Whacker's List

Recommend:

Seagate - 5 yr warranty, never had bad luck with them.

Western Digital Raptors - You'll pay out the wazoo, but you are basically buying an enterprise-grade drive in entry-level consumer packaging.

Indifferent:

Western Digital (Non Raptors)

Avoid like the plague:

Maxtor - Yes, they are owned by Seagate now. No, they are not the same thing, design, or Quality Assurance. The quality on these drives are miserable, of the countless drives I've had fail, all but 3 have been Maxtors. I made it a point to steer people clear of these drives whenever I saw them going to purchase one at Compusa. Complete garbage.

YMMV, IMO, etc etc.