I'm wanting to purchase 2x Maxtor 300GB MaXLine II harddrives, I was wondering if anyone here has access to cheaper prices and is willing to help me obtain them.

Here in New Zealand I can get both for about NZ$1000. Ebay doesn't seem to have the 300GB Maxtors, only saw 1 and dude doesn't ship international.

cheers,
Jaidev

That price is about on par with the price in Europe for those drives. I've checked with the US pricewatch, and you would only save about 120 NZ$ if you bought them in the US. Are you sure that's worth the effort? Since Maxtor drives do have a history of dieing relatively fast, wouldn't it be better to just buy them in NZ? For warranty reasons etc. I mean : 120 NZ$ is only about 70 US$, and you'll already loose a large portion of that "profit" because the drive would have to be sent to you as well.

BTW : This is just FYI. I don't like Maxtor. I already had 3 of their drives die on me within the first month of me using using them. I'd rather had it that they were DOA, but noooo, they let me install all my stuff on them first before dieing, taking all of it with them... yay!..

If I buy from newegg, two of them cost $493.50 (802.49 NZD). I can ship them via FedEx or UPS. Send me a PM with your address if you would like me to esimate the shipping costs.

BTW : This is just FYI. I don't like Maxtor. I already had 3 of their drives die on me within the first month of me using using them.

Which Maxtor drives? I've currently got 3 of the 250Gb ones and they're working fine (touch wood).

This topic seems to come up from time to time on the BBS, and about the only consensus that we ever seem to reach is that drive manufacturers go through good and bad patches.

Which Maxtor drives? I've currently got 3 of the 250Gb ones and they're working fine (touch wood).

The first time this happened was with a Maxtor of 80gig (can't remember the model). Then I stayed away from Maxtor for quite a while, thinking that they might have had a bad patch. A few months ago I was in need of some extra HD space again, and I figured : "well, that the bad patch is probably over by now", so I decided to buy a 200gig diamondMax Plus 9 drive. As said before, it died on me within a month, taking all my stuff on it with it. I then replaced it with an identical model, which died on me too after a short while.
Now the brand "Maxtor" is absolutely forbidden to enter any of my PC's, and all my drives are replaced with WD's. I haven't had a problem since.

This topic seems to come up from time to time on the BBS, and about the only consensus that we ever seem to reach is that drive manufacturers go through good and bad patches.

Yes, I know. And keeping that in mind, that's what persuaded me to buy the 200gig drive in the first place. Well, that and the fact that it was a few euro's cheaper than a WD AND that it's using an FDB motor that is really quiet.
I guess it wasn't meant to be...

This topic seems to come up from time to time on the BBS, and about the only consensus that we ever seem to reach is that drive manufacturers go through good and bad patches.

Agreed. In the past, I've always been an advocate of Western Digital, and for at least the last 8 years or so, I've had great experiences with them. Recently, however, they downgraded a majority of their lineup to 1 year warranties, and I had one of mine start acting funny on me (still works, but makes an airplane landing noise.) Furthermore, other manufacturers seem to have caught up in the price vs. performance ratio. When I put together my RAID5 array on my file server recently, I went away from Western Digital and bought Samsung drives. The performance was marginally lower than Western Digital's flagship drives, but price difference and much lower noise factor were enough to switch me. I still wouldn't rule WD out, but I do think their "best in class" status is in jeopardy.

I too refuse to every buy a maxtor drive. My roommate and I both bought one each, installed them in each of our pcs, and about 6 months later they both died within a week of one another. I will only get WD now. I have had a WD drive die on me but WD was very quick to send me a replacement. Maxtor gave me all kinds of hassel. I gave up and went out and got the WD 250gig SE with the 8meg cache. Havent had a problem since.

Up until a few months ago, I was also a very vocal advocate of WD drives. However, I think their run as the king of HD manufacturers may be coming to an end. First they cut down the standard warranty on a majority of their drives from 3 years to 1 year, then they slowly but surely increase their cost per megabyte (relative to other manufacturers) to the point where the "bang for the buck" they used to have is completely gone. They still sit at or near the top in terms of performance at a given price point, but it's such a shallow edge that it's no longer worth it when you can get a significantly larger drive from Samsung or Hitachi. Furthermore, I had one of my WD 205BA's start emitting a loud grinding noise recently (even louder than WD drives are already), suggesting it's on its last leg (though it tests out fine.)

So recently, when I put together my RAID5 array on my Linux file server, I started out looking at WD drives, but found that Samsung had a model that was just as fast, MUCH quieter, and cheaper (unless you factor in WD rebates which are only one per household.) I ended up getting 4 Samsung SP1604Ns instead. I still think WD makes some good drives, but I don't think the quality and service is quite what it used to be, and the fact that they refuse to do anything about reducing noise has me wondering if I'll ever look at WD again. Even if noise wasn't a factor, I'm still not sure WD is at the top of the heap anymore.

But, yeah, Maxtor still sucks.

How are the Samsung drives working out for you? I've tried almost every HD brand that's out there except for Samsung, and I'm in doubt if I should try them or not.

They seem to be getting pretty good reviews. Of all the HD's out there they are the quietest and the coolest, two BIG plusses in my book (especially the quiet part). They seem to have only one downside so far : they only come in a max size of 160gig. Also, their price is very good and their performance is right under the performance of a WD. But the difference is so little in my eyes that I doubt that I would notice it.

So, I guess my question is : would you recommend the Spinpoints ?

So, I guess my question is : would you recommend the Spinpoints ?

I have a bunch of them. I think they're great. They don't seem to get louder over time which Maxtors sometimes do. I would currently buy Samsung over any other brand.

Hmmm ok well that will save me about NZ$190 however shipping will reduce it by at least $90. Well thanks anyway, I suppose I'll get them here. Also warranty etc etc...

I hoped someone was able to obtain them at wholesale prices.
I am able to get them at wholesale price so my buy price on a drive is $445 plus tax.

cheers

So, I guess my question is : would you recommend the Spinpoints ?

I don't think I have a real "apples to apples" comparison because all of my recent WD experience was with single drives, and my Samsung drives are part of a RAID5 array. So obviously the performance of the RAID system has been a huge upgrade (mostly on read speed, but I think write speed is faster in my setup as well, possibly due to a switch from ext3 to jfs.) However, the quietest WD drive I've ever had is about 3 times as loud as the combined noise of all 4 of my Samsung drives. So in the noise category, it's no contest. IIRC, www.storagereview.com has good data on the Samsung drives and there you can compare the performance if you wish. As for reliability, hard for me to say, as it's only been three weeks.

Thanks, I guess that's a yes. I've read the review on storagereview and they are pretty positive about these drives. I'm pretty sure now what brand my next HD purchase will be.

Oh, and while I'm asking : you say that you run those drives in a RAID5 array. How do you run them? In software or with a controller card? I'd like to run them with a controller card, but the bandwidth of a normal PCI card (133 mb/s) will not be sufficient. Since I don't have a server board with 64-bit PCI (PXI-X) slots, it seems that I have no other choice than to wait for the first PCI Express RAID cards which will be out be the end of the year, I reckon.

Also, how much free space do you have with four 160 gig drives in a RAID5 array?

Thanks!

How do you run them? In software or with a controller card?

I got a 3Ware Escalade 7500-4LP from EBay for ~$150. Little more than I wanted to spend for just a HD controller, but the Escalades are known for very good reliability and performance, especially under Linux. I briefly looked at one of the Promise models that was about $30 cheaper or so, but read about some mixed experiences under Linux.

I'd like to run them with a controller card, but the bandwidth of a normal PCI card (133 mb/s) will not be sufficient.

Well, strictly speaking, the PCI bus might be the limiting factor, but not by much. The average read speed of the SP1604N seems to be around 45 MB/s (depending on where things live on the disk, phase of the moon, etc.) I think the figure for RAID 5 performance is P * (N - 1) where P is the single-drive performance and N is the # of drives. That puts the average throughput of a 4-drive array around 135 MB/s, assuming the RAID5 implementation is perfect. That's right around the speed of a typical PCI bus. For writes, PCI definitely isn't a concern. The only way I can see the PCI bus coming into play is if you're running 5 or more drives, or four really fast 10K drives. FWIW, I'm running my 3Ware on a regular PCI slot and am happy with the performance.

Also, how much free space do you have with four 160 gig drives in a RAID5 array?

RAID 5 eats up the equivalent of one drive for parity, so that leaves you with 480GB to play with (160 * 3.)