[Simon]

I'm going to buy my g/f a new 3.5" SATA HDD as a TM backup disk. I figure 500 GB is about the right size. At the place I usually order from I saw these disks
• MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX 22 500GB SATA/300 7200RPM 16MB
• WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR GREEN 500GB SATA/300 16MB
• SAMSUNG SPINPOINT F1 500GB SATA/300 7200RPM 16MB
• HITACHI DESKSTAR P7K500 500GB 7200RPM SATA/300 16MB
• WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR BLUE 500GB SATA/300 16MB
• SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.11 500GB 7200RPM SATA/300 32MB
• WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR BLACK 500GB 7200RPM SATA/300 32MB

They're all between $74 and $99 so there's no dramatic difference in price.

Obviously performance is most important closely followed by low noise level. The WD Caviar Green seems to be geared at low noise and low power consumption which sounds good. I've seen quite a few good reports for the Green too. Personally I'm not to keen on getting a Hitachi (about a year ago we bought a whole bunch of 1 TB Hitachis at work and we had quite a few DOAs).

Can anybody here recommend a specific once of these disks? Any model I should stay clear of?

[mduell]

Aww, how romatic.

In your price range I'd expect you to be looking at 750GB or even 1TB. The Seagates I have (ugh, too many of them) are great for sustained transfers and none have died in years.

[B Gallagher]

Agreed with mduell's comments. How big is your girlfriend's drive?

I've had both Hitachi and WD come with my Macs, and have never had any problem with them. That being said, I always buy Seagate, simply because they have a five-year warranty.

[tooki]

Not any more! As of new years, Seagate is back to 3 years for internal drives, though 5 years remains for retail products.

Generally speaking, I'd go for the Seagate or the Caviar Black, probably the latter. But for Time Machine, where disk performance is not paramount, but you may be concerned about low power and noise, the Caviar Green may be worth a look.

[B Gallagher]

Originally Posted by tooki 

Not any more! As of new years, Seagate is back to 3 years for internal drives, though 5 years remains for retail products.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by tooki 

Generally speaking, I'd go for the Seagate or the Caviar Black, probably the latter. But for Time Machine, where disk performance is not paramount, but you may be concerned about low power and noise, the Caviar Green may be worth a look.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by tooki 

Not any more! As of new years, Seagate is back to 3 years for internal drives, though 5 years remains for retail products.

Complete matrix; warranty duration depends on product line as well.

[chichow]

Simon,

I recently picked up 5 WD Caviar Green 1 TB drives for my Synology 407e RAID 5 NAS.

They're quiet and work just fine.

Regards.

[Simon]

Thanks. I'm hearing a lot of positive reviews for the Caviar Green. Apparently they are very quiet and well performing drives.