[dpicardi]

By Best I mean overall in terms of:
1. Speed
2. Reliability
3. Noise levels

I'm planning to get a new Mac Pro soon and I would like to buy at least 1 additional 500GB HD (or higher) to go along with the 250GB Stock drive (or possibly make the stock drive the back up drive of critical files). I don't want to upgrade at the apple site as it appears you really pay a premium.

All thoughts, insights and advice are welcome.

[mduell]

Honestly, I don't think there's much variation in performance or noise; most differences will be marginal.

I like Seagate; they're fast, they're quiet, and they're the only brand with a 5 year warranty (most others are 1 or maybe 3). Look at the Storage Review performance and reliability databases for more info on Seagate and others.

500GB for $170 or 750GB for $340

[zerostar]

I vote for Seagate as well, but I prefer the 7200.10 series, that 750GB is NICE!

[justmetoo]

NO NO NO, stay away from that Seagate series. Supposidely major read/write issues, and there is no support for a firmware update on the horizon. Now where did I read that???

Some guy has been really beating his head against the wall with them, and has posted over on the Apple discussion board, somewhere... I'll see if I can find it later... ]Apple - Support - Discussions - Seagate 7200.10 firmware ...
OR,
Apple - Support - Discussions - Benchmark test results seagate 320gb ...

Or just search 7200.10 on that board, plenty of hits and complaints.

I got one of them a few months ago on that big sale at NewEgg (now that sale makes sense... ), and it works for simple storage, but if you need speed for RAID avoid them...

[Lateralus]

.etagaeS .noitseuq oN

[dpicardi]

Originally Posted by Lateralus 

.etagaeS .noitseuq oN

Thanks to all who have replied. I have been reading the same thing regarding the Seagates...especially the .10 version. That is why I'm a bit leery of them and why I was asking for opinions.

Barefeats recommends the Maxline HD as being the best overall performers in the mac pros. I was planning on making a RAID system.

It seems all HD makers have their pros and cons. I'm surprised to see the number of reviews for all vendors on newegg.com that refer to HDs showing up DOA. Shocking with technology this old (and this critical) that they can't be almost bullet-proof at this point. I realize that HD tech is constantly evoling but still...DOA?

Mark and the Mod both stongly recommend the Seagates...and I'm more open to listening to people here than on Newegg as we're all mac users.

Does anyone here have first hand RAID experience with the new Seagates in a Mac Pro?

Thanks,

[arng1]

If all you want is a reliable 500gb hard drive, I suggest Maxtor Maxline Pro 500. I have one used for storage and I have not had any problems with it. If performance is what you are looking for, I recommend a 150gb Western Digital Raptor. At 10,000rpm, performance will not be an issue, but of course thats at the expense of storage space.

[bossep]

I had the new Seagate 7200.10 400GB 16MB perpendicular. I had major problems and was recommended Hitachi 500GB until Seagate sorts the problems.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by dpicardi 

Thanks to all who have replied. I have been reading the same thing regarding the Seagates...especially the .10 version. That is why I'm a bit leery of them and why I was asking for opinions.

<snip>

It seems all HD makers have their pros and cons. I'm surprised to see the number of reviews for all vendors on newegg.com that refer to HDs showing up DOA. Shocking with technology this old (and this critical) that they can't be almost bullet-proof at this point. I realize that HD tech is constantly evoling but still...DOA?

The .10 performance woes with the Mac Pro have been resolved.
Barefeats says:Firmware version 3.AEE or later solves the slow sustained large block write speed issue for a single 7200.10 inside the Mac Pro.
The improved results for four Seagate 750GB test units are due to the firmware update. Our drives came direct from the Seagate test engineers and were labeled "3.AEE + 2F00."
This firmware also fixed the slow sustained write speeds for single 7200.10 inside the Mac Pro.

The reason for the seemingly high DOA rate in the Newegg reviews is that people with problems are much more likely to fill out the survey than people with no problems.

Originally Posted by justmetoo 

NO NO NO, stay away from that Seagate series. Supposidely major read/write issues, and there is no support for a firmware update on the horizon. Now where did I read that???

Some guy has been really beating his head against the wall with them, and has posted over on the Apple discussion board, somewhere... I'll see if I can find it later... ]Apple - Support - Discussions - Seagate 7200.10 firmware ...
OR,
Apple - Support - Discussions - Benchmark test results seagate 320gb ...

Or just search 7200.10 on that board, plenty of hits and complaints.

Where ever you read it, it's out of date. The new firmware was released and resolved the large block performance issue.

Originally Posted by bossep 

I had the new Seagate 7200.10 400GB 16MB perpendicular. I had major problems and was recommended Hitachi 500GB until Seagate sorts the problems.

Did you update the firmware to 3.AEE or newer?

[zerostar]

I JUST got a new 7200.10 500GB in today, zero problems and am hitting 70MB/65MB on a single drive in my G5 Quad.

This replaced a 250GB Segate for movie backups... Had that one for 3 Years. I stick by my Segate suggestion since it seems they have sorted their issues.

I will say.... for my Boot drive I have a Maxtor Maxline III 300 GB just because it was much faster than the 250 Segate I had in there at the time.

[Cadaver]

Happened to be at CompUSA today (well, technically yesterday I suppose) and they had 500GB WD SATA drive mechanisms on sale for $159 after $40 "instant" rebate and $40 mail-in rebate. Snapped one up.

Added it as an internal drive in my Mac Pro to replace an older 320GB external FireWire drive (actually 2x160GB RAID 0). One of the drives in the set was starting to make really odd seek and idle noises. Better safe than sorry.

[bossep]

Did you update the firmware to 3.AEE or newer?

No. My huge problem was that the disk didn't mount on my desk, couldn't be found by Disk Utility or Disk Warrior, tried to install my system but the disk wasn't found and was no alternative to install on.

[EricTheRed]

I always get new HDD for my new computers. Hands down the most claw-hammer reliable drive is Western digital's WD5000YS.

It is made for servers.

Read the 500GB HDD shootout test and review.

Best Price that I found on the web and where I ordered my HDD.

[all2ofme]

I got two of the WD5000YS drives for a 1GB RAID 0 array in my Mac Pro and they're great. Quiet, too, though they do vibrate a fair bit. It's worth taking the time to make sure they're seated in a way that keeps them from vibrating more than they need to.

[dpicardi]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Did you update the firmware to 3.AEE or newer?

Never had to update the firmware on a HD. How does one do this? Is it hard? Time-consuming? I imagine it has to be done before you put data on it?

All help appreciated.

Thought I would have my Mac Pro by now as I assumed they would be updated at Macworld and I could get an even better deal at the Apple refurbed site...no such luck. The waiting game continues...

[mduell]

Originally Posted by dpicardi 

Never had to update the firmware on a HD. How does one do this? Is it hard? Time-consuming? I imagine it has to be done before you put data on it?

All help appreciated.

Thought I would have my Mac Pro by now as I assumed they would be updated at Macworld and I could get an even better deal at the Apple refurbed site...no such luck. The waiting game continues...

You run the updater app, which takes a few minutes. It can be done with data on the drive.

[bossep]

Originally Posted by mduell 

You run the updater app, which takes a few minutes. It can be done with data on the drive.

Where do I find that updater app?

[mduell]

Good question. I figured it would be on their website, but I don't see it. Call Seagate tech support.

[justmetoo]

Originally Posted by mduell 

The .10 performance woes with the Mac Pro have been resolved.
Barefeats says...
The new firmware was released and resolved the large block performance issue. Did you update the firmware to 3.AEE or newer?

I CAN'T FIND THIS FIRMWARE UPDATE, ANYONE???

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by justmetoo 

I CAN'T FIND THIS FIRMWARE UPDATE, ANYONE???

Its probably a Windows executable. Not many vendors produce MacOS-based hard drive firmware updaters.