[vegggas]

I had to buy a drive on the way home today to replace my old 80GB Maxtor that died in my Panasonic Showstopper last night (just as the fall season starts too!). I went to FRY's and picked up a 7200 RPM WD 8MB cache (WD1200JB) drive for $128 out the door with a $50 rebate. I knew the size limit and thought that this was the best I could do. At checkout, I saw the Maxtor Ultra series 160GB 7200 for $129 with a $40 rebate. This one was supposed to be quieter and more "reliable", but I couldn't remember if the SS would even see a 160 GB without problems, so I passed on it.

Now that I get home and read the FAQ again, I see that they CAN use larger drives, but just use up to the 137GB limit.

Does anyone think I should return the WD120 for the Maxtor 160, just based on quieter performance and reliability, or does anyone suggest sticking with the 120 for simplicity and guaranteed compatibility?


I think I'll hold off on the swapout until I hear something.


Thanks guys, your comments and suggestions are eagerly welcomed.


vegggas

 

[Mikeyboy]

I don't find disk drive access noise acceptable in PVR's. WD (as far as I know) are still noisy. The other deal breaker is warranty, 1 year isn't enough. So if the Maxtor comes with a 3 year warranty go ahead and exchange the WD. Run AMSET utility to AMSET /QUIET to silence the Maxtor.

 

[vegggas]

The more I think about it, the more I want the Maxtor. If it's stable in a Showstopper, then there should be no reason not to get it. It looks like I can use the extra few gigs for a few extra hours of recording, and use the amset utility to make it less noisy.

Any reason NOT to use the 160 GB in a Showstopper???


vegggas

 

[vegggas]

I went back to FRY's and swapped drives. It cost an extra $1.07 and $10 less on the rebate, but I feel better about it.

Hope everything works!


vegggas

 

[vegggas]

Final post to close this topic and provide results for search.

The Maxtor 7200RPM 160GB works fine. The image for my PV HS2000 was put on the drive following the instructions, and the system works great and is automatically limited to 137GB and 48.5 hours of high quality video settings.

I could not run all the tests on the drive that I wanted to. I was forced to make a dos boot disk off the install CD to run any utilities, and it would NOT do a low level format and also failed the write tests. I ran the re-certify test to certify it from the factory and that went ok. I also could not find AMSET to make it run quiet, but with the drive outside the unit from 5 feet away, I could not hear it... yet. Heat issues to be addressed with a hard drive fan cooler tomorrow.

Finished.


vegggas

 

[icecow]

Excellent move. A 120 gig HD ends up being only 115 as far as the replay is concerned. your 160 gig HD is about 153 as far as the replay is concerned. So basically you get to use about 60% of the 40 gigs the two drives differ. Quieter too. Later if you throw that drive into something else you get a little 17gig present too.


I think you have 145.50 hours at standard quality. My showstopper had 127 hour with a 120 gig drive. I think that 120 gig drive was a 'genorous sized drive' that was a bit bigger than usual.


Great job. that 19+/-2 extra hours is that much funner.

 

[icecow]

Hmm.. double check what I'm saying, but I think you aren't supposed to recertify the drive unless it passes the 'quick test'


cow