To add to the Maxtor issue, I've been running a WD 80gb drive in my old computer for about 4 years now, and have a raptor and a 160gb WD drive running in this computer now, no problems thus far. My friend has had two maxtor drives give out on him in the past 3 years, so it seems they're rather hit-or-miss.
I'd steer clear of Maxtor for the most part.