[SOLVED] Recommend me an 8TB External desktop HDD

[knowledge2121]

I am looking for an 8TB Seagate external HDD, my budget is $250 CDN, These are what I have in mind:

(1) This.
(2) This.
(3) This.

which one of these do you recommend ?

 

[USAFRet]

I recently bought this:
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Desktop-External-Hard-Drive/dp/B07CQJBSQL

Appears to be the same as your second one.

 

[knowledge2121]

(1) has two years warranty...
(2) and (3) have 1 year .... I guess (1) is better in terms of reliability/durability ?
I mainly care about reliability/durability...Are there any drives in the same price range with better reliability/durability/warranty ?

 

[USAFRet]

(1) has two years warranty...
(2) and (3) have 1 year .... I guess (1) is better in terms of reliability/durability ?
I mainly care about reliability/durability...Are there any drives in the same price range with better reliability/durability/warranty ?

For your single instance, 'reliability' doesn't really come into play. A false number.

If the fleetwide stats for WD is better than the fleetwide stats for Seagate...your single instance may be one of the outliers.
ALL drives are subject to fail, no matter what manufacturer.

And inside that enclosure is the same drive as if you bought it as an internal drive.
That Seagate is a regular Seagate Baracuda drive.

 

[knowledge2121]

How about SMR ? are all desktop external drives SMR with terrible write speeds ? Are there any non-SMR ones ?

 

[USAFRet]

What will you be using this for? Through what interface?
Will a difference in write speeds be noticeable?

 

[knowledge2121]

I am using this to store PS3 backup games, The interface is USB3.0.

What write speed do I get if I copy a single 4GB file from the internal SSD(850 Evo) onto the desktop Seagate drive ?

 

[USAFRet]

"write speed" depends on a lot of factors.
Composition of the data is just as important as the drive. Lot of tiny files, through a USB interface, will be 'slower'...even if you were writing to an SSD.

Personally, I wouldn't stress over it. DIfferences between one spinning hard drive and another are small.

 

[Deicidium369]

How about SMR ? are all desktop external drives SMR with terrible write speeds ? Are there any non-SMR ones ?

Pretty sure SMR starts at higher cap drives. I have tons of 8TB Seagates - not a single failure. Bought a 14TB Seagate - managed to copy my retro folders over - then it just died. Returned, later bought a 16TB Seagate - just died after a very short time - still withing RMA time limited thru New Egg.

The external drives are NOT rated to be used as a desktop drive - those people shucking the external drives and using them in a NAS are playing loose with their data. THEY ARE ARCHIVE DRIVES - cold storage drives. but for a backup - which is what they are designed for - they work great - if a little slow at times. Seagate has externals and WD has externals - your preference.

 

[popatim]

WD 3yr warranty 7200Rpm drive $199
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-wd_...en-1-hard-drive-black/6364268.p?skuId=6364268