<rant>
So I'm in the market for a new drive. I have have two old 320GB Maxtors (spun down most of the time) because I cbs getting around to migrating my old stuff from them. I have a WD10EARS which I'm fairly happy with which housed my Win7 RC install, and again I cbs migrating my data (Why sort when you can search?). I currently use a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB, which is noisy as hell. It's also dying on me. It sometimes gives me the nightware hard-drive-tick/click-of-death, preventing me from booting; it's happened about three times before. The funny thing is, once the computer is booted up and in Windows, the drive is fine but last night the drive ticking came up when the computer was already on, and when I rebooted, it would load Windows. After spending the night coaxing and convincing the drive, it booted and everything's okay...for now. Funny thing is nothing shows up in SMART. When listening to music or watching videos, stutter/pauses occur for a moment, about once every 5 minutes.
</rant>
I've been telling myself to buy a drive for a while now, but last night was the final straw. I'm now looking for a replacement drive and here's what I'm tossing up; as mentioned in the title, I'm looking at either the WD EARS series or the Samsung F2 series, and between 1TB (two platter) and 1.5TB (three platter) drives.
SPCR gave a good review of the predecessor EADS drives (and I'm quiet happy with my own 1TB drive), and the Samsung F1 drives; forum chatter and general word of mouth also gives the thumbs up to the Samsung F2's. So I was wondering what people prefer? Does having 64MB cache in the WD make much of a difference?
Secondly, how great is the difference between two platters and three platters? Prices right now show that the sweetspot for GB/$ value is around 1.5TB, meaning three platters, but how about noise? Anyone with experience in the matter?
WD EARS vs Samsung EcoGreen F2? Three vs two platter?
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
I built a Windows Home Server with a Samsung F2 1TB (2-platter) main drive and a Western Digital Green 1.5TB (WD15EADS, 3-platter) secondary drive. In my experience, the WD drive is much quieter.
I'm not sure if it's just sample variance, but the F2 is pretty noisy compared to the WD. The F2 vibrates quite a bit compared to the WD and runs warmer. When both drives are operational in my server, I can tell that the F2 is on by the vibrations. The WD doesn't seem to vibrate at all (or I can't tell since the F2 vibrates so much).
The F2 also has more idle noise than the WD.
The 64MB cache vs 32MB cache probably won't make a difference in normal operations, so I wouldn't base my decision on that. One thing that I would consider (although it might just be FUD) is that the WD hard drive parks its heads more than other desktop hard drives. Some people worry that this may cause early deaths, but I haven't had any ill-effects of this behavior...
I'm not sure if it's just sample variance, but the F2 is pretty noisy compared to the WD. The F2 vibrates quite a bit compared to the WD and runs warmer. When both drives are operational in my server, I can tell that the F2 is on by the vibrations. The WD doesn't seem to vibrate at all (or I can't tell since the F2 vibrates so much).
The F2 also has more idle noise than the WD.
The 64MB cache vs 32MB cache probably won't make a difference in normal operations, so I wouldn't base my decision on that. One thing that I would consider (although it might just be FUD) is that the WD hard drive parks its heads more than other desktop hard drives. Some people worry that this may cause early deaths, but I haven't had any ill-effects of this behavior...
I just bought a WD EARS 2 TB and thought I'd chip in with a quick mini review.
Coming from a Samsung F2 1 TB, the WD has much quieter seeks - the F2 is almost unbearable (for being a 5400 RPM, that is), at least my sample. Idle noise is also better and blends in more easily with my room's "sound atmosphere", whereas the F2 have a more high-pitched sound which is discernable at a greater distance. Unfortunately I can't compare these drives with the EADS, but I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the EARS if my sample is any indication of it's general sound signature.
Coming from a Samsung F2 1 TB, the WD has much quieter seeks - the F2 is almost unbearable (for being a 5400 RPM, that is), at least my sample. Idle noise is also better and blends in more easily with my room's "sound atmosphere", whereas the F2 have a more high-pitched sound which is discernable at a greater distance. Unfortunately I can't compare these drives with the EADS, but I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the EARS if my sample is any indication of it's general sound signature.