I believe it was the ball bearings that did in the Deathstar. Most drives these days use fluid bearings.
I love my Hitachi 160GB SATA. It's quiet and both the unit and the circuits don't get hot. IBM still makes the integrated controllers for the Hitachi drives, which is a plus, IMO.
I'd be concerned about the 500GB models, though. More platters means more things to go wrong.
Western Digitals have held up well for me, though they are a tad noisy. Maxtors are crap. I've RMA'd four of them (my dad's computer and my boss' computer). Any Hitachi will be better than a Maxtor!