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New Storage Drive

R

Robogamer

n00b
Joined
May 9, 2010
Messages
62
I currently have 2 1TB Samsung spinpoint F3's and need a good 2TB storage drive.
I am currently looking at the Caviar green with 64MB cache and SATA III that is on sale for $140 on Newegg right now or the Spinpoint F4 which is currently $180.
I can wait a few months before purchasing if it will save me money. I am willing to spend an extra $10-$30 to get a more reliable drive. My priorities are as follows:
1) Reliability
2) Price
3) Speed

I have SATA III on my mobo but don't want to use it because I have to choose between that and USB 3.0.
The F4 seems more reliable but I can only guess from reviews. It is also faster than the SATA II Caviar Green by a small amount from benchmarks I saw.

Bottom line: Should I buy a new 2 TB drive now? and if so which one? or will prices drop significantly in the next 3-5 months?

Thanks for any input
 
from what it looks like, prices ARE going down, little by little... I bought a seagate barracuda lp 2tb last week for 69.99, i'm just keeping my eyes open for similar deals and checking them out when I receive them.
 
USB3 is one controller, SATA3 is another, so there is no reason you should have to choose. But SATA3 is not a relevant factor when talking about HDDs, anyway. Reliability is not something we know in advance, but only in retrospect. What is important is doing backups.

Also, Samsung has been bought by Seagate.
 
If you are looking just for just a storage perspective, then the WD Green 2TB drive is not so bad. I constantly watch my Blu-Ray collection via ISO and a virtual BD-Rom Drive on my HTPC. (So much easier than digging through the AV cabinet for what you want to watch.) Just make sure it is for storage only. I’ve loaded my OS on it once and watching movies and having Windows updates run at the same time can be very aggravating.
 
Thanks for the info. I think I will wait a bit for the new drive. I wanted to rip my DVD's to my computer now but it can wait until summer. If Seagate owns Samsung now then what does that mean about their quality?
 
Backblaze did some research and recently upgraded their pod design from Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200.11 to Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3030ALA630 3TB disks. See their first and latest design. I'll probably follow the same path (but in SATA 3) for my next storage upgrade.

As for Samsung drives, I wouldn't bet on it, too much unknown at this stage. In a context of company purchase, probably as many employees would feel more motivated toward better quality assurance to keep their job as those who would feel unmotivated by the purchase and their uncertain future.

In any case, you're right, don't buy in advance (especially now with high prices caused by the Thailand flood,) buy only at the latest moment when you're ready.
I wouldn't get a 2TB drive though, I'm already at 24TB and it's mostly DVDs, not BDs! ^-^ Well, full rips, not converted files, but still.
Windows 8 Storage Spaces shows great promises, I can't wait for the Beta to try later this trimester. I'll get rid of my RAID enclosure if I can.
 
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Those were very interesting articles but aren't there issues with larger than 2TB drives in win7?
 
No, you just need to use GPT instead of MBR (Win7 will do it for you).
 
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