Samsung F1 series

[looroll12]

Has anyone got/used one ?

I have done some reading and there supposed to be as fast as raptors

but these are more appealling as they are much bigger in terms of capacity

but in real world terms are they any good or as fast as is stated ?

[Emirzan]

I don't own one but have read reviews.


Storage review drive head to head

They aren't as fast as raptors and are quite loud from reviews I've read. I think my preferred drives are still the 640GB dual platter Western Digital ones.

[looroll12]

Oh i mean't faster than the 150 GB versions

tbh i would expect a £200 Western Digital VelociRaptor to be fast and quiet

which WD hdd are you talking about ?

[Craig321]

Has anyone got/used one ?

I have done some reading and there supposed to be as fast as raptors

but these are more appealling as they are much bigger in terms of capacity

but in real world terms are they any good or as fast as is stated ?

My brother has a 500GB Samsung F1 which is only about 5MB/s faster than my 500GB Western Digital 5000AAKS (his Samsung F1: 75MB/s, my WD AAKS: 70MB/s). However, if you get the 750GB or the 1000GB you'll get around 90MB/s.

If you get the single platter 320GB F1 you should get near on 100MB/s

My brothers 500GB can't be heard over the two 120mm fans he has in his PC, the 320GB is apparently even quieter. I can't see the 750GB/1TB versions being any louder.

[crazyfool]

i have the 750gb and it is very quiet

[ydrol]

I have the 1TB and I cant hear it, despite having PC on Quiet settings, and thrashing it hard starting up W2K3 in Guest VMWare running Oracle etc.

[douglasb]

i have 2 500GB ones
cant hear them even when loading games or big files (over 1GB) have never seen either above 30C
cant give you MB/s as i dont know how to measure access speeds

[Lourdes]

The 320, 640 and 1TB are the same speed (500 and 750 are slower) and they are very fast drives, also quiet. They aren't as fast as Raptors of course but they're only 8.5p per GB, the Raptor is 7.5x that and they're close when it comes to transfer rates.

[AdvWar]

Is the Samsung 320GB hard drive on Scan one of the new single platter variants?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=529060

Thanks for your help

EDIT: Ah, just noticed it says:"New generation 167G Platter Drives"

[ydrol]

I have the 1TB and I cant hear it, despite having PC on Quiet settings, and thrashing it hard starting up W2K3 in Guest VMWare running Oracle etc.

Just thought I'd add,

I was quieting down my PC last night(*), and could still hear a hum around 50Hz (but it went away only when I unplugged both of my SATA drives (1TB F1 and a 200GB Maxtor), so mine does give off some vibration noise, but the seek noise is very quiet. I put the HD cage on rubber washers and it's helped a bit. I can just about hear the seek noise but only noticeable if I'm deliberately listening for it.

(*) my VGA fan was the main culprit (as usual), I soldered a 3 pin socket to the fan, and put it on a FAN controller and it now idles at 53°rather than 50° but a lot quieter!

[s_kinton]

They aren't as fast as raptors and are quite loud from reviews I've read. I think my preferred drives are still the 640GB dual platter Western Digital ones.

The Samsung Spinpoint and F1 drives are some of the quietest and fastest on the market. Samsung and WD are the best choices at the moment.

I've got a 750Gb, 32mb cache in my HTPC and its inaudible.

[CaptainCrash]

I have a 1TB F1 (HD103UJ) and, while it's fast and cool-running, I wouldn't describe it as particularly quiet. Seek noise is reasonably low, but there's a constant "hiss" which is very noticeable, even from quite some distance away (the drive is in the bottom cage of an Antec P182).

The review at SPCR didn't make any mention of this, so maybe there's just a lot of variation between samples.

[looroll12]

it would seem there is some variation in same model noise which is a bit odd

it would seem that it is a very good drive

but im still a bit confused as to which model to buy now

don't really need a 1tb but at least it is future proofed

maybe the 750 GB model

[CaptainCrash]

IIRC the 500GB and 750GB F1s have lower-density platters than the 320GB, 640GB and 1TB models, so they probably won't be quite as fast, at least in STR benchmarks.

I don't know about the 750GB's noise levels, but I'd guess there's not much to choose between them.

[NightshadowUK]

My mate bought the 750GB Samsung F1 from Scan on his break today. We'll be fitting it when he gets home so I'll report our findings later on.

[Neo_VR]

Just out of interest...

Im probably going to be meandering over to Scan tomorrow (the pitfalls of living close by LOL)
Im after a new drive that will hold my OS and games, it will be replacing 2x36gb striped raptors...

So am i best going for the Sammy F1 over say the Deathstar drive for decent O/S performance??