WD1001FALS vs WD1002FBYS (1TB drive comparison)

[Apathy]

Both of these drives are 1TB, both have a 5 year warranty. One sells for $105, the other for $160. I did some searching around, couldn't really find any specific data on reliability/performance comparisons. Anyone have any ideas here?

Im planning on using the drive for games/porn/music/movies.

WD1001FALS - $105
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=488

WD1002FBYS - $160
(RE3)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136313
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=503

On a side note, I have my downloading application on the C: drive, and i save the files to my F: drive which is currently just a data storage drive. Does it make sense to move the downloading application over to the drive that it is saving files on? Any advantages/disadvantages here?

Second side note... i just RMA'd one of my 500gb seagate drives and holy fucking shit they have the WORST warranty service that i have ever dealt with. Ridiculous packaging requirements. They essentially make you pay $20 to receive a replacement drive with all the necessary shipping components for you to send your drive back with. If you don't pay the $20, you are kinda SOL. I am hoping my 5inches of bubble wrap and motherboard static bag will suffice.

check this shit out:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty_&_returns_assistance/packing_&_shipping_instructions/
or
http://www.seagate.com/support/service/pdf/pack.pdf

[timme]

The WD1002FBYS seems to be declared as enterprise-level drive, while the WD1001FALS is clearly aimed at consumers. No idea how that influences technical specifications though ;)

I would be very interested in noise reports for the WD1001FALS. Its performance is said to be great, but you get very mixed reviews on how suitable it is for silent computing.

[enginurd]

RE3 drives are optimized for RAID arrays, so there's little (or no?) time for error correction (typically handled by the RAID controller). They're also built to last longer and in more harsh conditions (server environment, always on, etc).

On a side note, I have my downloading application on the C: drive, and i save the files to my F: drive which is currently just a data storage drive. Does it make sense to move the downloading application over to the drive that it is saving files on? Any advantages/disadvantages here?

No, none.

[DonDon]

The RE3 drive has a longer warranty (built better?) and has TLER turned on. A drive with TLER should ONLY be used with a data redundant RAID setup such as RAID 5. What TLER does is limit the onboard error recovery, which can normally take up to a couple of minutes, to 7 seconds. After that, an error is returned to the RAID controller and the controller takes care of recovering from the data error. If you don't have another copy of the data, you just lost the bad data.

Since you are looking for a single drive setup, DO NOT buy a WD RE drive. I personally like the GP drives for data storage.

Typically you can set the download and the final storage directory in your downloading app. It really has no affect on the operation of the app though if you are moving the data between drives after the dl finishes.

Don

[EnderW]

The RE3 drive has a longer warranty
both are 5 years

[enginurd]

There is a WD TLER tool that will allow you to set the TLER value, though its not officially supported by WD. Just google for "TLER tool" and there should be a hardforum link.

[Syntax Error]

That's what's puzzling to me, once TLER is turned off for the regular desktop drives, what is the real distinction between the drives on a hardware level? Are they really built with higher quality? Or is it just marketing/enterprise-level pricing for HBA support and the like?

[Empty_Quarter]

I have both drives, and I see absolutely no difference in terms of performance, functionality, speed, and/or noise, they essentially identical.

Here are my benches with a pair of each in RAID-0 (granted, one is on ICH9R, the other on an areca 1210, but still...)

2x WD Black on Areca 1210
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j282/empty-quarter/Benchmarks/Black-ArecaRAID0.jpg

2x WD RE3 on ICH9R
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j282/empty-quarter/Benchmarks/RE3.jpg

As you can see (apart from burst speeds due to hardware RAID) they are identical.

I only got the RE3s because I got them at a killer steal price a long time ago when they were first released. I eventually switched to getting the Blacks because they were alot cheaper.

Weather they are built better or not, I have no idea, but they have the same warranty, so who knows...

[Danny Bui]

Second side note... i just RMA'd one of my 500gb seagate drives and holy fucking shit they have the WORST warranty service that i have ever dealt with. Ridiculous packaging requirements. They essentially make you pay $20 to receive a replacement drive with all the necessary shipping components for you to send your drive back with. If you don't pay the $20, you are kinda SOL. I am hoping my 5inches of bubble wrap and motherboard static bag will suffice.


Ouch. Sorry to hear that. But to be fair, I personally don't have a problem with Seagate's packaging requirements. Then again, I keep all the retail Seagate boxes (one of the benefits of buying retail hard drives) and use those to RMA the Seagate drives back. All I have to do is pay shipping and that's it.

[DonDon]

both are 5 years

Yea, I forgot the Blacks have the longer warranty.

I would bet that the 2 drives come off the same assembly line. They just change the labels they slap on the drives depending on what they need to produce that day.

Don

[Apathy]

meh, guess ill save myself the $55 and go with the black.

you know, funny thing happened just now,

i had my cart full at newegg with stalker clear sky / shadow of chernobyl, silent hunter 4, the witcher enhanced edition, and a wd 1tb black, and i started an online chat with a newegg support person.

i noticed that gamestop had stalker clear sky for about 8$ less, so i asked the support person if they'd price match. she said they dont price match, but they'd give me an 8$ credit. i said thanks, and when i went to go check my cart to pay, the next window showed that stalker shadow of chernobyl did not exist on newegg's site.

so now i am unable to buy stalker shadow of chernobyl from newegg. very strange.

but eh, whatever.


thanks for the help dudes / dudettes