachi drive (8MB cache only) as these all come with a 3 yr warranty. Maxtor Maxline II drives feature a 3 yr warranty, but all other Maxtor drives have a 1 yr warranty. If your 1 yr warranty drive fails after 1 yr, then you have effectively written off your $200 investment. Hard drive failure is more common than you might imagine.

Thanks for all your help. I went ahead and got the first Maxtor drive (ATA). I looked up some IBM / Hitachi drives and for the price you just can't beat the Maxtor. Since I'm not going to be storing pertinent information / files on the spare hard drive, but rather music / game / movie files, I'm not too worried about a 3 year warranty. Thanks again