SPCR

Saw this drive while browsing newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152202

Can't find much info via Google and haven't seen any news released via tech news sites. Looks like it's an EcoGreen, but it's under F3 family. From newegg's product picture, it's shows it's a 5400rpm 32MB cache, production date 2009.12 Made in Korea. Speculating it's 4x 500GB platters.

It's nice to have another 5400rpm competitor to WD's 2TB Green drive, and hopefully it's reliable and quiet. The Seagate LP 2TB has some awful reviews and Hitachi's 2TB is 5 platters and 7200rpm and reported to be loud.

SleepyBum wrote:Saw this drive while browsing newegg.

Can't find much info via Google and haven't seen any news released via tech news sites. Looks like it's an EcoGreen, but it's under F3 family. From newegg's product picture, it's shows it's a 5400rpm 32MB cache, production date 2009.12 Made in Korea. Speculating it's 4x 500GB platters.

It's nice to have another 5400rpm competitor to WD's 2TB Green drive, and hopefully it's reliable and quiet. The Seagate LP 2TB has some awful reviews and Hitachi's 2TB is 5 platters and 7200rpm and reported to be loud.

That is correct , I just saw it yesterday and i was trying to get more information on it but coudn't its pretty much new . I think it does out perform the WD Green , the Samsung's F3 series out perform the WD Black and they are much cheaper than the WD black. They also out perform the Raptors , but hopefully there will be some benchmarks on this beast soon .

SleepyBum wrote:Speculating it's 4x 500GB platters.

Is that what this means?
from newegg details

500GB Formatted Capacity Per Disk

Thinking about getting this drive for a nas. - I just dont want to be the guinea pig that ends up getting a lemon.

ok Got mine today, here is quick benchmarks:


1. HD Tach http://i47.tinypic.com/fxwkp.jpg
2. HD Tune http://i48.tinypic.com/b7x47a.jpg

System Tested on Core2Duo , 3GB ram , Windows XP Pro SP3

EDIT: I had the MS security Essentials running and forgot to shut it down so I'm not sure if that had some kinda impact on the benchmark. I will re-run later again without the MS Sec Ess running.

What about noise?

noise is low !! you just hear a spinup noise for 1 second when you go from power OFF to Power ON on your PC/NAS .

its a great drive.

Thanks. There really needs to be a new roundup of 2TB drives - the price has come down lots in the UK now.

I can absolutely confirm that these drives have 4 platters.

As I have just bought 2 of them, and happen to have 2x 1.5Tb drives of the same model, I weighed each of them with 2 sets of scales, both of the 2x 2TB drives are 60-80g heavier than the 2x 1.5TB drives.

Also I noticed that to gain a little extra space inside the drives Samsung has moved the bottom ribbed casing closer to the physical bottom of the drive (but still of course within the 1" height).


Andy

This drive is definitely cheaper in europe/germany (bout 20€ less than WD GP).

I've had decent luck with the original F3 1TB (which had some reliability issues). Looks like nowadays ALL damn HDDs are unreliable so it is a gamble.

Warranty is 3y like WD GP, but Samsung warranty is a PITA to deal with, unlike WD.

Still undecided

I found a german review fot the hdd:


http://www.tech-review.de/include.php?p ... entid=8559


Seems that it is fast (4 5400 u/min) and quiet.

Telstar wrote:This drive is definitely cheaper in europe/germany (bout 20€ less than WD GP).

I've had decent luck with the original F3 1TB (which had some reliability issues). Looks like nowadays ALL damn HDDs are unreliable so it is a gamble.

Warranty is 3y like WD GP, but Samsung warranty is a PITA to deal with, unlike WD.

Still undecided

Slightly off-topic, but here in the UK I used Samsung warranty procedure and I thought it was excellent. the sata connector snapped off as a I was installing, and I expected them to say it was my ham fisted efforts at an install. But they didn't, the whole process was very smooth. iirc, there and back in about a week.

Madz wrote:I found a german review fot the hdd:


http://www.tech-review.de/include.php?p ... entid=8559


Seems that it is fast (4 5400 u/min) and quiet.

Which one is quieter? Does the review say? The google translator says the F3 is "calm" but the WD20EADS is "for a silent machine most likely to make the price of 139 € (0.069 € / GB it) unfortunately somewhat less attractive. "

Here is another Samsung HD203WI test (German). There are also some HDTune Benchmarks.

Conclusion:

Test sample vibrated more than the two HD103UJ (1 TB by Samsung), but the special mounting in the Antec P193 successfully "swallowed" those vibrations. Overall the drive was very silent and also cool. The drive only has a two year warranty though, in contrast to the 3 years by WD.

If there are any questions or wishes for benchmarks (those that don't require the drive to be blank ), I can test it.

Thanks for the two reviews. I am really looking for information on which is simply the quietest of the drives - there are some specs (DBA) but I don't know in this review if that is manufacturer specced or not.

According to that site, the WD is quieter by 2 DB - but how that fares in the real world I don't know. Who does?

The WD is quieter. I have both hdds and they are very together evry short, but the slightly quieter

Madz wrote:The WD is quieter. I have both hdds and they are very together evry short, but the slightly quieter

Sorry, I'm not sure I followed that. I assume you mean that they are very close, but that the WD is quieter. It would not surprise me to learn that the Green is quieter than the Samsung -- the Greens tend to be very quiet. They also appear to win on power draw. Sadly, they don't work so well in a QNAP NAS I wonder how the Samsung compares to a Caviar Blue....

I've read again and again that WD Greens are more energy efficient, but that really depends on the model...

Concerning the 2TB models, WD's Green model is actually more energy-consuming than other 2TB hdds...and I can't remember any comparison from those which I've read showing the WD20EADS more efficient at idle than e.g. the Seagate LP 2TB...

examples
http://www.behardware.com/articles/764- ... green.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storag ... html#sect0

I've had similar problems with large drives from wd and samsung. It seems that there's a 30-50% failure rate. I've rma'd with both and, although wd's site is much more user-friendly, samsung was no problem.

I just ordered a 2tb samsung. Not really religious but am doing a little prayer dance.

Samsung has these series currently for customers
Samsung Spinpoint F1 (Performance)
Samsung Spinpoint EcoGreen F2EG (Low Noise, Low Power)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 (High Performance)
Samsung Spinpoint EcoGreen F3EG (Low Noise, Low Power)

wiak wrote:Samsung has these series currently for customers
Samsung Spinpoint F1 (Performance)
Samsung Spinpoint EcoGreen F2EG (Low Noise, Low Power)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 (High Performance)
Samsung Spinpoint EcoGreen F3EG (Low Noise, Low Power)

Seems that you might have inside information. What's the difference between the F2EG and F3EG?

seemingly.random wrote:Seems that you might have inside information. What's the difference between the F2EG and F3EG?

That information has been public for a while now. Several reviewers have pointed out the differences since the launch.

But I guess nobody really made a quick-and-dirty comparison table, so here it goes:

F1 - 7200rpm spindle, 333GB/platter
F2EG - 5400rpm spindle, 333GB/platter
F3 - 7200rpm spindle, 500GB/platter
F3EG - 5400rpm spindle, 500GB/platter

The odd one out is the F2EG series, since the only really different thing from the F1 series is the spindle speed.

So, in short, the EG series are basically 5400rpm versions from non-EG series (rounded down to the nearest whole number... lol)

Cheers.

Miguel

My subjective opinion on the F3EG. I bought four drives this past week and hooked them up over the weekend. One I'm using as unattached backup, while the other three are being run in RAID. Two of the drives have greater vibration than my 500GB blue Caviar, while the other two have less. [The three drives currently running are mounted in an Antec Solo case -- mounted, not hung ] The drives do have an amusing spinup, which I frankly don't hear unless the case is open. Seek noise tends to be deeper/clunkier than the higher-pitched, scratchy blue caviar drive. It would be hard, given the difference in frequency, to rate which is "louder". However, I wouldn't be surprised if the Green caviars are quieter. I am not displeased with the level of noise in my Antec case, though I am worried about putting them in a QNAP 639 without even rubber mounts However, I am no more worried about that now than I was before I bought them, and to some degree, I am less. The drives are pretty darned quiet. I'm just worried about the generally lousy acoustics of NASes....

I hope that helps someone.

-Dave

__Miguel_ wrote:

seemingly.random wrote:Seems that you might have inside information. What's the difference between the F2EG and F3EG?

That information has been public for a while now. Several reviewers have pointed out the differences since the launch.

But I guess nobody really made a quick-and-dirty comparison table, so here it goes:

F1 - 7200rpm spindle, 333GB/platter
F2EG - 5400rpm spindle, 333GB/platter
F3 - 7200rpm spindle, 500GB/platter
F3EG - 5400rpm spindle, 500GB/platter

The odd one out is the F2EG series, since the only really different thing from the F1 series is the spindle speed.

So, in short, the EG series are basically 5400rpm versions from non-EG series (rounded down to the nearest whole number... lol)

Cheers.

Miguel

What about the 154UI, which is classified as a F2EG, but is a 1.5TB drive with 3x500GB platters?

Anyway, I bought a 203WI. First impressions are that it is a bit noisier than my 154UI's. Idle is pretty unoticeable, but it makes a loud whine when it spins up at startup and seeking is a bit loud and vibrates. (This is hard mounted to a case though with no rubber)

swong wrote:What about the 154UI, which is classified as a F2EG, but is a 1.5TB drive with 3x500GB platters?

Yes, good point. That's either the "odd one out" or the new F3EG is only called "F3" because of that new tech Samsung has put in them...

swong wrote:First impressions are that it is a bit noisier than my 154UI's.

That is to be expected. 4 platters usually means more noise. My 500GB F3 is practically inaudible, because of the single platter design, even being a 7200rpm drive.

swong wrote:it makes a loud whine when it spins up at startup

My guess that's a Samsung "feature". Those have to be the weirdest noises I have ever heard from an HDD starting up... Sometimes is seems the drive is crashing, especially with my 1TB F1.

Cheers.

Miguel

Is this their enterprise class 2TB like the RE4-GP?
If it is, it's shit load better value than the RE4-GP here in Oz.

*update*
I just checked out their site and it doesn't look like they even make
server/enterprise grade hdd, only desktop

I just checked out their site and it doesn't look like they even make
server/enterprise grade hdd, only desktop

They do, although I couldnt tell you what it is called, or whether it is out yet in the 2GB flavour - also it is of limited usage to most people as "they" (all of them, including the "RAID" class WD drives) have been made to work with hardware RAID controllers - also the MTBF is basically guesswork anyway.

My philosophy with HDD's is to back them up, and keep yopu fingers crossed, remember that all HDD's die, its just a matter of when, and what data they take with them.


Andy

Hmm, couldn't see anything, will have to dig deeper...
Near-lines (enterprise grade) work well with softRAID (mdadm etc) too.

Some good points were made here as-to-why near-line can be worthwhile:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/for ... 9006923041

But if Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate all have the same premium for their near-lines (preferably 5.4k RPM), then I'm not sure I'm interested!
The F3EG is about $170 cheaper than the RE4-GP, just because the latter is near-line!
Even the 2TB black down here (Oz) is only $7 cheaper, & the RE4, I ruled it long ago as it was about $115 more than the RE4-GP!
(plus I don't really need 7.2k RPM)

yikes 430am, night.

you see this? cheers!

NT wrote:Hmm, couldn't see anything, will have to dig deeper...
Near-lines (enterprise grade) work well with softRAID (mdadm etc) too.

Some good points were made here as-to-why near-line can be worthwhile:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/for ... 9006923041

But if Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate all have the same premium for their near-lines (preferably 5.4k RPM), then I'm not sure I'm interested!
The F3EG is about $170 cheaper than the RE4-GP, just because the latter is near-line!
Even the 2TB black down here (Oz) is only $7 cheaper, & the RE4, I ruled it long ago as it was about $115 more than the RE4-GP!
(plus I don't really need 7.2k RPM)

yikes 430am, night.

It's called RAID series, and there isn't a 2TB version yet.
The choices are too limited and the prices are still too high for 2TB.
I'm delaying for 1-4mth......

The difference is that where WD intentionally cripples their consumer grade drives, Samsung drives (bar the F2 1.5TB) usually works fine in raid. I know of atleast 200 F1 1TB drives in use, and the failure rate is close to zero, even tho alot of them are used in RAID.

Samsung has better long-term reliability than alot of other disk makers and generally has proper quality control, whereas WD slips once in a while, and you have a bunch of bad drives in one series hit the market. I've seen this on the old 120/200GB drives, the 500GB and 1TB series to this date. There are also rumors about premature failing of the Velociraptors, first it was the 150GB drives, latest is the 300GB, with numerous people having problems.. Caveat Emptor