Seagate DB35 drive for DVRs?

[mikeblas]

weaKness recommends using Seagate DB35 drives to upgrade Tivo Series 3 players.

Their price for a DIY kit including a 750 gig drive and some cheap tools is $500, but I can get a SATA 750GB drive for much cheaper:

Seagate Barracuda ES ST3750640NS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM : $400
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3750640AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM :$310

The DB35 whitepaper[/URL] seems like it's marketing fluff. The real difference, as far as I can tell, is that the DB35 drive is guaranteed to have a certain STR, but the stock drives don't provide such a guarantee. Plus, the DB35 provides both an PATA and SATA interface so it can be used in a lot of different players.

Has anyone upgraded their Series 3? Is the DB35 drive from WeaKnees worth the extra cost?

 

[unhappy_mage]

I can't speak to the specific application, but Seagate drives vary greatly in noise floor depending on whether acoustics management is on or off, and IIRC that's not an end user-modifiable setting. Buying the kit is one way to get a drive you know will have acoustics management on. And the acoustics management may help reduce power draw; slower, quieter seeks take less power.

Excaliberpc.com has it for around $350. At that price, I'd buy it over a 7200.10 for this purpose.

Is anyone else having problems accessing Seagate's site? Pages are down, search is broken, etc...

 

[mikeblas]

Thanks! I'll dig around for some more lower prices, but that makes it worthwhile, I guess.

 

[hjreggel]

Hi,

The DB35 whitepaper seems like it's marketing fluff. The real difference, as far as I can tell, is that the DB35 drive is guaranteed to have a certain STR, but the stock drives don't provide such a guarantee. Plus, the DB35 provides both an PATA and SATA interface so it can be used in a lot of different players.

The DB35 don't have *both* interfaces, they are only available with one or the other: ST3750840ACE = PATA, ST3750840SCE = STA.

The main difference between standard and DV drives in general is less noise and less power consumption. Besides that, these drives are optimized for video streaming, the most you want is watching one stream while recording another.

Nowadays we have three types of harddisks:
- Enterprise for 24/7 operation, acoustic management set to "fast/load"
- Regular for desktop use (daily start/stop): acoustics "silent/slow"
- DV/CE for use in Audio/Video equipment: Extra quiet and low-power

Hans-Jürgen

 

[mikeblas]

The DB35 don't have *both* interfaces, they are only available with one or the other: ST3750840ACE = PATA, ST3750840SCE = STA.

Ahah! So they are different part numbers? The flyer linked from the WeaKnees site says something about "while offering ... option", and it wasn't clear if it was the same drive, or a different model:

The DB35 Series is compatible with UDMA-2, -
and -4 interface chipsets, while offering Serial
ATA options for high-definition DVR systems.

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[mikeblas]

I ended up getting the DB35 drives from Excaliber. They ship in the clamshells and bubblewrap, which was very disappointing. I've installed the drives in the our two Series 3 DVRs and they're working fine so far, though.

Thanks for the referral!

 

[unhappy_mage]

I ended up getting the DB35 drives from Excaliber. They ship in the clamshells and bubblewrap, which was very disappointing.

Disappointing but not unexpected. ZipZoomFly is the only retailer I know of that ships properly-packed drives, so I guess this is another addition to the "improper" list.

I've installed the drives in the our two Series 3 DVRs and they're working fine so far, though.

Glad to hear it, and I hope they keep doing so.

 

[mikeblas]

Yeah, it was a downer. Worse than NewEgg, who at least drops the wrapped drives in peanuts (in my experience, anyway). The two drives were in a box just wider and just taller than the bubble-wrapped bundles. The drives were on end, vertically in the box, with the remaning length filled with a single piece of heavy packing paper.