Hitachi or Seagate?

[tstng]

New hard drive on my shopping list. Speed and noise are more important right now than capacity. Will use as primary with Win7. So:

Seagate 750GB SATA-II 7200 rpm 32MB Barracuda 7200.12 NCQ
or
Hitachi 1TB SATA-II 7200 rpm 32MB Deskstar 7K1000.C

Both are 'bout same price (Seagate costs just a hair more, despite being 250 gigs short), some stuff I read about both: complains about the Hitachi being a bit on the noisy side and about the NCQ thingy for Seagate, some say it's great, others not so much.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Of the 2 go with the Seagate. A third better choice is the Samsung Spinpoint F3. It is faster, silent and very reliable as well as being super cheap. It comes in 500GB or 1 TB models.

 

[tstng]

Of the 2 go with the Seagate. A third better choice is the Samsung Spinpoint F3. It is faster, silent and very reliable as well as being super cheap. It comes in 500GB or 1 TB models.

Is this the one? Samsung 1 TB SATA-II 7200RPM 32MB PMR Spinpoint F3? What does PMR stand for? And I read a few comments on this one and a lot of people complain that it isn't silent, not necesarily very loud, but not silent. (and it's actually a tad more expensive than the seagate)

 

[Deleted member 217926]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-185-_-Product

$54 after rebate.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-181-_-Product


I have used dozens. They are as silent as any mechanical drive I have ever used of any brand.

 

[misfit14]

^ +1

 

[tstng]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-185-_-Product

$54 after rebate.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-181-_-Product


I have used dozens. They are as silent as any mechanical drive I have ever used of any brand.

Here's a quote from a review on this Samsung: "Under heavy load (such as our IOmeter random write test) the drive was clearly audible over the sizeable background hum of our labs" (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/10/06/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-review/10) Plus, every second user comment I read (local forum), said it's noisy.

I don't live in the US, so prices on newegg are irrelevant in my case. They are more expensive here in Romania, and if I were considering spending a bit more on the Samsung, wouldn't it make more sense to just get a Seagate 1TB SATA-II 7200 rpm 32MB Barracuda 7200.12?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

The Seagate is fine. Here in the US the Spinpoint is a better value usually. I can't speak for others but I have yet to think any of the dozens of Spinpoints I have installed are loud at all.

 

[tstng]

Ok. So here's another idea.
Spinpoint F3 1 TB vs Barracuda 7200.12 1TB. Acording to the review the Spinpoint is a bit faster but the Barracuda makes less noise. And what about NCQ? Does the Spinpoint support it (I know the Barracuda does)? Does it make any difference at all?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

All new drives support NCQ as far as I know. And yes it does make the drive faster to have it.

 

[tstng]

All new drives support NCQ as far as I know. And yes it does make the drive faster to have it.

So, if you say the Spinpoint isn't noisy and supports NCQ, than the Barracuda doesn't have any advantages anymore. Interesting.