2TB "Green" HDD: Samsung or Western Digital?

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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Samsung vs Western Digital

Samsung HD203WI 2TB
10
43%
Western Digital WD20EARS 2TB
13
57%
 
Total votes: 23

rpsgc
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2TB "Green" HDD: Samsung or Western Digital?

Post by rpsgc » Wed May 05, 2010 8:18 am

My 640GB Caviar Blue is nearing full capacity and I'm in the hunt for a new HDD. I'm considering the following:

Samsung F3 EcoGreen HD203WI 2TB - 129 €
Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB - 133 €


According to SPCR's review the Western Digital disks are quieter (and the new versions have 4K sectors) so is there any good reason NOT to choose WD?

Also, I initially considered the 1.5TB versions but since I'm not planning on replacing it any time soon I decided on the 2TB, unless they're considerably noisier than the 1.5TB versions or have other drawbacks.



They're strictly for storage, of course.

Michael Sandstrom
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Post by Michael Sandstrom » Wed May 05, 2010 12:17 pm

I have no problem with the acoustics of the HD204WI even though my computer is on the desk close by. Although I have no experience with WD, the 10 Samsung SATA drives I own have never been loud or unreliable.

Here in the USA a Newegg deal was offered today for $120 USD on the 2TB Samsung. Prices seem to be trending down fast.

dhanson865
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Post by dhanson865 » Wed May 05, 2010 12:48 pm

Firmware issues have plagued the 1.5TB and larger drives.

For technical reasons I would avoid 1.5TB and 2TB drives and get something with 2 x 500GB platters (1TB total).

See viewtopic.php?p=509707&highlight=#509707 for more thoughts on general HD issues.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Wed May 05, 2010 1:15 pm

Oh, gosh darnit. What am I going to do now? I was really set on buying a 1.5TB/2TB drive.

edan
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Post by edan » Mon May 10, 2010 6:54 pm

dhanson865 wrote:Firmware issues have plagued the 1.5TB and larger drives.

For technical reasons I would avoid 1.5TB and 2TB drives and get something with 2 x 500GB platters (1TB total).
Do you have any links to share? I tried googling earlier and didn't find anything definitive, other than some trouble with some RAID setups or Synology boxes. Don't get me wrong, if I wanted a RAID setup it would definitely give me pause. But it all seems like a crapshoot--it doesn't seem like the # of platters should matter (firmware wise), but I haven't done a ton of research...

All things being equal, space in my TJ08 case is tight, so I'd rather have the most GB/cc :) Anyway, you don't have to "prove" yourself, I'm just curious if you have any interesting links, like admissions from WD customer service on issues, etc etc.

Michael Sandstrom
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Post by Michael Sandstrom » Tue May 11, 2010 4:30 am

Here is some statistically relevant information

Newegg Customer Reviews - Samsung 2TB vs WD 2TB

Samsung 130 Customer Reviews
77% rate as 5
8% rate as 4
4% rate as 3
2% rate as 2
9% rate as 1

WD 77 Customer Reviews
53% rate as 5
21% rate as 4
8% rate as 3
5% rate as 2
13% rate as 1

Go with Samsung. I have the HD203WI. My only mistake was not buying when the $120 offer was in effect.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Tue May 11, 2010 5:07 am

Michael Sandstrom wrote:Here is some statistically relevant information

Newegg Customer Reviews - Samsung 2TB vs WD 2TB
I think I'll dispense with Newegg customer "reviews". If people can't be bothered to check a new drive for errors before starting to fill all of its 2TB with junk then it's their own fault. Hard drives can be damaged during transport or have manufacture faults. That happens with all manufacturers.

Rating it one star because it was a DOA is just plain stupidity. Same as rating it 2 or 3 stars because they're using ancient Operating Systems and are unable to follow simple instructions to make it work with said ancient OS. Or complaining that it's slow when they fail to follow said instructions when using ancient OS.


More than 50% of one star "reviews" from Newegg are due to DOAs or people's own stupidity so I don't touch Newegg "reviews" with a 10ft pole.

Michael Sandstrom
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Post by Michael Sandstrom » Tue May 11, 2010 6:04 am

I agree that individual Newegg reviews are often nonsense, but when there are large numbers of opinions supporting or panning a product I take that into account. However, your poll above is never going to have enough responses to be of value.

SPCR's review of the WD Ecogreen 2TB reports that the unit is exceptionally quiet. How it compares with the Samsung HD201WI is uncertain. As of today, the HD201WI has not been reviewed here.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Mon May 17, 2010 6:06 am

Well, I bit the bullet and bought the WD. I'm running DLGDIAG's extended test as we speak.

Bryson777
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Post by Bryson777 » Mon May 17, 2010 8:00 am

rpsgc wrote:If people can't be bothered to check a new drive for errors before starting to fill all of its 2TB with junk then it's their own fault.
What is the best way to check a HDD for errors before using?

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Mon May 17, 2010 8:06 am

I'm using Western Digital's own Data Lifeguard Diagnostics running an Extended Test (5 hours). I don't think there's a better way to check for errors ;)

Bryson777
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Post by Bryson777 » Mon May 17, 2010 8:23 am

rpsgc wrote:I'm using Western Digital's own Data Lifeguard Diagnostics running an Extended Test (5 hours). I don't think there's a better way to check for errors ;)
Obrigado! ;) I am gonna run a test on my WD 2TB when I get it. It would really suck to fill up a 2TB HDD only to find out it's defective.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Mon May 17, 2010 8:29 am

You could also run HD Tune's error scan. You can never be too careful.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Sun May 23, 2010 2:44 am

Oh, and BTW I got the new revision of the drive :D

http://vr-zone.com/articles/western-dig ... /9141.html

puscifer
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Post by puscifer » Tue May 25, 2010 7:55 am

What about reviews/tests? I'm between these two also..

Whats your performance on the EARS version?

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Tue May 25, 2010 8:16 am

Image

wsc
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Post by wsc » Fri May 28, 2010 10:33 am

I've had several Samsung drives over the years, and no problems so far (knock on wood) so I decided to keep the trend going. I picked up one HD203WI at $120 and two more at $115 (current newegg promo). I can't really comment on the noise because they will be stashed away in my server in the closet...

I do have an WD10EADS and have not had any problems with it, but for the 2TB WD drives, I was under the impression (rightly or wrongly) that advanced formatting would be a pain to deal with, and that also swayed me towards the Samsungs.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Fri May 28, 2010 10:37 am

wsc wrote:I do have an WD10EADS and have not had any problems with it, but for the 2TB WD drives, I was under the impression (rightly or wrongly) that advanced formatting would be a pain to deal with, and that also swayed me towards the Samsungs.
Only if you use an obsolete OS, like XP ;)

vortex222
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Post by vortex222 » Fri May 28, 2010 4:01 pm

the problems are with the WD's smart headparking sceme which softparks the heads after 8 seconds of inactivity. Linux likes to do some sort of drive access every 10 or so seconds which drives the headpark counts through the roof and eventualy causing wear issues.

At least that is how i understand it. I have not heard of such issues under normal windows or even windows server software raid. That said i have always had reservations buying the largest capacity drives as i tend to think fewer platters and heads would be more relyable. That is why i would favor 1.5tb drives over 2tb drives. (3 vs 4 platters?)

Cryoburner
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Post by Cryoburner » Fri May 28, 2010 6:03 pm

rpsgc wrote:Only if you use an obsolete OS, like XP ;)
Roughly twice as many people still use XP than Vista and Windows 7 combined, so it's not exactly obsolete. : ) XP is still officially supported by Microsoft for another 4 years, and they are still selling new copies of XP for netbooks, so it continues to be an active product.

If you're building a new desktop computer, there's probably little reason to go with XP over Windows 7, but for most people with existing computers, it doesn't make much sense to upgrade their OS. Additional storage is a common upgrade though, so it's certainly something to keep in mind.

Re-aligning sectors can be necessary under Windows 7 and Vista as well, when using disk-imaging software to clone partitions, so it's not just an issue for older operating systems. In any case, WD offers utilities to perform the alignment, so it's probably not a huge issue if you know what needs to be done.
vortex222 wrote:the problems are with the WD's smart headparking sceme which softparks the heads after 8 seconds of inactivity. Linux likes to do some sort of drive access every 10 or so seconds which drives the headpark counts through the roof and eventualy causing wear issues.
I don't think anyone has ever verified that the excessive head parks are likely to cause wear issues, just that they can put drives over their rated number of parks. Even so, if you know of the potential issue and it affects your system, it shouldn't be particularly hard to remedy.

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