2.5" choice Samsung or Seagate?

IdontexistM8 · Post by **IdontexistM8** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:21 pm

I've just got a new HP laptop with a 100gb Hitachi SATA drive inside and although I've yet to change the acoustic settings I'd like to get another drive as a backup or to clone and swap over.

So I'm looking at Samsung (been reasonably happy with) or Seagate..not WD as they are a pain to RMA (as it's got to go to Germany).

100gb min obviously, not super bothered about whether it's 5400 or 7200rpm..so can someone give me a recommendation?

Cheers.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:03 pm

Difficult one really, I have used a few of both, the Seagates tend to vary a lot and some seem quieter than the Samsungs, but I havent seen as many Samsungs either.....

I would try Samsung as they all seem to be very quiet if you dont want a risk. If yo dont mind a risk, the Seagate 5400.3's have great performance.

Andy

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:47 am

This should help you:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sto ... io160.html

IdontexistM8 · Post by **IdontexistM8** » Thu May 10, 2007 3:37 am

I ended up getting the HM120JI, nice drive, excellent seek noise, way better than the Hitachi it replaces.

Shibirian · Post by **Shibirian** » Thu May 10, 2007 8:23 am

I tried a HM160JC in my ibook roughly three months ago. The noise of the drive almost drove me mad. A constant *whoooosh*, louder than the notebooks fan, clearly audible through the whole room. I treded the drive immediately in for a new WD400VE. Maybe less space (40gb vs. 160gb), but no more noise. At least me for my part cannot hear the drive. Only the ibook's fan, though.

If it's all about noise; Go and get the WD. That's only my 2 cent here.

IdontexistM8 · Post by **IdontexistM8** » Thu May 10, 2007 10:38 am

Shibirian wrote:I tried a HM160JC in my ibook roughly three months ago. The noise of the drive almost drove me mad. A constant *whoooosh*, louder than the notebooks fan, clearly audible through the whole room. I treded the drive immediately in for a new WD400VE. Maybe less space (40gb vs. 160gb), but no more noise. At least me for my part cannot hear the drive. Only the ibook's fan, though.

If it's all about noise; Go and get the WD. That's only my 2 cent here.

Well if I was going to compare the Samsung drive to the Hitachi one..I'd say the Sammy does whoosh a bit more but IMO at a lower frequency than the Hitachi. There's no hum or anything high-pitched. The seeks on the Sammy are considerably better. So perhaps what you gain on the one hand you lose on the other.

Edit - I just did a swapover to recheck and I stand by what I said above. Something I didn't know was that AAM wasn't supported on the Hitachi..loaded up the Feature Tool and it wasn't available.

The mid range WDs may well be solid but as I said before at least in the UK it's expensive to RMA them to Germany (especially if you courier) and the last Scorpio I had an annoying power management style click off. A shame because it was quiet in all other ways.

I'm surprised the current range of Samsung 2.5" SATAs haven't been reviewed or compared here. I'd be interested to see how they stack up in the 5400rpm league noise wise.