Best current HD choice

[macmesser]

I have 2 Western Digital Caviar Green drives in an external 4 bay eSATA enclosure and I'm looking to add two more drives. This setup will be not be used for RAID. There are some tempting seeming bargains on HDs available now but I've heard these bargain drives, even from Seagate or Western Digital, are not as reliable as the brand name implies. The warranties are also a consideration. I'm looking for a high (not highest possible) performance in my second pair of drives and thinking of a pair of Barracuda EP 3TB w/SATA III, 64MB cache, 7200 rpm. Should I be put off by the 1 year warranty? What are thoughts about Seagate versus an equal spec Western Digital?

Thanks for insights.

 

[DanielCoffey]

Do you need to pay extra for the SATA-III over SATA-II?

I would be concerned with such a short warranty too. In the EU that should be a minimum of 2 years I believe.

 

[macmesser]

Do you need to pay extra for the SATA-III over SATA-II?

I would be concerned with such a short warranty too. In the EU that should be a minimum of 2 years I believe.

No premium for SATA III. The warranties (and model #'s) seem to vary within this bargain price category for similar specs from same maker. I have since found another Seagate with same given specs and price at another vendor, this one with a 2 year warranty. Less scary. Both vendors are known to be reputable, BTW.

 

[Zwhaler]

Macintosh HD purchased from Apple is a hitachi 2TB. Followed by 2x Seagate Barracuda XT 3+4TB, and once those went out of inventory around a month ago I picked up another Hitachi Deskstar 4TB all 7,200RPMs.

 

[GermanyChris]

I use Seagate Barracuda's in both 2 and 3TB.. I like them bunches

 

[Loa]

Hello,

Stick to major brand names, they're all pretty good these days. Anybody telling you that one company is better than the others is either basing his arguments on older drive models, or anecdotal evidence.

Loa

 

[macmesser]

Macintosh HD purchased from Apple is a hitachi 2TB. Followed by 2x Seagate Barracuda XT 3+4TB, and once those went out of inventory around a month ago I picked up another Hitachi Deskstar 4TB all 7,200RPMs.

Thanks. Hitachi is another one I should look at. Have had good experience in the past.

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I use Seagate Barracuda's in both 2 and 3TB.. I like them bunches

Thanks. Have you noticed much of a performance difference in the various 7200 models?

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Hello,

Stick to major brand names, they're all pretty good these days. Anybody telling you that one company is better than the others is either basing his arguments on older drive models, or anecdotal evidence.

Loa

Thanks for the input. Takes a bit of the pressure out of shopping.

 

[GermanyChris]

Thanks. Hitachi is another one I should look at. Have had good experience in the past.

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Thanks. Have you noticed much of a performance difference in the various 7200 models?

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Thanks for the input. Takes a bit of the pressure out of shopping.

No..I use Seagate because I always have, though right now I have some greens serving backup duty.

 

[phoenixsan]

If I have to choose.....

I will choose WD, then Hitachi and last Seagate. Having using the three brands in 24/7 mode of operation, I have found the WD and Hitachi as HDDs very reliable.

But anybody here is entitled to their opinion/experience

 

[brentsg]

This kind of question will just get everyone's subjective opinion based on their tiny personal sample size.

The best you can hope for is to buy the right type of drive for your application and get a good warranty for the money. Also, it's good to avoid any drives with known defects.

 

[macmesser]

This kind of question will just get everyone's subjective opinion based on their tiny personal sample size.

The best you can hope for is to buy the right type of drive for your application and get a good warranty for the money. Also, it's good to avoid any drives with known defects.

Three good criteria. Thanks.

 

[Phrygian]

Aren't all these hard drives made by the same mega factories in china anyway? You guys remember that flood that hit one of the main HDD factories and all the prices doubled overnight? Never saw much difference in quality ratings on Seagate or WD HDDs.

 

[macmesser]

Aren't all these hard drives made by the same mega factories in china anyway? You guys remember that flood that hit one of the main HDD factories and all the prices doubled overnight? Never saw much difference in quality ratings on Seagate or WD HDDs.

Not all made in China. I was surprised to see one of my new Seagate drives had, "Contents from Cambodia" on the seal of the antistatic bag. An identical drive just had, "This is an antistatic bag." Probably they came from different factories, maybe in different countries.

 

[LaunchpadBS]

If I may, I bought a Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB and Hitachi HDS5C3030ALA630 3TB for my Synology NAS, the Hitachi being the more expensive of the 2.

I've had no issue what so ever with the Seagate(it's the primary drive in mt RAID1 setup) at all and my NAS box gets a LOT of use.

Must just add, after reading through mountains of reviews on all the best NAS drive options the Hitachi came out tops.