New
#1
Which Hard Drive?
I'm considering adding a new hard drive or two to my storage setup. Right now I'm using a pair of 1TB Seagate drives which have been quite reliable. They are identical ST31000528AS SATA II drives. I have another comparable 1TB drive on my second computer which serves as an extra layer of backup protection.
Both of the Seagates are about 85% full (as is the third Seagate on the spare computer), and while I would like to wait until HD prices get a little saner, industry scuttlebutt says that may be another year from now and I doubt I'll be able to wait that long.
Since the drives I'm looking to add will be storage only, high performance is not absolutely necessary, though I would like to stay away from anything which will take forever to get going. I also don't see a huge price difference between 1TB and 2TB drives right now and would prefer to go for the larger size to avoid filling all my SATA ports or having to use the (ugh) Marvell controller.
I'm looking at these two - any thoughts would be much appreciated:
Micro Center - Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB 5,900RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST2000DL003 - OEM 016543
Micro Center - Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB IntelliPower SATA 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive WD20EARX - OEM 017376
There is only a $5 difference between them, so any difference in performance, quality and reliability would swing the choice one way or the other. :)