WD Black or Seagate 7200.11 1tb drives

[markrb38]

I am going to be upgrading my RAID 5 setup with 1tb drives.
Now the question comes down to these two drives.
I have always been a WD fanboy and not much of a Seagate fan, but that is in the past and this is a new day.
The reviews of the WD 1TB black so far have all been great. It consistently seems the fastest 1tb drive now.
If this was all that was important, case closed WD it is. However there is about a $30 price difference for these two drives.
I will need 3 drives to start so that is a $90 premium for WD.
I guess the biggest issue in my head is in a RAID 5 setup will I even notice the difference in performance between the Seagate and WD?

The WD gets good marks for noise and heat, how does the Seagate do? Didn't see that part yet. Both have 5yr warranty so that is a wash.

I am also considering waiting a little since the WD is so new that maybe the price will fall closer to the Seagate after the initial bang is done.

Any thoughts? Please lets just assume these drives are equal in quality. Don't want to start any flame wars over brands.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Techreport

Here's noise and power for most of the current drives.

Have you considered the Samsung F1? Almost as fast as the WD, and still faster and cooler then the Seagate. They are also only ~$170 I think.

 

[markrb38]

I have considered it, but I am not too comfortable with this drive.
I have had several bad experiences with Samsung drives when I worked at a reseller.
Mostly with trying to deal with the company for returns that really made me want to never buy from them again.
Really put a bad taste in my mouth. Personally I can't make myself buy them.

Mark

 

[NXIL]

Hey Mark,

looks like there are 7 1TB drives:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...6206%2CN82E16822136284

I have sworn off IBMHitAchi since the DeathStar debacle....but that is long in the past.

Looks like the Black is $190, and there an equivalent Seagate for $180.

Deleting drives with three year warranty leaves these 4:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...ue=353%3a13496&bop=And

The WD Black looks good....price/performance....

HTH

NXIL

 

[markrb38]

At ZZF the Seagate has dropped to $150 with free shipping.
So it's now a $40 premium per drive as compared to the best price for the WD Black.
Now it's a $120 premium for 3 WD blacks over the Seagate for my RAID.
I am really leaning towards the Seagate cause at that price I can almost get 4 Seagates for the price of 3 WDs.

Mark

 

[mooseracing]

I run the Samsung F1's, have about 10 of them and using them in a daily backup set at work. Not a single issue in the past 6 months.

 

[khelben1979]

Go for Western Digital! They are simply the best!

 

[bitbucket]

Originally posted by: markrb38

I am really leaning towards the Seagate cause at that price I can almost get 4 Seagates for the price of 3 WDs.

Mark

I recently ordered 2 of the Seagate 7200.11 1TB drives and will receive them tomorrow. However, I may regret it. There apparently are a lot of failures of these drives - DOA or within 6 months. Some evidence the defective units are mostly manufactured in Thailand. Those manufactured in China and elsewhere are showing better results.

At any rate, I will beat the living you know what out of them with testing software before I place them in my Raid cabinet. If they can withstand a week of constant read/write activity with no errors, I will install them into a raid-1 config (mirrored) NAS box.

They carry a 5-year warranty and thats all well and good, but RMA to Seagate is not something I prefer not to have to deal with.

I do not plan to load live data onto them until they pass my own "burn-in" testing.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: bitbucket
I recently ordered 2 of the Seagate 7200.11 1TB drives and will receive them tomorrow. However, I may regret it. There apparently are a lot of failures of these drives - DOA or within 6 months. Some evidence the defective units are mostly manufactured in Thailand. Those manufactured in China and elsewhere are showing better results

I'm disturbed by how many DOA drives are being shipped nowadays. The Newegg reviews are full of them for ALL brands and I'm seeing them, too. A few years ago, I NEVER saw DOA drives.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

There's some quality control difficulty right now with the 7200.11 series. The 7200.10 Seagates were great, and I still use them. But the reviews on the latest .11 series are mixed. It may be just the 1TB drives.

I think "perpendicular" technology was first introduced by Seagate and Hitachi, and I'm not sure which came first.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
The 7200.10 Seagates were great, and I still use them. But the reviews on the latest .11 series are mixed. It may be just the 1TB drives..

I have quite a few (25?) 7200.10 Seagates out there, used for daily backups. So far, so good. I've had several 7200.7 drives fail over the past couple of years.

 

[ss284]

If you care at all about the noise don't go seagate.

 

[glaukopes]

Yeah, my 7200.10 is very loud.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: glaukopes
Yeah, my 7200.10 is very loud.

And also responding to glaucopes:

What sort of noise? Are they "clicking" sounds? I've got a 4-drive RAID5 of 320GB 7200.10's. They've got "shock-absorbers" -- and no metal-to-metal contact with the case. I don't notice any "clicking." But a RAID0 in a different case using the same drives seems noisier with the same "shock-absorber" system.

At one time -- back in the mid to late 90s -- Seagate had a reputation for "getting hot." The WD's ran cooler, and even the IBM's. Now . . . . I don't have any temperature concerns about the Seagates.

I don't want to shell out for VelociRaptors, and generally try to choose "second-best." [And my choices could meet with criticism under my own criteria.] So in 2004, Hitachi's [inherited from IBM after the DeskStar debacle] SATA-150's were good. Last year, it was the Seagate 7200.10's. Now, I'm not sure "Hu's on second."