Which 500GB HD?

[KingstonU]

Price most important, then performance/reliability.

Hitachi P7K500 16MB ($66)

WD Caviar Green 16MB ($76)

WD Caviar Black 32MB ($82)

Seagate Barracuda 16MB ($72)

Seagate Barracuda 32MB ($77)

Is there even a real world noticeable difference in performance between these? Any have any known reliability issues? Should I just get the P7K500?

Thanks

 

[zerocool84]

Black drive

/thread

The 640GB version is usually only a couple bucks more and even faster but if you really want the cheapest then get whatever you want then.

 

[Elixer]

While I prefer the black also, though, it depends on what you are going to use the drive for.
For reliability, it don't really matter, all the drives you listed will fail. When is the question. Some do fail more than others. The 'fan favorite' is currently the black drive.

 

[craftech]

The WD 5001AALS has a lot of positive reviews here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136320

The 640GB Black drive that someone else mentioned also has good reviews, but when I carefully compared the two, the reviews seemed a little better on the 500GB version.

Both have a 5-year warranty.

As far as a performance comparison between them, I couldn't find one.

John

Why don't you look at the Newegg user reviews for all of those drives and compare them. I don't know of any other website that has as many user reviews of computer products as Newegg.

 

[taltamir]

if NOISE and HEAT are big issues, get the GP.
if SPEED is more important, get the black.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I just bought 2 of the 7200.12s a month ago and am very happy with them. They're very quiet, and the single-platter aspect appeals to me. The 1TB version is on par with the 1TB Spinpoint F1 in terms of noise and performance.

 

[honolululu]

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=1315863


Newegg has the 750GB Western Digital Caviar GP for $60 free shipping. ZZF also has it for same price/free shipping. Unless you live on an island. :/

 

[dmh1167]

I have used both flavors of caviars you mention they are ok the seagates too Ive used them both they are way better than the caviar if you get a good one.

But the very best is the WD BLACK and Zero Cool is right the 640 + dont cost much more I have the WD BLACK and A raptor the black keeps pace with the 10,000rpm raptor is quieter and cooler with 5x the storage space. And way cheaper this is a no brainer.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: LokutusofBorg
I just bought 2 of the 7200.12s a month ago and am very happy with them. They're very quiet, and the single-platter aspect appeals to me. The 1TB version is on par with the 1TB Spinpoint F1 in terms of noise and performance.

The 7200.12 isn't even close to the Spinpoint or WD black series when it comes to writes and or heavy loads.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16472/6

Got some really ugly numbers there, all because they set the seek mode to 'quiet', and there doesn't seem to be a way to undo that.

Hopefully, they will fix that in the future.

 

[Fox5]

I would never touch a hitachi drive. Their platters are the least impact resistant in the industry, drop that drive (or say UPS does in transit) and you could have a hairline fracture that manifests itself into spectacular drive failure a year later.
The green drives are generally dog slow 5400RPM models, and even the 7200RPM models are slower.
Black drives are nice.
Seagates have been getting ripped apart in reliability ratings lately.
Also, 500GB drives are currently a bit worse in $/GB than 750GB and 1TB drives.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Originally posted by: Elixer

Originally posted by: LokutusofBorg
I just bought 2 of the 7200.12s a month ago and am very happy with them. They're very quiet, and the single-platter aspect appeals to me. The 1TB version is on par with the 1TB Spinpoint F1 in terms of noise and performance.

The 7200.12 isn't even close to the Spinpoint or WD black series when it comes to writes and or heavy loads.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16472/6

Got some really ugly numbers there, all because they set the seek mode to 'quiet', and there doesn't seem to be a way to undo that.

Hopefully, they will fix that in the future.

Different reviews can certainly get different results:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardwa...e-1tb-7200-12-review/5

 

[Shagger]

I too want a good 500GB drive. I am more concerned about reliabilty than speed. I hate the prospect of a drive failure having dealt with 5 in the past eight years. Is there a current reliability winner among the big three (Seagate/Maxtor, WD and Hitachi)? Seagate has been solid for me lately so I am more likely to go with them, but their 7200.12 drives seem to be getting some bad reviews lately. Any advice is appreciated.