Which 1TB Hard Drive?

[Stinga]

I am going to buy 6 1TB HDDs, for 2 Raid 0 Arrays, so 3 HDDs for each Array.

But which is fastest?

Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB

OR

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

[0iD]

Reliability wise I'd steer clear of the Samsung, seen too many failures.

WD 1Tb Raid Edition 3 would be my choice.

[mycarsavw]

HD103UJ specs;

Average Seek time(typical)- 8.9 ms
Average Latency - 4.17 ms
Data Transfer Rate / Media to/from Buffer(Max.) - 175 MB/sec
Data Transfer Rate / Buffer to/from Host(Max.) - 300 MB/sec
Drive Ready Time(typical) - 12 sec

All found via this link


WD1001FALS specs;

Data transfer rate (max)
Buffer to host 3 Gb/s
Host to/from drive (sustained) 106 MB/s
Cache (MB)32
Average latency (ms)4.2
Rotational speed (RPM)7200
Average drive ready time (sec)13

All found via this link (PDF Spec sheet on the left)

On paper, the Samsung, real world, IMHO, you're not going to be able to tell the difference.

[Singh400]

Reliability wise I'd steer clear of the Samsung, seen too many failures.

I love my Samsungs and so does everyone else I meet. I'd had to recommend the Samsung F1s <3

[fragster]

If noise is a concern at all I'd take the Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB as these are meant to be very quick and very quiet.

If not the WD Caviar Black may outperform it in some circumstances, I'm just about to buy a Spinpoint F1 though myself!

[PeteSmith]

Samsung F1 are great drives, i have currently have 4 in my NAS box, no problems and cool and quiet.

[this_is_gav]

If noise is a concern at all I'd take the Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB as these are meant to be very quick and very quiet.

I don't think they're much quieter now. It was certainly a selling point when the F1s first came along, but most of the others have caught up now. It's not something I've even considered in the past year.

For the record I'd go for the Western Digital Black, or for anything other than an OS drive the Green Edition.

[jim]

Reliability wise I'd steer clear of the Samsung, seen too many failures.

WD 1Tb Raid Edition 3 would be my choice.

They are extremely pricey though.

I've heard - could be total rubbish - that the Caviar Black is more or less the same drive as the RE2, just lacking the RAID-specific features, so reliability etc is the same.

[Maccer101]

Samsung would be my call, I have a F1 1tb and it operates from 22-26c (with a Nexus fan near it) very quiet and fast.

[NightshadowUK]

I've got the Samsung and can't fault it, but you won't go wrong with either so just get whichever's cheapest.

[Singh400]

Samsung would be my call, I have a F1 1tb and it operates from 22-26c (with a Nexus fan near it) very quiet and fast.

Got 3 Samsungs here without any fans blowing over them and they never get above 25C. Awesome drives. I plan to buy some more soon - well quite sooner, I'm almost out of space!

[peterb]

Reliability wise I'd steer clear of the Samsung, seen too many failures.

WD 1Tb Raid Edition 3 would be my choice.

And RAID0 as well - unless you have a good capacity backup system in place.

[Stephince]

WDC for reliability imo.

[arthurleung]

Just bought 2 Samsung Ecogreen 1TB F2 drives, transfer speed is neck-to-neck with my 640GB WD Blue, and almost twice as fast as the 500GB Seagate 7200.9 (Very old stuff).

Wondering, if you are buying 6 drives, why not just go for RAID5 / RAID6

[jdmanonamission]

Close call both good drives, price is the biggest determining factor there, but I am and always will be a Western Digital boy, I read too many times about faulty Samsung hard drives...The WD10EADS are quick and a snip at £75 each...

[arthurleung]

Close call both good drives, price is the biggest determining factor there, but I am and always will be a Western Digital boy, I read too many times about faulty Samsung hard drives...The WD10EADS are quick and a snip at £75 each...

I have another WD10EACS dropped dead 2 days ago in a RAID5 array.
And a 1.5TB Seagate with SD17 firmware started acting weird after migrated to a new RAID card.
Now I just don't trust any brand anymore.

I just get everything running in RAID5/RAID1 ONLY and I don't care a damn if the drive die, I'll just get it replaced.