harddrive question

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Siriusmuzik

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 7, 2007
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Hi, I am looking to purchase a decently fast 1TB drive or 2TB drive as a primary drive. What would you suggest? Thanks
 
Shadowsong,

Although the OP went with the Samsung F3, you linked to the wrong version of the 1TB WD Black. That model still uses three 333GB platters, which topped out at barely over 100 MB/s on the outer tracks. It is one of the slower-performing WD 7200RPM drives currently out there. Only the SATA III (6 Gbps) version of the 1TB Black (WD1002FAEX) and the 2TB WD Black use 500GB platters that can reach 140 MB/s on the outer tracks.
 
E4g1e said:
Shadowsong,

Although the OP went with the Samsung F3, you linked to the wrong version of the 1TB WD Black. That model still uses three 333GB platters, which topped out at barely over 100 MB/s on the outer tracks. It is one of the slower-performing WD 7200RPM drives currently out there. Only the SATA III (6 Gbps) version of the 1TB Black (WD1002FAEX) and the 2TB WD Black use 500GB platters that can reach 140 MB/s on the outer tracks.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

What do you think of the Samsung F3? Are these pretty fast/good drives? I bought it based on the great reviews.
 
Siriusmuzik said:
Thanks for the info.

What do you think of the Samsung F3? Are these pretty fast/good drives? I bought it based on the great reviews.
Click to expand...

If you're doing sequential transfers, it's a fine choice. It (the F3) almost reaches 150 MB/s on the outer tracks. And although acoustic seek management is set to minimal noise by default, it can be switched using a Samsung drive-compatible drive seek software to optimal performance. In the latter mode, the average random access speed is about average for a 7200 RPM hard drive.
 
E4g1e said:
If you're doing sequential transfers, it's a fine choice. It (the F3) almost reaches 150 MB/s on the outer tracks. And although acoustic seek management is set to minimal noise by default, it can be switched using a Samsung drive-compatible drive seek software to optimal performance. In the latter mode, the average random access speed is about average for a 7200 RPM hard drive.
Click to expand...

Great, thank you for the input.
 
E4g1e said:
Shadowsong,

Although the OP went with the Samsung F3, you linked to the wrong version of the 1TB WD Black. That model still uses three 333GB platters, which topped out at barely over 100 MB/s on the outer tracks. It is one of the slower-performing WD 7200RPM drives currently out there. Only the SATA III (6 Gbps) version of the 1TB Black (WD1002FAEX) and the 2TB WD Black use 500GB platters that can reach 140 MB/s on the outer tracks.
Click to expand...

thanks for the heads up, I'll update my future suggestions :)
 
Shadowssong said:
thanks for the heads up, I'll update my future suggestions :)
Click to expand...

And that's not to mention newer revs of the 500GB WD Blue. But if a true 7200 RPM WD drive of at least 1TB is desired, only those two drives that I mentioned in the quote of yours are the ones to consider. The other WD desktop (as opposed to enterprise) SATA drives of these capacities with 500GB platters are all Green models that usually spin at a spindle speed of about 5405 RPM (some individual drives in that series might have spindle speeds as high as 5900 RPM - and WD has been mute about the true RPM rating on its Green drives).
 
E4g1e said:
And that's not to mention newer revs of the 500GB WD Blue. But if a true 7200 RPM WD drive of at least 1TB is desired, only those two drives that I mentioned in the quote of yours are the ones to consider. The other WD desktop (as opposed to enterprise) SATA drives of these capacities with 500GB platters are all Green models that usually spin at a spindle speed of about 5405 RPM (some individual drives in that series might have spindle speeds as high as 5900 RPM - and WD has been mute about the true RPM rating on its Green drives).
Click to expand...

Yep I was aware that the new blue 500gb was a single platter, didn't know they made a 1tb version of it yet though.
 
Shadowssong said:
Yep I was aware that the new blue 500gb was a single platter, didn't know they made a 1tb version of it yet though.
Click to expand...

The 1TB Blue is currently sold only in Bulk/OEM packaging. I have not seen it in retail stores.
 
I mean a 1TB using the two 500gb platters

enginurd said:
http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/HDTune_Benchmark_R_WDC_WD10EALS-00Z8A0.png
http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/HDTune_Benchmark_W_WDC_WD10EALS-00Z8A0.png
http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/HDTune_Random_Access_R_WDC_WD10EALS-00Z8A0.png
http://www.alphaq.org/enginurd/hdd/HDTune_Random_Access_W_WDC_WD10EALS-00Z8A0.png
Click to expand...

I just ran my Black 1TB (333gb platter) and I got:
min: 56.1mb/sec
max:109.7mb/sec
avg: 89.5mb/sec
Access time: 12.0ms
Burst Rate: 143.9 mb/sec
CPU Usage: 0.7%

So it looks like the 500gb platter design is quite an improvement in performance although I can't say if my drive is working at optimal performance.
 
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