Samsung spinpoint or Western Digital HDD?

[Oobie-]

Hey guys,

Samsung HD501LJ

Western Digital WD5000AAKS

Ive read about, and was just wondering which 500GB hard drive you guys would recommend?
There have been a few cases of the Samsung drives failing but they are quieter and of course slightly cheaper than the WD counter-part, so I'm in 2 minds. (A few quid saving here and there is always good)

But are they really any less reliable than the WD drive?

Thanks

[staffsMike]

Biased view of course as I always buy WD but since none have ever failed me.

AAKS everytime.

AAKS is so quiet I can't imagine how quiet the spinpoints must be for people to say they are quieter. AAKS is certainly silent inside my P182.

[directhex]

Originally Posted by staffsMike

AAKS is so quiet I can't imagine how quiet the spinpoints must be for people to say they are quieter

very VERY quiet

[UseItNow]

That's what I don't understand, there's always rave reviews about the Spinpoints but more people complaining about them failing earlier.

staffsMike, I'm presuming that most, if not all HDD's would be hardly audible once in the P182 as it's a silent case, isn't it? Please correct me if I'm wrong on my understanding, I might have bit off more than I can chew as I have never had the Antec P182 case.

[staffsMike]

No you're right it is designed to limit vibrations from the drive onto the case. That said some are still audiable inside if they are particularly clicky.

In my TJ-08 where it is literally where the floppy drive would be it is also very quiet and certainly never makes an intrusive noise.

[TooNice]

I've had WD fail and wasn't too impressed by their RMA as few years back. That said, I would pick between those two drives if I was getting a 500GB drive. I don't think you can go wrong either way. If it was up to me, I would go AAKS for an OS drive, and T166 as a storage drive. If the price gap is comparatively large (I rarely see the AAKS for under £60 and have in a few instance seen the T166 for £50 - it may only be a tenner, but still close to 17%), then I would go for the cheaper. I only need one drive for OS/application anyway.

[staffsMike]

Don't seem to hear about may AAKS drives failing. Currently I've got 5 in various builds and a few others (AAJS as well as older ones) still in use. Not tried RMA with western digital but touch wood I won't need to

[TooNice]

True, but if memory serves right, the T166 has been around for longer than the AAKS hasn't it? It wouldn't surprise me all that much if there has been more instances of failure. Though truth to be said, I've not heard that many complaints about it (any more than the AAKS for that matter). The Samsung F1 on the other hand seems a bit riskier at this point (shame really - it looks promising on all other aspects). I wonder how competent is Samsung's RMA service.

[directhex]

the new samsung f1 seems to be top in every category

[this_is_gav]

Originally Posted by staffsMike

Don't seem to hear about may AAKS drives failing. Currently I've got 5 in various builds and a few others (AAJS as well as older ones) still in use. Not tried RMA with western digital but touch wood I won't need to

I've had a WD failure recently. 4 year old 80GB drive failed in a Dell that I'd been asked to diagnose. But then, that's one drive out of about 15 over the past 7 years, about 11 of which have been in constant use until last week. Other than that 1 dead one (well, it's got some bad sectors), they're all fine.

Personally, I'm only buying WD recently. Tried 2 Seagate 7200.10s and they're both dead and then a Samsung (the equivalent WD was out of stock at Scan) and it's only picked up on the JMicron controller of my P5B - the Intel one doesn't recognise it at all in RAID mode, and the other 3 disks on it are fine. I'd imagine if it was set to ACHI or IDE emulation mode it would be picked up fine, but meh. I wasn't overly impressed.

[lawrywild]

Western Digital

[TooNice]

Originally Posted by directhex

the new samsung f1 seems to be top in every category

The one TB version looks pretty promising, but it should be noted that only the 1TB version is using the 334GB platter. The 750GB on 3 platters (so 250GB, same as the AAKS) - and there are several reports of Samsung's own diagnostic tools reporting problems with the F1 series.

No such problem with the T166 as far as I know though. Storagereview's reliability survey doesn't have a conclusion on the T166 or the AAKS, but looking at the drives predecessor, the Samsung actually looks pretty good next to the Western Digital.

As for Seagate, their SCSI drives definitely last a very long time. Longer then they would be useful for from a performance perspective. I am not sure about their SATA drives. So far so good, but the 7200.10 are definitely not quiet drives. In fact they are a lot louder than my Raptor.

[this_is_gav]

Originally Posted by TooNice

In fact they are a lot louder than my Raptor.

Depends on where it was made. The Chinese ones are loud and fail frequently (often within a few months) whereas the ones manufactured in Taiwan are much quieter (not quite AAKS or SpinPoint quiet, but not far from it) and are a good bit more robust. Unfortunately until you open the delivered product you've no way of knowing which one you'll get.

[999tigger]

I have spinpoints very pleased with them. Annecdotal evidence with peoplepreferring the brand that hasnt failed them. StaffsMike likes the WD others like Seagate and their 5 year guarantees. Spinpoints seem to win loads of awards.

I would avoid maxtor had too many fails otherwise just make sure you have a backup.

[Gunbuster]

I have two AAKS drives, the older has no spin noise and a quietish access noise. The newer has a slight whine and much louder access noise. I used to have a couple of pata Samsungs. I'm might get an F1 next time as the newer AAKS noticeably louder.

[TooNice]

Originally Posted by this_is_gav

Depends on where it was made. [...] Unfortunately until you open the delivered product you've no way of knowing which one you'll get.

Yea, I've heard about that. There are also reports of different firmware performing very differently. That's one of the reason I am not too keen on going for and/or recommending SATA SCSI drives, including the 7200.11. That said, I've not heard about many HD failures regarding the .10.