which HD for PowerBook G4 ?

Hi there.

I think my hard drive is failing. So I want to buy a new one. But which one to get? 2,5" obviously and PATA only.

That leaves me only 2 choices: Samsung and Western Digital. I think I'll go for 160GB. Which one would you get and why?

pro/contra Samsung:
- cheaper
- silent (2,2 sone v 2,4 sone)
- more vibration?
- seems to fail more often
- hot?
- consumes 2,1 W

pro/contra WD:
- more expensive
- not so silent (2,4 sone and 2,6 sone while seeking)
- more vibration?
- pretty cool (won't get any warmer than 30°C)
- seems to be more reliable
- consumes 2,5 W

Which one would you choose? I'm really puzzled.

dontwalkhand said:

The Samsung definitely, as I can't stand hard drive noise.

Click to expand...

Me either. However if the Samsung gets quite hot the fan will go on and as you probably know that can be much more annoying - especially during summer. I couldn't find anything about thermal management on the Samsung. Do you have experiences?

I always brought Seagate or Hitachi/IBM drives before as external space. They never failed me. At the moment I'd go for the Samsung (it's ~10$ cheaper). However would you buy a used drive from ebay? Sadly both Seagate and Hitachi have ceased producing PATA drives.