WD and Seagate, hm....

[beserk1]

$90 - Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD3201ABYS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA-300 Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136201)

$85 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140)

The price different is minimal, what I want to know is which one is more quiet, better in performance and better quality?

The reason I ask is that the WD one is a server graded harddrive, and the Seagate one, I believe it is also design for server.

[gaspah]

+1 WD RE2

[Ockie]

I would take the Seagate day and night over the wd.

+1 Seagate

[beserk1]

I think by my buying a new computer, I am starting multiple fights among my friends.... XD

Is like for every parts they all have different favorites. This is going to be harder than I thought to come to a decisive decision.

[GJSNeptune]

I tried a 320GB Seagate 7200.10 for my parent's build a few weeks ago. I've never heard a hard drive so loud. Most people say their drive is quiet. Mine was so loud that I worried it was actually defective, but I think it was just loud, especially seeking. I returned it for a refund and went with a Western Digital. It was my first Seagate experience, and I've been using WD drives for six years.

I really like the RE2 drives. I'll be trying an SE2 250GB drive here soon.

I've put WD drives in every computer I've ever built for myself and family.

[beserk1]

and hows the new WD after the refunds?

[ALL4AMD]

another vote for WD

in my 4 year experience with the Air National Guard, we have replaced less WD drives over the others. sometimes the replacement drives are WD :D

[GJSNeptune]

and hows the new WD after the refunds?

Well I returned the Seagate for an RE2 160GB WD1600YS. A capacity hit but plenty for my parents. I've actually had one of these drives in my computer since last summer. It's not silent, but it's not loud at all, and it's definitely not as jerky/chugging as the Seagate was for me.

It's been great so far. The RE2 drives are built for raid arrays, typically for data centers where noise is common, but these drives aren't loud by any means. It's the only component in my parents' build that you can really hear. It's no louder than any other hard drive I've had.

Granted, it's 160GB. The 320GB probably uses two 160GB platters, but I don't really know.

[beserk1]

I know the numbers of platters make a difference, but is it double the sound? or just minor increase in the noise department?

[GJSNeptune]

Not really sure. I've never ventured above 160GB drives.Well I will for my next build. I got a 250GB WD2500AAKS. Should be getting it built next week.

[86reddawg]

I've got about 8 WD 320 drives (non RE) in a raid5 server and added 2 of the seagates in when they had them for 65$ at fry's. I had one of each for comparison in my desktop machine and I got about 10-15MB/s faster read speeds with the seagates. Can't comment on reliability though, I haven't had a WD drive die in my server yet (about 3-4 yrs online) but only had the seagates for a month or two. Noise doesn't matter to me, my power suppy is louder then all my HDs and the server lives in a seperate room.

[GJSNeptune]

The Seagate 7200.10 series is typically faster, but that's just one aspect to consider. Noise and reliability matter more to me than speed.

I bought a PowerSpec PC from MicroCenter in 2002. It was my college computer for my freshman and sophomore years. It came with a 40GB Western Digital hard drive, which I'm still using in my computer today for copying over small but important files.

[beserk1]

Consider I am going to do a RAID 0 setup, reliability is a must, sound is closely on the 2nd.

My only experience with hard drive so far is with maxtor, and they are nothing but pain...

[GJSNeptune]

You're doing a RAID setup, so why not the RAID Edition Western Digital drives? ;)

Maxtors are last on my list of hard drive brands to get.

[thebeephaha]

I would take the Seagate day and night over the wd.

+1 Seagate

Agree 100%

I won't buy WD unless it is a Raptor series or maybe the new GP drives.

[km8]

I recently replaced a 250gig WD with a 320gig SATA 7200.10 Seagate and love it. Drive is quieter, quicker and has a longer warranty. IMO Seagates are the best.

[beserk1]

what type of 250gig WD was it? The server grade hard drive for WD is model number ending with YS, as to the Barracuda line for Seagate.

It would be great if we can compare these 2 line of products directly instead of comparing to those desktop sub-model.

I need that stability and the extended 5 year warranty on those hard drive, thats why I picked those 2 line of products.

[GJSNeptune]

I've experienced two WD1600YS drives, the RAID Edition, one for my computer and one for my parents' system. I'd buy a bunch more of them, but I wanted to try the SE version with a larger capacity. If I don't like the 2500AAKS, I'll probably get another 1600YS.

[beserk1]

I don't build a lot of computer like you folks do, so I can only judge base on what everyone else said. And the YS 'seem' provide more stability than the desktop counterparts.

Then again, WD and Seagate did said both their server grade is built for long lasting and stability.

Plus is not much more expansive. I doubt I will be able to fully utilize the huge amount of disk space anyway.

[DonDon]

While I am not an IT person, I have been working on computers off and on since early 1991. I have had drives from every manufacturer die on me, even several from makers that do not exist any more. You will find people who swear by each brand today, and you will find people who swear AT each brand available today. Aside from a few anomalies like the IBM Deathstar drives from a few years ago (actually just the 75 gig model was affected I believe) drives today have very similar properties and failure rates.

Yes, you are going to have an occasional out of box failure or early death, but it happens to every manufacturer. You have to remember that they ship tens of millions of each model of drive.

I was just looking at some Seagate tech data on the 7200.11 drives yesterday, and their published failure rate (I know, take it with a grain of salt,) is .34%. Remember, that includes gazzillions of drives in consumer systems and data centers too. Drives that would not pass muster in the enthusiast community happily spend their lives there where a noisy drive is not even noticed. We tend to be a lot pickier than the average computer user.

The only modern drive I have is a 500 gig 7200.11 that I am very happy with, so far. I have only been using it for a month so far, but it is fast, roomy, and very quiet.

I have seemed to notice a few more complaints on this board about the 7200.11's but maybe that's just because they sell more. I know when I go into Fry's or BB, there are always lots of Seagate drives, generally more than any other brand.

There are so many models of drives out there, it is hard to find someone who has extensive experience with a wide array of models and manufacturers. So you are left with lots of opinions based on someone having 1 bad experience, or just owning a couple of the model you are asking about.

Don

[GJSNeptune]

Just don't order OEM hard drives from Newegg. And never choose FedEx.

[Sikpupi]

I've put WD drives in every computer I've ever built for myself and family.


Same here, when my final seagate dies it will be the last one I ever use.

[xxEIEIOxx]

I have that Seagate, and have been using it with no complaints for a year and a half. It is quieter than the last Western Digitals I had, and seems reasonably fast. Wouldn't mind a raptor though...

[GJSNeptune]

If noise is a concern, though, you don't want a raptor.

[xxEIEIOxx]

Noise is no issue for me. Wouldn't mind another of these Seagates for RAID, as long as they are not still shipping with the AAK firmware (which mine doesn't have).

[Volkum]

+1 for Western Digital.

[Deliximus]

+1 for WD.

[oboyco]

I have the WD320YS, very quiet in my opinion, and I am very pleased with it. It comes with a 5 year warranty, as it is an enterprise class HD.

+1 wd

[ALL4AMD]

Just don't order OEM hard drives from Newegg. And never choose FedEx.

u mean UPS as they play soccer with packages

[GJSNeptune]

UPS has been great for me.

FedEx just delivered a hard drive and RAM two days ago from ZZF. It's been snowy. The box wasn't in plastic, and it was right in front of my door. Not behind the big flower pot. Right there, sitting blatantly on the front porch. The bottom of the box was wet.

UPS will at least partially hide a package behind the flower pot. And they always have it in plastic when necessary. I haven't used FedEx in awhile, but it was the cheapest on ZZF. Never again.

[beserk1]

I guess it all comes down to my luck when choose a brand between 2 very similar products.

And have to make sure that they are in retail package and have a good delivery services.

@GJSNeptune and others with bad expereince with delivery services
You said the package got wet, is it DOA? Did you get it exchanged? How was it?

[plasma]

Just don't order OEM hard drives from Newegg.

Why not:confused: where do you suggest ordering from?

[GJSNeptune]

No, the box got wet, but the hard drive and memory seem to be okay. The hard drive is in its anti-static bag and the memory is in its retail packaging.

But it was on my porch from 9:45am to 5:30pm in plain view in 30-degree weather. That's over seven hours. The hard drive anti-static bag had very slight condensation on it when I brought it in. I haven't ordered the motherboard or HSF for my new build yet, so I was able to let the hard drive and memory return to room temperature. I could try it in my computer now, but I'm just gonna wait until next week when I build the new system. I'm not worried about it, but who knows.

[GJSNeptune]

Why not:confused: where do you suggest ordering from?

All Newegg does for OEM hard drives is wrap a bunch of jumbo bubble wrap around them. It's a little shoddy. I just ordered one from ZipZoomFly, and it came in a plastic-foam little box thing. Unfortunately the box was a little bigger than the drive, so the drive could bounce around inside it.

I dunno. The bubble wrap might've been better.

[beserk1]

haha, I see, well, like I said, I am just using newegg as a reference for price and review and what not. I am going to mostly order it from a friend who work at a computer store, and I am just gonna pick it up there and test it right there to make sure all the parts are working right.

So method of delivery is of almost no concern for me, as long as I can make it safely home with my baby.

[GJSNeptune]

If it's OEM, make sure you have a cable for it.

+1 Western Digital

[Ockie]

UPS has been great for me.

FedEx just delivered a hard drive and RAM two days ago from ZZF. It's been snowy. The box wasn't in plastic, and it was right in front of my door. Not behind the big flower pot. Right there, sitting blatantly on the front porch. The bottom of the box was wet.

UPS will at least partially hide a package behind the flower pot. And they always have it in plastic when necessary. I haven't used FedEx in awhile, but it was the cheapest on ZZF. Never again.

You'd be surprised how wet components can get. I've had dripping boxes before, I've transported macines in the rain, and we constantly (especially now with the shity weather), get soaked boxes.

Although, it is nice to get a dry box... nothing more aggrivating than having a drippy wet box thats all nasty.

One idea you can do is get one of those rubbermaid outside bins that has a lid, write fedex/ups/usps/dhl delivery box.... so at least no one would know what you have on your doorstep and you'd get dry packages.

[GJSNeptune]

It was just the bottom. None of the peanuts were wet, and the foam hard drive box thing wasn't wet. I don't think it soaked through.

[gesicht]

ya everyones experiences are different.

i worked for a company that sold their own PC's. i seen 100's of WD die in just 2000 alone. after that i got a sour taste for them. we would RMA them trays at a time. they same way they would ship them to us.

since them i stick to seagate. i fully know WD is not like that anymore but, i still could never buy one of their products.

plus the seagate is 79.99 with free shipping now. so +1 seagate

WD is 89.99 + 6 shipping.

[DedEmbryonicCe11]

320GB 7200.10
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m288/Dextromirth/Image3-2.jpg

[wildfire99]

The last several HDD's I've had die have been WD's. Every Seagate for the past couple years has been great. It seems like manufacturers go through phases. First it was IBM, then Maxtor, then I wouldn't buy a Seagate if it was free, but now I wouldn't buy a WD if it was on sale. The last two WD's to go through RMAs have either come back with problems or had issues coming back, as well.

Samsung has been another problematic brand lately.

[Mav451]

I've been 100% WD for quite a while now, very pleasant experience.
My Samsung died for no apparent reason one day - no clicking of death to tell me to back my shit up, just blargh. Not cool. At least Hitachi/IBM has a nice clicking to warn you of impending death. I was gonna go Seagate when I was moving from a Hitachi, but ended up going WD.

I've seen friends, noobs and CS majors alike lose data b/c of buying Maxtor. This is even after I warned them not to, and they still took the risk to get that stupid "hot hard drive deal". I told them >> notice how they don't mention who makes the HD? 100% guarantee it's a shitty Maxtor.

[chrispycrunch]

I've been lucky with Maxtor, which is now owned by Seagate. I had a bad seagate back in '91 so i had avoided them up until the 320gb 7200.11. It's relatively noisier than the WD, but quieter than Maxtor.
The 5 year warranty was appealing.

The WD ones, even the cheapest 500GB SE16 (It's only $100 here) is very quiet, and even faster. At least it feels so. It only has 3 year warranty but in 3 years time the drives are usually pretty cheap to replace. In fact i would guess that 1TB drives will be the norm 3 yrs from now.

[Whitebread]

I've had very good luck with WD for the last 5 years. I've currently got a 500 gig, a 400 gig and a 250 gig and they have been going strong for quite some time now. All 3 drives are nearly full and I need to create some more space+ some redundancy so I don't loose all my precious media. Although that means at least 4 1TB drives. I dont have a grand to blow...:(

Anyone know when some higher capacity drives are going to come out?

As for brand favoritism, go with whatever has worked for you. Not every brand is going to work for everyone all the time and some people are going to have bad experiences. I say go to storage review and find the drive that best fits your requirements and your budget.

[farfromhome]

I have several HDDs of both brands. Despite the stereotype that Seagates are quiet, I've actually found the WDs to be quieter every time. None of either brand has failed on me (yet, knock on wood). I have a couple old 300 GB Seagate 7200.8s, one now in an external enclosure doing backup duty, that are my least impressive drives. They just feel sluggish, but then they're very old at this point. The 500 GB 7200.10 is the loudest of all my drives, but is very snappy. The 320 GB WD SE16 I have is quiet, but the second slowest. Finally, the 750 GB WD SE16 I have is both fast and quiet. Here are the HDTach results:

Seagate 7200.8 300GB:
http://i31.tinypic.com/vgswo3.png

Western Digital SE16 320GB:
http://i28.tinypic.com/fjke9c.png

Seagate 7200.10 500GB:
http://i30.tinypic.com/2wf8pow.png

Western Digital SE16 750GB:
http://i30.tinypic.com/qrhrb4.png

[Nicksterr]

+1 for WD. Never had a problem with any of their drives.

[Megalomaniac]

+1 WD

but why dont you get this>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136150

WD GP series. the quietest and most energy efficient drives (or close to that)

750GB at 140, free shipping.

[Justintoxicated]

Not loyal to either brand but WD's are generaly cheaper so that is what I use.

[GJSNeptune]

They are? I rarely find a WD drive for less than $0.25/gig. They're usually above $0.30 actually, but I'm still willing to pay it.

[Justintoxicated]

They are? I rarely find a WD drive for less than $0.25/gig. They're usually above $0.30 actually, but I'm still willing to pay it.

They seem to typicaly be cheaper than segates from my experience. for example 1TB Greed drive was $225, 1TB segate drive was over $300 which I purchased mine.. it wasen't a tuff decision...Every time I look at segate drives they are more expensive. Probably because they have a longer warranty 5 vs 3. 3 is long enough for me though for storage drives anyways...For OS drives like the raptor 5 years is nice, which is what mine has anyways.

[RavenD]

Just don't order OEM hard drives from Newegg. And never choose FedEx.

Completely Agree with you on the point about OEM drives from Newegg. I made the mistake of getting two Seagate 250GB Sata2 drives from them in november. Put them in Raid1, controller drops both within an hour. RMA'ed them, got two more from Newegg, tried to put them in raid10, both brand new Newegg drives were DOA. ZZF on the other hand packages them properly, and they tend to not be dead out of the box.


http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/8591/57/0.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tnum=33&id=8591)

[SmokeRngs]

You'll probably be fine with either drive. I have been purchasing Seagate exclusively for the last couple of years because I've had good luck with them. I started with a couple 160gig IDE drives and they are still running and at the time rather quick. Because of that I went with a 250gig 7200.10. It was like night and day faster than the 160 gig IDEs. After that I had some spare money and wanted more storage so I grabbed a 320 gig 7200.10. I was actually able to tell it was faster than the 250 which surprised me. Due to being the same generation I didn't expect to notice a difference between the two.

I would still buy either WD or Seagate right now. The last WD I bought was 120 gig 8 meg cache IDE drive. At the time the thing was fast. It died on me after about 3 months for no reason. When I RMA'd it, I sent it off via FedEx on a Monday. I had the replacement drive Friday via UPS overnight. The replacement drive was brand new and at the time it was shipped it was only 2 days old.

I don't think there is going to be much difference between the two and either should serve you well.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/207.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=207&tm=33)

[CmaN3]

I've stuck with WD over the years. I currently have 3 of their drives in my main system, an 80gb, a 160gb, and one of the new 750gb GP drives. The 80 is 6 or 7 years old, and is on the way out, but still chugging along. Sustained transfer rates according to HDtach is around 5mb/s, but she still runs.

[Justintoxicated]

Completely Agree with you on the point about OEM drives from Newegg. I made the mistake of getting two Seagate 250GB Sata2 drives from them in november. Put them in Raid1, controller drops both within an hour. RMA'ed them, got two more from Newegg, tried to put them in raid10, both brand new Newegg drives were DOA. ZZF on the other hand packages them properly, and they tend to not be dead out of the box.


http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/8591/57/0.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tnum=33&id=8591)

Thats funny because I have the exact opposite problem. My Drive from ZZF came trashed, which was my raptor drive. Every drive I have ordered from teh egg work perfect no problems, my ZZF drive was packaged in a foam thingy, but that didn't help when UPS dropped it off the empire state building first. My newegg drives were alwayse bubble wrapped to match teh ZZF thing anyways. Then again I'm only miles from neweggs location so that probably helps.

I have 3, 80 GB drives all of which still work (WD) one is in the x-box (one is not in use). I have a WD 400GB SE, 500GB SE, Raptor (Died ZZF packaging heh), and 2 1TB green drives (good drives for storage).

I owned a segate 4GB I think I paid like $400 for which died after a couple years (was not even worth shipping for replacement), and a couple IBM Dethstars that died (??gig I think they were 50 or 60 or something but I returned them to frys), also have a 10GB IBM that still works but I htink it made some strange sounds, and a 34GB IBM that still works fine.

Getting a segate/Dell branded drive for my laptop though :)

If I remember correctly some drives like the new green power, have a special parking method that makes them better suited for shipping than some others. Check storage review to verify this...