Are there any notiacble differences between different hard drive manufacturers?

[Hanlet]

I've been happily running a WD Caviar Blue (1TB, 7200 rpm) alongside an SSD for around 18 months now. As is the case with most builds, I'm now running out of storage space and am in need of an upgrade. It's an ITX build so I'll need to swap out the HDD rather than supplementing it with another.

3TB Caviar Blacks seem to be selling for around £150 right now but other brands retail for almost half that. I know there are countless reviews and benchmarks available online but would there be any noticeable real-world difference in performance, noise or reliability if I went with a cheaper alternative from Seagate, Toshiba or Hitachi?

If not, which of the three alternative manufacturers would be most recommended?

Thanks, in advance, for any responses.

 

[Barty1884]

Drives like the WD Black are faster - ideally used over other HDD options, if you don't have an SSD.

Since you do, there's very little difference between most (outside of warranty). A couple of tests I've seen, HGST actually have a little better reliability/longevity (a subsidiary of WD), but Hitachi, SeaGate & Toshiba all offer quality products.

I wouldnt worry too much about it to be honest. Buy the cheapest 7,200rpm 3TB HDD from any of the main manufacturers.

 

[jsmithepa]

HD are commodity items these days, meaning minimal difference between brands as long as you are comparing the same CLASS, desktop, NAS, server, enterprise etc. Noise is a crapshoot.

So once you pick the CLASS, the second thing I look at it is, like buying Costco bulk, how many Terabytes can I get with my money. Six months ago, the sweet spot was 3 TB drives at ~usd$42/Terabyte.