HDD Recommendations

[OracleRedux]

I currently have a WD6400AAKS and I have replaced it as my boot drive with an OCZ Vertex 2 60GB.
I don't have my user folder on the SSD due to space / write wear constraints. Does anyone have a recommendation for a new HDD (ideally 1 or 2 TB) - I like WD but the latest Sata III Caviar Black drives seem to be panned in reviews for the noise level. I would continue to use the WD 640GB but I don't like to have a new system install running on a drive which more than likely won't last a huge while longer.
The key will be speedy access of system config files - the user library folder mainly which is the only bottleneck remaining since the OS and Apps boot off the SSD - the only files read off the HDD are docs, photos etc (HDD access speed is fine for that) and configuration files.

 

[Hellhammer]

What capacity are you looking for? Caviar Blacks and Barracuda XTs are fast but fairly noisy and expensive. Hitachi makes decent 7200rpm drives that don't diet your wallet too much but they are also pretty quiet and perform okay. Sure there are Caviar Blues if 1TB is fine.

Or if speed isn't that important, you can get Caviar Greens for example. They are 5400rpm but offer great capacities for their prices and are quiet.

 

[OracleRedux]

What capacity are you looking for? Caviar Blacks and Barracuda XTs are fast but fairly noisy and expensive. Hitachi makes decent 7200rpm drives that don't diet your wallet too much but they are also pretty quiet and perform okay. Sure there are Caviar Blues if 1TB is fine.

Or if speed isn't that important, you can get Caviar Greens for example. They are 5400rpm but offer great capacities for their prices and are quiet.

I already have a 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen for high capacity / low noise and it's excellent aside from some seek noise.

Ideally I was looking for something around the 1-2TB mark but the 640GB drives used to be a good compromise between speed/ noise and cost. What sort of performance hit would I see with the Caviar Blues? I also prefer the blacks for their longer warranty.
The Samsung F3s also appear to be a good option. Choices eh!

 

[Hellhammer]

I can't find a good comparison of Caviar Blue and Black. Blues top out at 1TB though so maybe it's not your best choice. Higher capacity means that the drive is denser and thus faster. Caviar Blacks are an excellent choice in terms of performance but I have heard a lot good about the Samsung F3s. They actually seem to beat the Blacks.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/10/06/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-review/3

 

[rmitchell248]

right now I am running a few of the 3TB Hitachi drives and could not be happier. Some tests show them as faster than the Caviars others show the Caviars as slightly faster. To me, they seem a bit more responsive than the WD Caviar Blacks that I had and they are much much much quieter. My experience has been awesome with them

I also have my boot on SSD and run my home folder in the hitachi hdd and have no complaints. It runs circles around back when it was all on one drive from the factory

 

[philipma1957]

3tb western digitals.


they are just as fast as any caviar black and they make less noise. 3 year warranty.


Look in the forums marketplace

https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/132/

 

[Hellhammer]

3tb western digitals.


they are just as fast as any caviar black and they make less noise. 3 year warranty.


Look in the forums marketplace

https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/132/

Caviar Blacks are a bit faster, especially the 2TB versions. 3TB Greens seem to get around 125MB/s while I've seen 2TB Blacks getting up to 145MB/s.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3981/...b-and-my-book-essential-3tb-drives-reviewed/4
http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_caviar_black_review_2tb

BTW, OP cannot access the MarketPlace

 

[FluJunkie]

So I use almost exclusively Caviar Blacks (one came with the machine, the other I put in myself) and I don't find them obtrusively noisy.

On the other hand, I never hear my Caviar Green.

 

[OracleRedux]

I can't find a good comparison of Caviar Blue and Black. Blues top out at 1TB though so maybe it's not your best choice. Higher capacity means that the drive is denser and thus faster. Caviar Blacks are an excellent choice in terms of performance but I have heard a lot good about the Samsung F3s. They actually seem to beat the Blacks.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/10/06/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-review/3

Thanks for all the replies.
I like the reviews on the F3 but unfortunately I have seen far too many complaints about the noise they produce (constant humming) - kind of a bug-bear of mine, especially since the Mac Pro case design doesn't exactly muffle that sort of thing.
Still torn at the moment, and actually tempted to just replace my WD6400AAKS with the same model - I really don't need the excess space for my User folder - a 2TB 5,400rpm drive can take care of the bulk media.
That said, I imagine that modern drives do somewhat thrash the WD6400AAKS - pity there is nothing around which has low latency whilst being quiet and reliable (not going down the bare Velociraptor route).

 

[derbothaus]

I bought 4 1TB F3's recently open box from newegg $45.00. 3 were quiet 1 was a bit louder. All of them are quieter than the stock Caviar Black (Seek noise is amazingly loud. Sounds like my old 15000RPM 15GB SCSI Cheetah) and rival Velociraptors in transfer bandwidth. Great deal, if they last...

 

[philipma1957]

I bought 4 1TB F3's recently open box from newegg $45.00. 3 were quiet 1 was a bit louder. All of them are quieter than the stock Caviar Black (Seek noise is amazingly loud. Sounds like my old 15000RPM 15GB SCSI Cheetah) and rival Velociraptors in transfer bandwidth. Great deal, if they last...

they are fast and quiet but i had a few die.
for now i am using 3tb western digital hdds .
i sold all of my extra ones ,but there is an ebay seller that has some for 186 or best offer.
i purchased a lot from him. all sealed and new with warranty . he took my offers for under 170 a hdd.

 

[dave239]

I have only had my new Mac Pro Hex core for a few weeks but my experience so far is that the Western Digital Caviar Black drive noise is not at all obtrusive.

I have the OS and applications on a small SSD and I have moved the Apple supplied 1TB drive to position 4 and installed 3 off Caviar Black 2TB drives in positions 1,2 and 3. I have however partitioned each drive into five partitions. I use the outside partition (as the fastest) for Photoshop cache etc. and the second partition for my home folder (as the second fastest).

I did this with the intention of both minimising file fragmentation and keeping the most frequently used files on the faster areas of the disc. This has had the apparent benefit of reducing the seek distance and therefore reducing the noise.

 

[goMac]

For traditional drives, I always stick with the WD Black series. Good, stable drives that perform well. Never had an issue at all.

 

[OracleRedux]

For traditional drives, I always stick with the WD Black series. Good, stable drives that perform well. Never had an issue at all.

Last night, I was close to pushing the button on the following:
- 2 x 2TB Samsung F4 EcoGreens - to go in an HP Proliant Microserver for media and backup services to multiple computers.
- 1 x WD6401AALS (the more recent, 'black' version of the WD6400AAKS that I have had in my Mac Pro as a boot drive for the majority of its life - not interested in the SATA III version).

However, I had the (well overdue) presence of mind to eject my WD6400AAKS and the reduction in noise was bliss - it has been the source of the humming which has bugged me incessantly, and there I was blaming the Mac Pro fans.

I am therefore considering putting one of the 2TB F4s into the Mac Pro as my 'Users' folder drive (including the library (~=settings/config IMO) folder, documents, etc.

This may seem a little bonkers considering my quest for performance, however, I have had the Users folder on an 2TB F2 EcoGreen (as the first/fast partition) for a while with no noticeable issues, although the seeking is a little loud. FWIW, the WD6400AAKS seems to be quieter on seeking, albeit louder overall.

 

[Transporteur]

Just make sure you update the firmware on your F4s.

 

[goMac]

However, I had the (well overdue) presence of mind to eject my WD6400AAKS and the reduction in noise was bliss - it has been the source of the humming which has bugged me incessantly, and there I was blaming the Mac Pro fans.

Heh, I must not be nearly as noise sensitive... I have at least 3 WD Blacks in my Mac Pro, possibly the fourth drive is one as well.... Two of those are running in RAID...

 

[Transporteur]

Heh, I must not be nearly as noise sensitive... I have at least 3 WD Blacks in my Mac Pro, possibly the fourth drive is one as well.... Two of those are running in RAID...

You must be almost deaf.

I've had two Black drives in my machine and they almost drove me crazy. Replaced them after only a few month with Greens. Nice and quiet now.
All Blacks are banned to external enclosures and boy are they noisy compared to the Pro.
Well, that's the price of performance.

 

[goMac]

You must be almost deaf.

I've had two Black drives in my machine and they almost drove me crazy. Replaced them after only a few month with Greens. Nice and quiet now.
All Blacks are banned to external enclosures and boy are they noisy compared to the Pro.
Well, that's the price of performance.

Actually, now that I think about it, one of those is a 1.5 TB Seagate, so only three WD blacks.

 

[OracleRedux]

You must be almost deaf.

I've had two Black drives in my machine and they almost drove me crazy. Replaced them after only a few month with Greens. Nice and quiet now.
All Blacks are banned to external enclosures and boy are they noisy compared to the Pro.
Well, that's the price of performance.

What capacity are your Black drives?

Does anyone know whether the 2TB Caviar Green's still have the spin down issue? - after 8 seconds if I remember correctly - wearing out the drive pretty quickly.
Interesting re. the Blacks. However, the 640GB comes out ok in reviews - not that noisy - ah, decisions decisions; I need to be able to test the things out really.

 

[Transporteur]

What capacity are your Black drives?

Does anyone know whether the 2TB Caviar Green's still have the spin down issue? - after 8 seconds if I remember correctly - wearing out the drive pretty quickly.
Interesting re. the Blacks. However, the 640GB comes out ok in reviews - not that noisy - ah, decisions decisions; I need to be able to test the things out really.

My Black drives are 1TB (1001FALS) and the stock 640GB (AAKS if I'm not mistaken). All of them are horribly loud (not only seeking but the simple noise of them spinning drives me nuts).

To be honest, I never noticed the spin down issue with the Green drives. I've got 4 of them in my Pro (two WD20EARS, WD5000AADS/AACS) and energy settings are set not to put the discs to sleep.

 

[mjsmke]

I also have the WD 2TB green drives. One internal for my finished/older work. One external for TM/CCC for my working files and OS.

I also don't notice any spin down issues. And they really are super quiet.

I'm looking at getting x2 1TB seagate Barracuda 7200rpm drive to use in RAID0 for my working files. Seen them on amazon for £41 each.

 

[stiwi]

What capacity are you looking for? Caviar Blacks and Barracuda XTs are fast but fairly noisy and expensive. Hitachi makes decent 7200rpm drives that don't diet your wallet too much but they are also pretty quiet and perform okay. Sure there are Caviar Blues if 1TB is fine.

Or if speed isn't that important, you can get Caviar Greens for example. They are 5400rpm but offer great capacities for their prices and are quiet.

One never ever should buy this Hitachi piece of crap. I had already 4x replacements of 2TB Hitachi with Apple, simply telling them that it cannot work like that - loud head parking sound every few mins even if the disk is doing nothing.

But even after 4th replacement it is still working like dying disk. If you like loud HDD, go ahead. It's terrible that Apple is allowing such loud disks to be installed in their machines.

 

[zaja]

making sense...

ok... I'm a professional film editor, so I need space, good performance and, very important, I need quietness on an internal drive.

I've been reading this post and searching in the website because I need to buy another internal drive for my new mac pro. And I could do with a bit of help. These are my findings at the moment:

I've read the Hitachi 3TB Deskstar 7K3000 is the best, but it's a quite expensive. After it, the Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K200 is great, with a more reasonable prize and it's quiet most of the time.

Quite close to these in terms of performance comes the WD Sata III Caviar Black. But it seems they are very noisy.

Then there is the Caviar Green 2 TB 300 MBps 7200rpm that they say it's very quite and I've heard good reviews. What makes me doubt is how well does it perform and most important, if being eco-friendly goes to sleep when not performing tasks (like other drives I've heard of, that caused problems in the editing of a film).

And then there are the F3, F4 and Seagate Barracuda which I find mixed reviews about. F3 and F4 can be really noisy. And I've read few Seagate Barracuda fail -and I particularly don't like Seagates as it's the only brand of drives which has ever failed me.

So, these are my findings. I want quality but ideally not too big of a price, as I've already put lots of money to get the new macpro. Any help?

thanks!

 

[philipma1957]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Western-Digital...ltDomain_0&hash=item41574c9498#ht_1380wt_1078


The seller above has sold me 20 western digital 3tb hdds. Since dec 2010. If you look at his reviews you will see a lot of happy customers. I review him with my philipma1957 account.

He took an offer from me as low as 165. I made a few 2 bay 6tb nas systems. I made a few 6tb time machine setups. I put 4 into the mac pro. I sold a few loose on ebay. They all came well packed oem sealed packages and with a 3 year warranty from western digital. they run quite and cool