The power supply outputs on a PC don't normally cause any problems (apart from the PSU actually failing). However, CD-ROM drives are very prone to failure, and Maxtor drives seem to have a life span of only around 18 months or so.
I've never seen (or heard of) the controllers been taken out by drive failure.
What do you mean by that? There is nothing new in terms of how power distribution from psu is delivered to individual requirements.
You must know something that I don't.
I've had CD failures and even mem chip failures and peripheral failures due to lightning strike, and every time, only the damaged part had to be replaced. So your trying to let us in on something that is unnecessary.
To some extent perhaps so?, but almost all the faulty drives I've ever changed have been Quatum and Maxtor (actually the same company), and Maxtor drives are fitted in various PVR's in the UK - their usual lifespan is between 14 and 18 months!. Last year I probably saw 20 or so faulty Maxtors, varying from 6 months to 2 years old.
I also know a guy who runs Internet servers, he bought a large number of Maxtor drives, and he was very pleased with the performance from them - but reliability wise they were a disaster, they all had to be replaced within 12 months. Unfortunately this entailed a fairly long drive for him each time, so he wasn't pleased - and he'll never buy Maxtor again.
'Best' is a very subjective term! - as with anything else, you will get different opinions from different people.
In recent years I've used various drives, including Seagate, Western Digital, and Samsung - I've yet to see one fail. The machine I'm using at this very moment has a Samsung 160Gb drive fitted and an 80Gb Seagate.