500GB Samsung F1 vs 500GB WD Caviar GP

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Mon May 19, 2008 3:44 am

WD5000AACS vs HD502IJ

I currently have a 120GB 2.5" Samsung M60 and while I've become accustomed to the low noise I'm slowly filling it and I'm not too happy with the laggy performance.

I'm thinking of trying a 3.5" drive again to see if I can live with the noise to reap the performance gains. It will be suspended by elastic in my P180 just as my M60 currently is.

I really don't need 500GB but I can't seem to find a 320GB F1 (single platter?) in the UK. It's worth mentioning that the F1 is Â£45 inc del while the WD is Â£55 inc del.

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Mon May 19, 2008 4:07 am

Or should I go for the WD6400AAKS at Â£61? I really don't need the extra space so I don't want to pay extra for that but I wouldn't grudge paying the extra if it was likely to be quieter.

The WD3200AAKS is only Â£44 but I hear it takes a performance hit?

lodestar · Post by **lodestar** » Mon May 19, 2008 9:03 am

I have just bought the Samsung Spinpoint T166 320 gb SATA II and for the price it performs well and seems quiet enough.

As it happens I was offered the Seagate 320 gb at an even lower price but the supplier only had the one with the firmware that it is being lamented all over the internet so I passed up that opportunity.

That aside, the issue I think with hard drives is where do you stop spending. My local supplier has the the Samsung F1 in the 750 gb size for Â£65 or the 1Tb (1000 gb) model for Â£93.

If you really need the storage I would say buy the biggest hard drive you can afford. But equally there is no point in paying for storage capacity you are never going to use. For example, having installed Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Pro and a few other programs I am currently using only using 67 gb on a hard drive which has formatted to a capacity of 298 gb.

Luminair · Post by **Luminair** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:40 am

well just look at the reviews... all of those drives are faster than the m60, they are all similarly quiet, and the GP vibrates the least because it is the slowest. So pick your poison, there isn't that much difference, and the differences are very clear.

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Mon May 19, 2008 12:29 pm

Ordered myself a 500GB Samsung F1 for Â£45 inc. earlier today. Got an external 2.5" enclosure to put my M60 in, too.

Now it just remains to be seen whether this 3.5" drive is quiet enough for me. I have my doubts. I had a Samsung single platter Nidec P80 before and swapped it for the M60 to go quieter.

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Wed May 21, 2008 12:11 pm

The drive arrived today. 2 things I overlooked (or ignored, putting them to the back of my head) is increased heat over a 2.5" drive (significant) and increased power consumption (not insignificant but not as important, either).

Windows Vista 64-bit hasn't arrived yet so I'm unable to set it up in the system as I'd have to remove the current 2.5" drive to do that (only have one set of elastic bungee cords).

First impressions are exactly as expected - that is: slightly louder than my old Samsung P80, 80GB, single platter 3.5" SATA drive (the quietest desktop drive I've ever heard), which I knew it would be

Idle noise is clear as day to me, the airborne hum of the drive itself without even touching anything that would amplify it stands out in the otherwise silent system. Seeks are pretty muted and definitely couldn't be described as "sharp" but, of course, even more noticeable than idle noise. I haven't got it in the case with the side panel on yet so that might block it enough to satisfy me. Might try enabling AAM but this will decrease performance, obviously.

Can I live with the noise for the sake of performance? Only time will tell. Although this will be a few month old XP 32-bit XP Pro install vs a clean Vista 64-bit install so probably not the fairest of comparisons....