Ball bearing HDD or Fluid bearing HDD: which one?

[Frisbee]

Hello people;

I'm planning to buy a bigger harddisk.
I read in the HDD FAQ that fluid bearing drives are quite new, so data on reliability is not available.
But as manufacturers have lowered the warranty of standard harddisks, I'm confused.
Could it be that implementing fluid bearings has made them decide to go for less waranty?
That would mean that fluid bearings are less reliable than ball bearings.

Has anybody had bad experiences with any particular brand? eg Are Maxtor and WD equally realiable harddisks?

I only care about reliability. From that perspective, what would you choose? Ball or fluid bearing? I don't care if ball bearings make A LITTLE more noise.


Greetings from Belgium;
Carl

 

[kinney]

I have a fluid bearing drive and love it

Athlon 1700+, Epox 8RDA (NForce2), Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 80GB 8MB cache, 2x256mb Crucial PC2100, Geforce 3, Audigy, Z560s, MX500

 

[lhgpoobaa]

well newER anyway...
seagate have been in the Fliud bearing drive market for some time now, and their offerings are pretty reliable, as good as ballbearing.

i wuld go for a fluid drive for the noise reduction

<b>My Computer is so powerful Sauron Desires it and mortal men Covet it, <i>My Precioussssssss</i></b>

 

[Frisbee]

I do not really care about noise.
Well, I mean, I'm going for a 5400rpm drive for noise reduction, so ball- or fluid bearing probably won't make much difference when it come to noise.

For my choice I only care about reliability.

And I think that ball bearing still is more reliable, no?
As far as I know, fluid bearing is nothing but an enhanced version of sleeve-bearing, and that makes me worry a little.

So in short: reliability, reliability, reliability.
Does anybody have any idea about the difference in reliability between ball- and fluid bearing?
Theoretically, I think ball-bearing should be more reliable.

Carl

 

[upec]

I think it is better to get an 7200 rpm hard drive. You can tell the difference.

 

[Cane1992]

Get a 7200 RPM drive...easily worth a little noise for such a faster HD.