One simple question... what u think

[atifsh]

alright well ill be opening this drive today then

it will help emptying my external 250 gig thats full of mkv's

one thing though this WD green drive is huge compared to slim seagate's i have

[Chewy]

Chewy weigh in on this? I know you like Seagates- I feel like the odd man out here!

About 8 months ago I reccomended seagate 500's to a friend that striped them, a month later the stripe broke, I looked back at the drives on newegg a few months later and there were lots of issues showing up.

A buddy kept losing his maxtor(seagate) 1 TB externals, he's switching to WD

[atifsh]

ok drives going back.......

1: this is apparently 5400 rpm drive WD is very confusing in this regard
2: WD blue or black will be the next ill be getting, after what chewy's post though seagates i have works just fine. maybe bigger drive have some issues.

[admin]

The WD Greens are for low noise, which accounts for the lower spin speed.

The Blue 500GB is not as good as the Blue 640GB, due to smaller platter capacity (I have the Blue 640GB, also known as the 6400AAKS). I like my drive, and I chose it over similar Samsung's (faster) and Seagate's (cheaper) at the time I got it (last November) after reading some bad user experiences with faulty drives for the other models. But if you search hard enough, you find these kind of things for all drives really. I use two of these in a mirrored array just to be safe, or more precisely, safer (a backup regime is still a must).

[dr_ml422]

I presumed chewy would weigh in on this in more or less along the lines of WD. Whether timing of Seagate hdd's not doing that great now is mood point.

I have this 1 and it's otm. I also got it at this price. Same specs you looking 4 but 1tb>

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4306125&Sku=TSD-1000H4

Retail too. Properly packed as well. You now have all choices.

[MilesAhead]

I ran across a PDF file someplace with the WD Caviar Black specs. Seems the 640 GB and 500 GB have sustained transfer of 113 MB/sec. whereas the 750 GB and 1 TB have 106. I thought I remembered Chewy saying something a month or so ago about for drives with the same technology, smaller is faster. So I looked on the sheet to see if the smaller Caviar Black drives had only 2 platters. That seems to be the difference.

Just for chuckles I ran Crystal Disk Mark on my Caviar Black 750 in the USB dock. Naturally the only test I could do that wouldn't be limited by the USB interface is the 4K random read and write tests. It scored way higher than my AMD 750. The random write was about 2.4 MB/sec as opposed to around .86 MB/sec for the AMD.

[dr_ml422]

AMD makes hdd's also? It kinda makes sense that a smaller drive will b faster. Will take shorter time to reach end and come back. I could b wrong about this. Only exception would prolly be a super fast drive like velociraptors. You have wd's top performing drive for desktop in the caviar black. I really wouldn't put too much emphasis if it was 4 storage.

I have a wd 80gb caviar se in my 1st build w/8mb cache and it's zipping. of course my mobo's o'clockede at 3%. They're not going to be making too many lower spaced hdd's ny more according to sales at wd. say a lot of consumers more into larger space, but for os it's a waste of space. even 250 n above is not really a sensible move. 1st i can't even imagine 250gb's worth of apps. including os, and using same hdd for both storage and os is hindering performance not enhancing it.

I had no choice after getting a 320gb hdd from wd to put into my new build, but i'll surely try if permitted get smallest one w/80gb's smallest and 160gb's largest.

we need to wait until the ssd's come down to take advantage of the same cycle the satas are going through or went through already. that would make big difference. a ssd at about 80gb's would be the ideal way to go at that point.

[MilesAhead]

Yeah, the main thing I don't like about this AMD machine is they have it set up as "Raid Ready" so the only info I can get about the HD at all is that it's AMD 750 GB 3.0 Gb/sec. That's it. No SMART info, no model number, no nothing. I guess AMD is branching out into the component hardware. I just wish they wouldn't choke off access to the info while they are doing it.

Performance wise the drive seems ok. I can send over the Gb network starting at over 100 MB/sec for single big files. HD Tune average transfer bechmark is in the 80 MB/sec range. The other thing non choice about the drive setup is this little cage setup they have now. It can hold 2 drives. I watched a video where the technician demonstrates how to R & R a drive. When he puts the new drive in there are these little clips/snaps or whatever that he has to get the drive to snap into inside the cage. You can tell it's not going to be as easy as the tech makes it look after you have 2 years of dust and heat changes on those little snaps!! I like the old setup with 4 screws and disconnecting 2 wires!! But I'm prolly not gonna' bust this box open anyway. Ain't broke and all that.

[dr_ml422]

You mean that the drive snaps into the cage n str8 into the power n data interfaces w/out sata cables like w/the docking station? if it only has the snaps that go on side of drive n you just slide in until it clicks securely and then hookup sata cables you'll b ok if you're just exchanging 1 hdd 4 another. if you want a extra hdd n only have that 1 set of clips that's another story. my new case w/my new build came w/those clips n snaps. xtras 4 additional drives. but oem doesn't really want us to put a other drive so just bring 1 snappy thing.

my dell is like that. i asked 4 xtra blue snappy thingy n they said to get external hdd and not use that xtra sata port 4 another hdd. i already had the docking station so i could have cared less, but that's so silly to include hardware 4 xtra sata w/e and not provide the xtra snap.

[MilesAhead]

Yeah, to me it looked like it was done either for manufacturing convenience, or user inconvenience. Certainly ain't as easy as the old way. My last HP that I replaced I don't think I ever pulled the cover off. That thing was loaded with dust! Still, you could get the HD out of it in about 30 seconds! (Ok, slight exaggeration.. maybe 2 minutes if you include pulling the side panel off.)

I could see it if they had the thing come stock with 2 drives, but if they're only going to put one in the thing, why all the mumbo jumbo? It's lame. Like a VW Beetle with the gas tank in the rear!! Why change it?

edit: btw it wasn't some DEC mechanical engineering wonder where you just pulled the drive out. You had to pull the cage, undo a bunch of screws, unhook the wires, and still pull the thing out of the snaps. I think it was just to they could stick 2 drives in one cage without threaded holes or something. Some PHD must've come up with it.

[dr_ml422]

What I don't get is why have the option in the 1st place of putting a xtra drive in if according to the manufacturer it'll void the warranty? That's why dell told me to use the usb port for a xtra drive. Now does that make sense. Whether I used a xtra drive via a usb port or in the cage directly to the 2nd sata connector, the mobo was going to read that drive and power consumption also was going to be used as well.

I'm so far into this today as opposed when I 1st started that I could care less about the warranty and have removed everything from my oem xcept for the mobo, cpu and hsf.

that's a real process if i'm reading this correctly. they added the snaps in addition to screws and had to pull cage out? then they want to know why certain things are done the other way.

[MilesAhead]

I'd have to refresh my memory by watching the video again but it's probably to allow for them sticking this snap in bay for HP USB 2 portable drive. They should have taken the idea one step further. Instead of a funky shaped HP USB drive, they should have made it a built in docking station for any Sata. Then it would be really useful. Now it just takes up space. Other than some business with lots of PCs and oodles of money to spend, who is going to buy an HP specific USB drive just so it can fit in that bay? If they made it a real USB<=>Sata bridge then I'd say that's real innovation. As it is now, it's kind of like the Gull doors on a DeLorean. Looks cool until you keep bangin' your head on the thing!!

[MilesAhead]

Here's the video link. As you can see, it's no miracle of mechanical engineering.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01176906&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3867599

edit: Notice the tech wiggle waggle and sweat it trying to lift the cage up!

edit2: Also watch when the tech slides the cage back in. There are 7 tabs, 3 on one side and 4 on the other that he has to align. Looks like the part where he gives it the final push to seat it in the chassis is edited. Probably took him like 8 takes to get it in there. The clip I want to see is the tech taking the cage and flinging it across the room while screaming a few choice expletive deleteds.

[dr_ml422]

That's insane. Idek how you would hook up a usb drive in there. You still need to connect the sata n data cables no? Usb just gives you access to pc via a power n data connector. You mean there actually is a way to install a hdd inside via a usb?

[MilesAhead]

There's a bay in front with an eject button. It's curved on one side and flat on the other. Evidently you push an HP USB "personal drive" or whatever they call it, though the little trap door and it snaps into a connector. I couldn't find a close up shot to show the HP personal drive bay but google may come up with something. Like I say, if you could slide a Sata internal drive into it, it would be great!! Maybe the original idea was to have USB drives workers wouldn't try to steal? Who knows!!

Probably if you search on the HP Personal Drive itself it will show how you snap it into the front of the machine.