Hitachi 7K250 - user opinions, please

[twist3d]

I'm in a brink of purchasing 2x 160gb sata drives for raid 0 use.

As being a long-time Maxtor user (from 400mb to 80gb, many drives in between :) - one failed drive in 8 years),
I'm thinking about Hitachi's 7K250 line.

Being one of top performers in storagereview's review (http://storagereview.com/articles/200310/20031007HDS722525VLSA80_1.html), I thought I had a winner. Then I went to the forums (http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=12042) , and it seems that it makes unbearable cat-like meow noise (mp3-file of the sound) (http://home.t-online.de/home/d.daeumler/hitachi.mp3) (which, of course, using my computer to watch movies, I cannot accept).
My second choice is Maxtor Diamondmax +9.

I'd like user opinions of Hitachi 7K250 and it's applicability to silent pc setups.

[TotalChaos]

I have some personal exp with many different HDD brands. Particularly western digital, Maxtor, Hitachi. I have a 40GB 7.2K RPM Maxtor HDD and 2 80GB 7.2K RPM Maxtor HDDs of the same series (of which series I can't say - approx 2 years old) and all are louder then my 6 120GB Hitachi drives put together. (those 120GB HDDs being from the older 180GXP series) I also agree the Hitachi HDDs are usualy top performers among their peers. As long as the drive you buy has fluid bearings you shouldn't be displeased with the noise. My personal prefference is all Hitachi. Out of the 12 HDDs I've bought in the last 2 years. I've had problems from western Digital's 36GB raptors, 80GB Maxtors, 40GB Western Digital, but NEVER any problems from the 120GB Hitachi HDDs.

Just to give you an example of the type of work these drives do.... I use the 120Gb hitachi Drives as my main RAID array in my fileserver. They run nearly 24/7 and have been for 1-1/2 years. Supposedly you're not suppost to use these drives in continuous operation, but I guess Hitachi drives can take it!!!!!

[twist3d]

thanks for your comments but the meow-noise is in 7K250 series only (and only in some of them apparently). so i'd like comments if newer revisions have "fixed" this problem :)

[brute]

no, it began with 180GXP, there it was very noisy...
but the 7k250 line is very silent. This noise isn't noticeable with closed case! Heard that all newer models are fixed with this thing!

Anyway, if you want an alternative, take the new Samsungs, that are almost equal in performance and are very silent!

[twist3d]

thanks for the comments. I'll go with Hitachi 7K250 then :)

[communist]

If you havent bought anything yet then I'd recommend going with a Samsung drive - they are not very noisy and have 3 years full warranty ;)