Decent Performer >= 1TB

D

davewolfs

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 7, 2006
Messages
338
I'm looking for some drives to setup in Raid 1 and have pretty much narrowed my choices to the Seagate 7200.12 1TB or WD Green Power 1.5TB. Both of these drives are using 500GB platters.

It's important to me that the drives be fairly quiet, I current have some RE3's which I am replacing because I find them extremely loud. I also have a WD 640GB Blue which I am pretty happy with in terms of noise.

Of the two drives, which one would you go with?
 
I think that the WD Green would be quieter.
I have two 500GB Samsungs that I consider more quiet than any Seagate or WD that I have ever owned.
I know that Samsung has a 1TB 7200rpm model that is also considered by most to be very quiet.

Not to say that this forum is not one of the best sources of information, it is, but if
quiet is your biggest concern, I suggest that you also check out:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
where I first heard about the Samsung drives and the case that I ended up with, among
other things.

The forums and the articles there are dedicated to quiet PC's and quiet components.
 
My biggest concern with the samsungs would be long term reliability. As for quiet, I don't need absolute, I'd be happy with as quiet as the WD 640GB blue which is around 16db idle and 16-19db seek depending on whether AAM is on or off.

The new Seagate is said to be quieter then the F1, I'm interested in the WD too but my concern is whether or not its going to be a dog for performance even though it's primary usage will be a data storage disk.
 
The recent seagate reliability issues would make me wary. Also unless things have changed, they still don't support AAM (acoustic management). I know my WD Caviar Black does, I'm assuming WD green does too.
 
I have 4 of the WD 1.5tb drives in a Drobo 2.0 box, and can't hear them at all.

Granted this is at my office, where the air conditioning vents tend to run most of the day.

I have another Drobo 2.0 at home with 3 1tb Segate drives and 1 WD640GB drive, and this one is definitely louder, though mostly only when actually transferring data.
 
aardvark sandwich said:
I have 4 of the WD 1.5tb drives in a Drobo 2.0 box, and can't hear them at all.

Granted this is at my office, where the air conditioning vents tend to run most of the day.

I have another Drobo 2.0 at home with 3 1tb Segate drives and 1 WD640GB drive, and this one is definitely louder, though mostly only when actually transferring data.
Click to expand...

Are the Seagate drives the 7200.11 or 7200.12 versions? The latter is supposed to be much quieter. Also, how do you find the 1.5TB drives?
 
davewolfs said:
Are the Seagate drives the 7200.11 or 7200.12 versions? The latter is supposed to be much quieter. Also, how do you find the 1.5TB drives?
Click to expand...

I have the 7200.11 version. Thankfully I never had any issues with mine.

Really, for my needs (mass storage over USB) both drives are fine. I went with the newer WD green drives simply because they were larger.

Performance seems to be the same, at least to the point where I can't tell a difference.

Overall though, I can't say the Seagates hold any advantage at all, except of course a cheaper price.

Compared to the 7200.11, the 1.5TB WD runs much cooler, and should also use less energy. If I open the front panels of the Drobos, you can feel that the Seagate drives are far hotter to the touch than the WD drives. Its a pretty significant difference. I'd imagine this would translate into the Drobo using its fan less too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top