Best 1.5 Eco drive for HTPC?

elsmandino · Post by **elsmandino** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 12:13 pm

Hi there,

Am building an HTPC and need a 1.5tb. I am going to have doing lots of simultaneous recording (will be getting a tuner card that has four inputs) and streaming live/recorded video to a media extender and another computer.

The only two drives are the Samsung and WD, but based on this

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/sto...p_2.html#sect0

I can't decide. Seem to get the impression that the WD is generally quite slow, but that the Samsung is bad for multiple streams of video - not sure though.

What are your thoughts on the best one for me?

Thanks

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 1:32 pm

That link doesn't go to anything. Just X-bit's 404 page.

If you're looking to choose between WD's Green (GP) line or Samsung's EcoGreen though, it shouldn't matter.

Even the 5400rpm drives will easily handle streaming video. However, if you're looking to do it to multiple machines at the same time, I would consider going the route of having separate storage (via a file server or WHS) and clients. Otherwise, get the fastest drives you can.

elsmandino · Post by **elsmandino** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:04 pm

Thanks very much for that - very interesting idea that I had not thought of. So you are saying that I should set up a file server (I have an old pentium 4 that I could use) with a large 7,200 rpm hard drive and then back up all my programmes to the server, so that any computer connected to the server can then use them, thus allowing the HTPC to concentrate on recording TV?

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:48 pm

That's one way of doing it, yeah.

Having separate storage and task systems really frees up one machine from having to handle too much.

elsmandino · Post by **elsmandino** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:56 pm

Fantastic, I shall give that a try. I note that you say that is one way of doing it.

What other ways could this be done?

pingu666 · Post by **pingu666** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:34 am

buy a 7200rpm drive is the other way, thats what I use on our htpc...
id recommend that route, media center can be funny with remote storage of tv shows :\

elsmandino · Post by **elsmandino** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 5:03 am

Thanks for that - maybe I should just stick with the 7,200 drive. Given the new generation Hard Drives like the 1TB F3 Samsung, do you think there is that much difference over the Caviar Greens in terms of noise/heat/power usage?