Which hard drive?

[Pob255]

500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £38
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500-G...MB-Cache-89-ms

or

500 GB Samsung HD502HI EcoGreen F2, SATA 3Gb/s, 5400rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £43
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500GB...ache-89-ms-NCQ

or

Something else?

And does anyone know the differences between all the Wsetern Digital letter codes?
I remember that the AAKS was better than the AAJS when I bought my 250gb hard drive
Scan sell 500gb models in the following
aacs
aaks
aads
aavs
aws
aals
abys

[MoonPig]

I have the WD Black 500GB and... well... it's awesome. In Raid, their amazing.

Had a 500GB Spinpoint and that was slow compared to this. Also had a 150GB Raptor, that was slow compared to this aswell.

Go WD, best make

[Salazaar]

Unless you're dead serious about saving energy I'd go for the cheaper, slightly faster WD drive.

[MoonPig]

I highly doubt the Watt consumption will be alot. Better going with the decent 7200RPM drive.

I hear the 640GB WD's are better than the 500GB. Maybe want to keep that in mind.

If you want an Benchmarks from me, just ask.

[shaithis]

Yeah, pay the small extra and get a 640GB over a 500GB.

The higher platter density (320 v 250) gives better performance.

The 2 drives you have listed are quite different, the samsung is an eco drive, so it supposed to be quieter and draw less power (at the cost of some performance), where as the cavier blue is a full-on drive for performance.

Are you after performance or quietness/coolness?

I have RAID5 arrays at home with 4 x 1TB Samsung F1 Spinpoint (320GB platters) and another with 4 x WD6400AAKS (640GB Cavier Blue - 320GB platters).

TBH, I cannot tell anything between them in either performance, speed or heat.

As for the "green" drives, I have zero experience I am afraid.

[Pob255]

Yeah, pay the small extra and get a 640GB over a 500GB.

The higher platter density (320 v 250) gives better performance.

The 2 drives you have listed are quite different, the samsung is an eco drive, so it supposed to be quieter and draw less power (at the cost of some performance), where as the cavier blue is a full-on drive for performance.

Are you after performance or quietness/coolness?

I have RAID5 arrays at home with 4 x 1TB Samsung F1 Spinpoint (320GB platters) and another with 4 x WD6400AAKS (640GB Cavier Blue - 320GB platters).

TBH, I cannot tell anything between them in either performance, speed or heat.

As for the "green" drives, I have zero experience I am afraid.

Rats ordered before you posted.
Knew there was a reason for 320gb not 500gb.
But it's no big deal, I went for the AAKS in the end as I know they are good and perform well, I have the 250gb one in my pc and it's lovely

[TooNice]

The F2 actually uses a 500GB platter and performs pretty well (I have one that I use as OS drive). That said, I can't decide between the 1.5TB F2 and the 1TB Hitachi 7K1000.B. The later is better for gaming, but the Samsung has the best price per GB of all, and as previously said, is no slouch.

[MoonPig]

Pob255, did you get the 500GB model? If so, can you post HD-Tach results (Quick). Here's mine:

[Pob255]

OK I'll try it out after I've sorted out the PC, I haveing to reinstall windows on this new disk then reinstall all the software, recover the data off the old drive.
I'll say this it takes bloody ages to format a 500gb drive

[UseItNow]

... I'll say this it takes bloody ages to format a 500gb drive

Oh crap, I've got a quite a bit formatting to do this weekend, I've not reinstalled the OS in over a year on one of my siblings machine, it's now unbelieveably slow. This is for your build, right?

If I may ask, your friends build, is it finished? Sorry, haven't kept up with that build recently!

Oh yeah, thanks again for your help, appreciated mate!

[Pob255]

No this if for my other half's pc, her copy of windows got by a virus and need to be reinstalled from scratch, so she decided to get a new hard drive as they are so cheap now.

Going into Project Spork is an older 80gb sata Seagate Barracuda that I had spare.

[Pob255]

Pob255, did you get the 500GB model? If so, can you post HD-Tach results (Quick). Here's mine:
229.5 MB/s

Ok I've run the HD-Tach Quick scan the resault was 129.5 MB/s
The curve was far smoother than yours, from just under 100 to 50 at the other end.

This is on a old p4, 3.0ghz, socket 478, with the hard drive running in legacy PATA mode.