[Icekey]

I've got to make a choice between a Maxtor 120 gig FW400 drive or a IceCube 120gig HD. Both are 7200rpm and have 8mb buffer. I don't know what's inside the maxtor or the icecube, but are they pretty much the same? Maxtor does look nicer though and the price difference is quite small. My other option is to purchase a Icecube encloser and install a Hitachi 180gvx 120gig HD inside it as I heard it's the best one. Any suggestions on other brands? We're a bit limited in stuff like OWC here in Australia

[effgee]

Personally, I'd recommend against buying Maxtor drives. I purchased two (internal) Maxtor drives a little over a year ago and they both died on me this November within three weeks of each other.

I got two replacements from Hitachi and they've performed flawlessly so far - much quieter than the Maxtors as well. I've heard/read bad comments about the Hitachis, too but overall I think they're more durable than Maxtor. I also bought two IceCube enclosures at that time and love 'em - much smaller and more elegant than the Maxtor enclosures I've seen. The IceCubes are fanless (= no noise), which is very nice - how about the Maxtor, does it have a fan?

My recommendation is to get the empty IceCube and the Hitachi drive and put it together yourself - usually, you'll save a buck or two.

In case you decide to go with the Maxtor, be mindful that the consumer line of their internal drives have a one year warranty only (2 or 3 on the "pro" line) - dunno about the external drives. If I was in your shoes, I'd make the warranty offered for each of the products the deciding factor.

cheers,

eff