Hardware Insights Forum

For me, it's a toss-up between the Seagate Barracuda ATA IV, Barracuda 7200.7, and the "black top" (FDB, longitudinal recording) Western Digital models. Barracuda ATA V would probably also be a contender but I've never seen one of those.

Probably the barracuda 7200.7

I really like the 7200.7's as well. They are pretty reliable drives

My ST3120026A seems to seek more loudly when cold. I recently got two more "black top" Western Digitals (a WD400JB-00JJA0, which is now installed in a PC along with the ST3120026A, and a WD800JB-00JJC0, which is extremely similar except for the capacity and RoHS compliance). No problems with them.

Most of my drives are from systems which other people have "up"graded from. (Whether it really is upgrading is debatable, and I wish more people would read this.)

To my knowledge FDBs first appeared on the Medalist Pro 9140 over three years before the Barracuda ATA IV but ST39140A was a tremendous power hog. They reverted to ball bearings when they returned to 7200RPM ATA drives with the Barracuda ATA I. Prior to the Barracuda ATA IV fluid-dynamic (or similar) bearings were optional on the following desktop drives:
Barracuda ATA II and III
Fujitsu MPF and MPG (though the latter was infamous for electrical failures and MPG3xxxAT actually has the 0th percentile in StorageReview's database)
Quantum Fireball Plus AS ("hydro-dynamic bearing")

As for laptop drives, IBM included FDBs as standard on the Travelstar 48GH and 30GN in early 2001, though strangely, IBM didn't provide them on desktop drives at all until the 180GXP in late 2002. None of the Microdrive datasheets ever mention bearings, though.