Hard Drives: 1 Terabyte Sweet Spot?

CroSsFiRE2.0 · Post by **CroSsFiRE2.0** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:19 pm

I'm currently looking at buying a new hard drive as my current 7200.10 320gb Seagate is full. My choices so far are the WD Greenpower 1TB WD10EADS 32MB, Hitachi Desktar 1TB 7K1000 32MB, Seagate 7200.11 1TB 32MB, Samsung 1TB HD103UJ. Which are the pros or cons of each one and which one would be the best choice as either an OS drive or plain storage. Also, how do each of them compare in terms of vibration, seek noise and idle?

I'm currently leaning towards the WD Greenpower but with its 5400rpm, I'm a bit reluctant at picking it up since I play some games and don't know it's impact on load times and such. However, I'm a bit of a silence freak too so I need to take into account the noise to performance ratio.

Any opinions or help would be great. Thanks in advance.

Trav1s · Post by **Trav1s** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:28 pm

I say go for the WD... it does have 32 megs of cache...

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:14 am

I just bought the WD10EADS and love it. I'm using it in a mixed media server, HTPC, web/email, light gaming PC. Some users have experienced high amounts of head load/unload cycling. In my Ubuntu 8.10 system (ext3 files ystem), my Load_Cycle_Count is *not* incrementing at an alarming rate - it's only slightly above power cycle count. And I cannot hear the head-park clicking, so I don't think the drive is lying to me.

You can read more about the WD green drives and this issue here: WARNING: WD Green Power drives may kill themselves. Alex's post on page 4 of that thread shows his EADS drive working correctly.

Here's a very favorable review of the WD10EADS:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gre ... 078-2.html
The 5400rpm WD actually beats the 7200rpm Hitachi in a few tests, and is close enough in the rest.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:24 am

Jay_S wrote:Here's a very favorable review of the WD10EADS:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gre ... 078-2.html
The 5400rpm WD actually beats the 7200rpm Hitachi in a few tests, and is close enough in the rest.

The P7K500 is an older drive, and it is nearly as quiet as the original Green Powers. It compares favorably with the same age WD5000AACS which was more expensive. Hitachi's current generation 7K1000.B compares favorably with the WD10EADS, and I think the Hitachi is still considerably cheaper ($88).

I am sure the new 1TB Greens are probably slightly quieter than the 7K1000.B, but two 500GB WD Scorpio Blues might be quieter than a single WD10EADS. Of course you could buy 1TB of solid state storage too.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:14 am

QuietOC wrote:and I think the Hitachi is still considerably cheaper ($88).

I got my WD10EADS for $89 when it was Newegg's "shell shocker" deal a week or so ago. At $105 its value is debatable. But for $89 this purchase was a no-brainer for me.

Comparing apples to apples, in the streaming read I/Os per Watt, the WD10EADS achieves 122.1 vs the Hitachi 7K1000.B's 108.5 (from your graphic above). In the real world, I'd say this difference would be totally unnoticeable.

Trav1s · Post by **Trav1s** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:08 am

Jay_S wrote:
QuietOC wrote:and I think the Hitachi is still considerably cheaper ($88).
I got my WD10EADS for $89 when it was Newegg's "shell shocker" deal a week or so ago. At $105 its value is debatable. But for $89 this purchase was a no-brainer for me.

Comparing apples to apples, in the streaming read I/Os per Watt, the WD10EADS achieves 122.1 vs the Hitachi 7K1000.B's 108.5 (from your graphic above). In the real world, I'd say this difference would be totally unnoticeable.

I got one too and plan to install this weekend.

plympton · Post by **plympton** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:13 am

Jay_S wrote:
QuietOC wrote:and I think the Hitachi is still considerably cheaper ($88).
I got my WD10EADS for $89 when it was Newegg's "shell shocker" deal a week or so ago. At $105 its value is debatable. But for $89 this purchase was a no-brainer for me.

Comparing apples to apples, in the streaming read I/Os per Watt, the WD10EADS achieves 122.1 vs the Hitachi 7K1000.B's 108.5 (from your graphic above). In the real world, I'd say this difference would be totally unnoticeable.

There's a new $10/10% off code issued today. $95 makes me thinking about it again.

EMCHDD10

-Dan

CroSsFiRE2.0 · Post by **CroSsFiRE2.0** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:54 pm

Thanks for the replies guys, guess I'm going to get a WD10EADS after all, went on sale at Infonec (for those living in Canada) its now $120 or around 93$ usd. Going to pick one up and I'm hoping I don't see the load/unload cycle count skyrocketing. (I'm assuming they fixed this with the EADS right?)