• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Which HDD?

B

Baer

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
253
I am trying to decide on my main storage drive for my new rig. The size shouild be about 1 Tb. The key factors are in this order:
1. Reliability
2. Performance
3. Reliability (yes I know it is in here twice)
4. Heat and Noise
Price is not a factor for this componnent.
My boot drive will be a pair of 300 Gb V-Raptors in RAID-0 and then perhaps a SSD later in the year.
Here are my choices so far listed by fav. first

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136313
Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148278
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Suggestions? Comments?
Tnx
 
Any opinions on the 640GB Caviar Black vs the 750GB? The 750GB is slower because it's three platter, and not as dense as the 640GB. At the same time arguably less chance of failure due to the density.

They are pretty much the same price everywhere.
 
I'd get the Samsung HD103UJ 1TB drive.
Cheap, quiet, reliable, fast.
 
If you want reliable, I would go with a raid 5 setup for my data. Reason I asked about budget.
 
dwell said:
At the same time arguably less chance of failure due to the density...
Click to expand...

Without any metric to show whether one process is more/less reliable, there is no argument in favour of either.
 
My only point is that if you have data you can't lose, why rely on one drive?
 
Nenu said:
Without any metric to show whether one process is more/less reliable, there is no argument in favour of either.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. How are WD drives on the reliability scale? I had several go on me a few years back and swore off of them. Seems the Caviars had a bad batch back in October (based on complaints on Newegg). Things better now?
 
dwell said:
Fair enough. How are WD drives on the reliability scale? I had several go on me a few years back and swore off of them. Seems the Caviars had a bad batch back in October (based on complaints on Newegg). Things better now?
Click to expand...

I've had 3 WD10EACSs running over a year without any problems. I ran out of storage so I replaced my 8xWD5000AAKS with WD10EACSs a little over a month ago.
 
Some good questions and suggestions.
FIrst of all, I am going with a MOBO that will not support SAS, the P6T D-VII and, I also might change the boot drive to an SDD in a few months. When that happens the Raptors will become my video Etc working drives.
Reliability is needed for other reasons than insuring the data is not lost as I have a full, external multi-back up ( real time local and also network).
The WD RE3 seems to get the best reviews and I have now looked at its specs in detail, it is impressive with the only negatives seeming to come from those that feel the price is too high.
I have had a few drives fail over the last 25 years but they mostly Hitachi "death stars" and one other brand ( I forget whio) so my experience with WD, as well as Maxtor has been good.

Thanks all.
 
Baer said:
Some good questions and suggestions.
FIrst of all, I am going with a MOBO that will not support SAS, the P6T D-VII and, I also might change the boot drive to an SDD in a few months. When that happens the Raptors will become my video Etc working drives.
Reliability is needed for other reasons than insuring the data is not lost as I have a full, external multi-back up ( real time local and also network).
The WD RE3 seems to get the best reviews and I have now looked at its specs in detail, it is impressive with the only negatives seeming to come from those that feel the price is too high.
I have had a few drives fail over the last 25 years but they mostly Hitachi "death stars" and one other brand ( I forget whio) so my experience with WD, as well as Maxtor has been good.

Thanks all.
Click to expand...

In that case, the WD drives are good, stay away from the seagate's.

I had two bad drives in a row.

Talking 1 TB drives here.
 
For storage, I'd go with the WD10EADS. Low power consumption, very quiet, cool...
 
dwell said:
Fair enough. How are WD drives on the reliability scale? I had several go on me a few years back and swore off of them. Seems the Caviars had a bad batch back in October (based on complaints on Newegg). Things better now?
Click to expand...

You can't put much faith in Newegg customer reviews. Newegg's hard drive packing is as suspect as anything. Plus they should require a minimum IQ to post a review.

+1 WD10EADS
 
I agree on the Newegg reviews. There are many fanbois and 14 Y O texters there. When ever I see anyone write coz instead of because I imediatkly think 14 years old, IQ of 75 and review absolutly worthless. I think that they should at least require that the poster have a verified purchase of the product being reviewed.
As for packaging however, I usually get stuff from them in one day as I am only about 40 miles from their warehouse and I have never had a packaging issue. The last two drives I ordered a few weeks ago (OEM V-Raptors) were packed in foam in a box that allowed for 3 to 4 inches of foam around the drives.
 
Why not two of these in a RAID 1?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Baer said:
I am trying to decide on my main storage drive for my new rig. The size shouild be about 1 Tb. The key factors are in this order:
1. Reliability
2. Performance
3. Reliability (yes I know it is in here twice)
4. Heat and Noise
Price is not a factor for this componnent.
My boot drive will be a pair of 300 Gb V-Raptors in RAID-0 and then perhaps a SSD later in the year.
Here are my choices so far listed by fav. first

Suggestions? Comments?
Tnx
Click to expand...
 
SiG357 said:
Why not two of these in a RAID 1?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Click to expand...

Ahhh, really good question. My Mobo has 6 SATA ports. 2 are for my V-Raptors which are my initial RAID-0 boot drives. Two are my optical drives, one is this storage drive and the 6th I am reserving for an SDD. If I add the SSD as a boot drive I still want the Raptors in RAID 0 as graphics/video working drives. One other reason, I do not believe that the ICH10R will raid more than one array at a time. The earlier P6T Deluxe had the Marvel SAS raid chip also but it does not play well with the ICH10R so ASUS is droping it in the new Version II. I also suspect that ASUS fixed a few other minor things as long as they were comming out with a new version anyway.
 
Build one raid 5 array, you wont notice the performance difference, and if you to make it faster add more drives.
 
SiG357 said:
Why not two of these in a RAID 1?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Click to expand...

Because RAID isnt a backup solution, it is a method of maintaining real time/quick availability.
While the OP did specify that he wants a reliable drive, I think he is scared of losing his data if something goes wrong and doesnt sound interested in real time availability in case one drive fails (the only scenario RAID 1 will help with).
ie with RAID 1
If data is badly/wrongly written to one drive, it will be written to the other drive as well.
If a lightning strike affects the PC and one drive is damaged, the other is likely to be as well.
If one drive gets a virus, so does the other.
If the drive controller fails and writes rubbish, it will likely scramble both drives not just one.

If using 2 drives to be sure of not losing data, its better to use a second drive as a unattached backup drive that you can plug in to perform a backup and then remove after.
 
Baer said:
Ahhh, really good question. My Mobo has 6 SATA ports. 2 are for my V-Raptors which are my initial RAID-0 boot drives. Two are my optical drives, one is this storage drive and the 6th I am reserving for an SDD. If I add the SSD as a boot drive I still want the Raptors in RAID 0 as graphics/video working drives. One other reason, I do not believe that the ICH10R will raid more than one array at a time. The earlier P6T Deluxe had the Marvel SAS raid chip also but it does not play well with the ICH10R so ASUS is droping it in the new Version II. I also suspect that ASUS fixed a few other minor things as long as they were comming out with a new version anyway.
Click to expand...

The ICH10R will allow more than one array. I've got 2 RAID-0 arrays on one of my machines.
 
Baer said:
Ahhh, really good question. My Mobo has 6 SATA ports. 2 are for my V-Raptors which are my initial RAID-0 boot drives. Two are my optical drives, one is this storage drive and the 6th I am reserving for an SDD. If I add the SSD as a boot drive I still want the Raptors in RAID 0 as graphics/video working drives. One other reason, I do not believe that the ICH10R will raid more than one array at a time. The earlier P6T Deluxe had the Marvel SAS raid chip also but it does not play well with the ICH10R so ASUS is droping it in the new Version II. I also suspect that ASUS fixed a few other minor things as long as they were comming out with a new version anyway.
Click to expand...


Then I guess your stuck with one drive.

Yes the ICH10R will Raid more than one Array.

I kept my DVD on IDE just so I wouldn't use up a port.


Nenu said:
Because RAID isnt a backup solution, it is a method of maintaining real time/quick availability.
While the OP did specify that he wants a reliable drive, I think he is scared of losing his data if something goes wrong and doesnt sound interested in real time availability in case one drive fails (the only scenario RAID 1 will help with).
ie with RAID 1
If data is badly/wrongly written to one drive, it will be written to the other drive as well.
If a lightning strike affects the PC and one drive is damaged, the other is likely to be as well.
If one drive gets a virus, so does the other.
If the drive controller fails and writes rubbish, it will likely scramble both drives not just one.

If using 2 drives to be sure of not losing data, its better to use a second drive as a unattached backup drive that you can plug in to perform a backup and then remove after.
Click to expand...

Yes I understand RAID 1 isn't a backup. Which is why I have two external drives for backup. But the OP asked for reliability. Now if he meant data, then backups are a must.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top