Which Hard Drive to buy???

I have a failing Maxtor 160 GB drive according to Ubuntu. S.M.A.R.T seems to tell me everything is ok though.

Anyway I was thinking of buying a new 1TB SATA II drive as was wondering what to get, I will only be using it really for my cloned version of XP or I might just swap my current WIN 7 drive and put that on the new drive and XP on my current drive if that makes any sense.

I have heard good things about several drives what do you guys recommend bearing in mind I am in the UK and will be buying from a UK store.

TIA

Steve

There are several options, most widely available:

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200.12

Western Digital 1TB 'Black' or or even 'Blue'. The green version is best for storage and not an OS drive.

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB

What is the difference with the Western Digital between the >Black< & >Blue< ??

Steve

I believe the black version has a larger cache, and is supposed to be the best performing. Now how much better is it than the blue, I am not sure.

Black, Blue, or Green--if you had one of them and didn't know which it was, you probably would never know the difference if you didn't run a benchmark. The greens are faster than the fastest 7200 RPM drives were 3 years ago.

I'd be more concerned with price and your retailer's policies if you have issues--would you then deal with the manufacturer or with the retailer, etc. Any brand can and will have a certain percentage of DOAs. I have had WD, Samsung, and Seagate and have yet to have a failure with any of them, but you can find horror stories for all of them easily on the Internet.

Currently using a WD black and a WD green with no issues.

If you buy an OEM, you will likely have to supply your own cables.

I too would recommend the WD Black, they have the new 500Gb per platter(as do the new seagates) which potential reduces noise and enhances performance. I myself have just bought the 500Gb model I benchmarked it and found it was some 40% faster than my last drive.

I was initially going to get the samsung F3 but they were difficult to find.

Well, i too can say that WD would be the better bet.

But whatever you do, do not get the Caviar Green 1TB as i did.

Ok, it was an OS drive (Thanks for the info smarteyeball, wish i knew that at the time).

I had this drive, barely 6 months.

But my experience was, one day it worked absolutley fine and the next it naffed up (I have actually got a post here on sevenforums). It turned out to be the controller and from what i read on different sites ,t ehy all said the same thing, the controller is prone to go wrong and fail. This will then mean the HD will only be found when it wanted to.

Now, however (and i recomend), i now use two caviar blacks 500gb and 750gb respectivly and i also use a caviar blue. Both of which are briliant HDD.

Oh i also use a Samsung Spinpoint 500Gb, which i have now owned for over a year and still this baby keeps on spinning.

So yeah,

Don't touch the Caviar Green 1tb (WD10EADS),

look at either the Westerns Caviar Black or Caviar Blue, or even the Samsung Spinpoint.

Hope this helps

Thanks guys for all your input I kinda thought the Western Digital would get the thumbs up have seen one here

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD1001FALS) [WD1001FALS] Hard Drives SATA-II 1TB & Over

Think I might go for that and also I might just buy this as a back up drive Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0F10311) [HDS722020ALA330] Hard Drives SATA-II 1TB & Over

Any thoughts on the Hitachi ?????

Steve

stevepressman said:

Thanks guys for all your input I kinda thought the Western Digital would get the thumbs up have seen one here

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD1001FALS) [WD1001FALS] Hard Drives SATA-II 1TB & Over

Think I might go for that and also I might just buy this as a back up drive Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0F10311) [HDS722020ALA330] Hard Drives SATA-II 1TB & Over

Any thoughts on the Hitachi ?????

Steve

Click to expand...

Steve
Did you notice the 1TB has a 5 yr warentee and the 2TB has only 3 years.

The Western Digital Blacks carry a 5 year warranty...where the Blues and Greens carry a 3 year warranty. The Blacks have a bit better performance, but also use a little more power and make a little more noise.

I have had just about all the different brands over the years. Every once in a while you get a bad one !

In the past 6 months I have bought several Samsung & Hitachi 1tb HD's from NewEgg.

All have been working just fine so far. I like WD & Seagate HD's also.

I usually go for what is on SALE at the time.

Best of Luck


" Doc "

Im a Samsung, Hitachi fan! I would recommend you a Desktar! I personally think is the best brand for HD

I have one to say with Hitachi's and even Maxtor's.

Heard through the grape vine, Hitachi and Maxtor are programmed to die when the warranties run out.

But thats what i have heard.

Luckystar said:

Heard through the grape vine, Hitachi and Maxtor are programmed to die when the warranties run out.

Click to expand...

I can assure you that I have seen many a Maxtor drive which has outlived it's warranty. I think the grapevine in this case has failed you.

I have a Samsung F3 1TB and it's a great drive and I got it on offer from Overclockers.
This is my 4th Samsung and they've all been great.
On the other hand I agree with doc. Get the best deal that's around