Please suggest SATA 500GB HDD model.

[sumedik]

Hello,

Well the Samsung site is too confusing and Western Digital is too diverse. Which models would you suggest for a new 500GB SATA HDD?

Based on forum discussions which I have one through, it has to be from SAMSUNG or WESTERN DIGITAL.

The HDD would be used as primary booting device, has to be reliable and give good performance in that order. I usually upgrade after 5-6 years.

I do not need RAID and I would stay away from Eco friendly drives as the constant power up/down causes wear and tear.

Please suggest more than 1 model as per your order of choice.

Thanks,
S

 

[VirtualLarry]

WD caviar blue 640GB or Black 640GB. Black carries a 5-year warranty, blue is 3 years.

I'm running a pair of 640GB Blue drives (WD 6400AAKS) in my two desktop rigs, and they are great, nice and fast, and so far, reliable.

 

[Doclife]

I use the Western Digital AV-25 WD5000BUDT 500GB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal AV Hard Drive for my laptop since it's supposed to be very reliable (designed for 24/7 operation) and have a 32MB cache for performance (the largest cache available for 500GB drive). You would need a 2.5" adapter (SilverStone made 1 that is very good) to use it on your desktop however.

It's currently OOS in Newegg, but I'm sure you can buy it from another online retailer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-561-_-Product

 

[jvroig]

I'm running a pair of 640GB Blue drives (WD 6400AAKS) in my two desktop rigs, and they are great, nice and fast, and so far, reliable.

I concur with VL's take on the Blues. I have 4 Blue drives myself (2 320GB and 2 1TB). The oldest of them has been in use since 2007 as my main drive.

 

[sumedik]

Thanks. I forgot to mention, I need a 3.5 inch HDD. It is for a desktop.

What is your take on Samsung Spinpoint people?

 

[corkyg]

Am current;y running a p0air of 3.5-in WDC 500GB Barracuda Blacks (7200 RPM) - they are now 2 years old and doing just fine. They were OEM models bought locally at SWS Electronics. They are mounted in EZ_Swap racks.

 

[Emulex]

i like the WD velociraptor 600gb. pretty decent price and speed is awesome. makes 3.5" platter drives seem so slow

 

[Mir96TA]

Black 640GB

 

[Meghan54]

http://www.storagereview.com/best_drives

 

[sumedik]

here are some extracts from the Samsung website. Different models, same specs Does anyone know the differences?:

Spinpoint HE502IJ 500G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 16MB
Spinpoint HD502HJ 500G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 16MB
Spinpoint HA501IJ 500G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 16MB

Spinpoint HA751LJ 750G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HD753LJ 750G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HD754JJ 750G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HE753LJ 750G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB

Spinpoint HE103UJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HE103SJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HA101UJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HD103UJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HD103SJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB

 

[Termie]

here are some extracts from the Samsung website. Different models, same specs Does anyone know the differences?:

Spinpoint HE502IJ 500G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 16MB
Spinpoint HD502HJ 500G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 16MB
Spinpoint HA501IJ 500G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 16MB

Spinpoint HA751LJ 750G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HD753LJ 750G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HD754JJ 750G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HE753LJ 750G 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB

Spinpoint HE103UJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HE103SJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HA101UJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HD103UJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB
Spinpoint HD103SJ 1TB 7200 SATA 3.0Gbps 32MB

I have a Samsung 502HJ, as well as the Western Digital 640GB Blue. I have installed two 640GB Black drives in other computers.

Here's the breakdown:
(1) The Samsung is by far the quietest and coolest running.
(2) The WD Blue 640GB is next quietest, but is quite a bit hotter than the Samsung. Benchmarks place it slightly slower than the Samsung, but in practice they are equivalent.
(3) The WD Black is not quiet at all, and it runs about 10 degrees hotter than the Samsung. It is faster than both the Blue and Samsung.

Of these, the Samsung is also the cheapest. If you're willing to endure more noise, just jump straight to the Samsung 1TB, which is faster, cheaper, cooler running, and obviously bigger than the WD 640GB drives. It's about $10 more than the Samsung 500GB drive, but due to its dual platters, it is louder and hotter, so it's not a clear win for the 1TB drive - I bought the 500GB drive based on that reason.

 

[john3850]

Without knowing the total amout of memory it gets harder.
Now if the op is using vista or 7 with only 1024 memory the swapping is going to cause the most wear.
If I had 4096 or more of memory I would get Samsung f3 1TB.
If my memorys on the low side I would get a 500 or 640GB Black which is are fairly fast do to the twin processors.

 

[sumedik]

Benchmarks place it slightly slower than the Samsung, but in practice they are equivalent.

Where do you get these benchmarks from?

And yes, I am looking at 500GB drives coz I want something having a single platter as well. Do not care at all about the noise and temperature though.

 

[Termie]

Where do you get these benchmarks from?

And yes, I am looking at 500GB drives coz I want something having a single platter as well. Do not care at all about the noise and temperature though.

I was really referring to my own benchmarking, which is as follows, according to CrystalDiskMark:

WD Blue:
Sequential Read/Write: 115/115
512K Read/WRite: 49/76
4K Read/Write: 0.721/1.974

Samsung 502HJ:
Sequential Read/Write: 139/144
512K Read/Write: 51/72
4K Read/Write: 0.62/2.66

You can see a review of the Samsung drive here, compared to the 1TB WD Black, which clearly beats it: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2tb-hdd-7200,2430.html. The 1TB Black is a bit faster than the 640GB Black, I believe.

Of course, the WD 640 is not a single-platter drive, if that's what you're after. I believe the newer WD 500 is.

 

[sumedik]

Thanks for the replies!!

Well I found the answers of the things I was looking for.

Now it is a toss up between these:

In 1 TB segment:

WD Caviar Blue WD10EALX (SATA 6 Gb/s,7200RPM,32 MB cache,500gb platter(2/4))
Vs
Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ (SATA 3.0Gbps,7200RPM, 32MB cache,500gb platter(2/4))

In 500GB Segment:

WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX (SATA 6 Gb/s,7200RPM,16 MB cache, 500gb platter(1/2))
Vs
Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ (SATA 3.0Gbps,7200RPM,16MB cache, 500gb platter(1/2))

Now the question in both categories is whether the performance gained by using SATA 6GBPS is justified considering the extra price being paid for it.

 

[Termie]

Thanks for the replies!!

Well I found the answers of the things I was looking for.

Now it is a toss up between these:

In 1 TB segment:

WD Caviar Blue WD10EALX (SATA 6 Gb/s,7200RPM,32 MB cache,500gb platter(2/4))
Vs
Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ (SATA 3.0Gbps,7200RPM, 32MB cache,500gb platter(2/4))

In 500GB Segment:

WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX (SATA 6 Gb/s,7200RPM,16 MB cache, 500gb platter(1/2))
Vs
Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ (SATA 3.0Gbps,7200RPM,16MB cache, 500gb platter(1/2))

Now the question in both categories is whether the performance gained by using SATA 6GBPS is justified considering the extra price being paid for it.

6Gbps does absolutely nothing for hard drives. It is only significant for SSDs.

The new Caviar Blue 1TB does not have good reviews on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-767-_-Product. It the past, WD always had the best reviews, so this is an unexpected change.

The Caviar Blue 500GB has better user reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-769-_-Product

The Samsung 1TB is well-respected, but users report that it is somewhat louder than the WD Blue drives. Plenty of people have them on this forum.

As I've already noted, the Samsung 500GB is quieter than the WD Blue drives.

I think among the drives you've selected, I'd go with the Samsung at 1TB. If you want to save money or reduce noise, then go with either of the 500GB drives. The Samsung is likely quieter and cooler, but the WD Blue is probably slightly faster.

 

[Mir96TA]

Black 640GB

I guess I need to elaborate my Self
Here is a640GB Caviar Black drives in comparison to 300GB VelociRaptor:

Here is a 1 TB WD Black

Now if really some sustain some Xfer rate
Try this setup 4x WD1001FALS 1TB drives and a Highpoint RocketRAID 3510 controller, running in Windows 7 x64.
You will get this