Samsung 2 TB, eco-5400 rpm

[Santilli]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245
Not bad for 109 dollars. Transfering large files getting around 60 MB/sec, with 40 being the lowside for some transfers. Nice to have a lot of room, and just plug in to the tray, no caddie for 30 bucks. I will say the caddies do a great job of pulling heat from the drives, and keeping them cool.

Wish I had David's trick temp sensor that reads internal temperatures.

Just got 96 MB/sec with another transfer. HMMMM.

 

[jtr1962]

I've had one for about a month now. Nice drive. Picked it up for $99.99 with one of Newegg's promotions. Runs about 9 or 10 degrees cooler than my 200 GB 7200 RPM drive. I'm getting transfers averaging 30 MB/sec between drives ( limited mostly by the slower read speeds on the 200 MB ). When the file is already in RAM, writes average better than 60 MB/sec.

Here's some HD Tune benchmarks ( note that my M/B only has a 1.5 Gb/sec SATA connection which bottlenecks transfer rates over the first ~40% of the drive ):

Read:

Write:

 

[LunarMist]

The F4 was $95 a few days ago. I was planning to buy one for testing out the advancing format, but became distracted by the TV and forgot about it. orc:

 

[LunarMist]

I ordered one for testing the advancing format issues. Not bad at $90 even it is not the greatest.

 

[LunarMist]

The F4 drive appears completely normal in use, advancing sectors and all. I just plugged it into a toaster and formatted as usual with XP64.

 

[LunarMist]

I'm done with the F4 drive for this year. Maybe there is something I am missing, but the advancing format does nothing. The packaging was quite odd, but the EGG is consistently inconsistent in that regard. :monkey:

 

[Stereodude]

The 2TB F4's are $60 shipped Free at Newegg.com with promo code EMCZYNW48 right now. Limit 5.

 

[BingBangBop]

That really is a very good price for 2 TB's. That would be a good price for a 1 TB drive.

 

[Stereodude]

That really is a very good price for 2 TB's. That would be a good price for a 1 TB drive.

I agree. I bought 2 to put in external eSATA / USB enclosures.

 

[Mercutio]

"This code has already been redeemed."

 

[Stereodude]

"This code has already been redeemed."

It looks like other people are reporting it dead as well... It worked when I used it.

 

[LunarMist]

Bummer, Merc. Were you planning to buy a whole case?

 

[Mercutio]

Bummer, Merc. Were you planning to buy a whole case?

I have three newegg accounts. I could've gotten 15 drives.

The other option I'm considering at this point is just getting an LTO changer. I've been thinking about doing that for almost a year anyway.

 

[Adcadet]

Do you guys know anything about the WD AV-GP drives? They appear to be optimized for AV stuff. I'm wondering if there is any real difference between these and the regular Eco green drives from WD.

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=659
Newegg w/ 64 MB cache: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136783
Newegg w/ 32 MG cache, same price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136494

 

[BingBangBop]

It looks like other people are reporting it dead as well... It worked when I used it.

It worked when I bought 5! So basically it took 45 minutes to sell out.

 

[Buck]

Do you guys know anything about the WD AV-GP drives? They appear to be optimized for AV stuff. I'm wondering if there is any real difference between these and the regular Eco green drives from WD.

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=659
Newegg w/ 64 MB cache: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136783
Newegg w/ 32 MG cache, same price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136494

Unless you are using the drive for streaming a/v data, there is no advantage to the AV version of the GP products. If this is for a HTPC, I would avoid any price premium for the AV version. Get the WD20EARS and save some money. Newegg Price for the WD20EARS. The AV version is good for a DVR, but HTPCs drives are typically used more like a PC than a DVR.

 

[BingBangBop]

AV drives are not very different than a regular drive. They have slightly different firmware to optimize sequential reading and writing for streaming data. Specifically they are designed to buffer data so as to eliminate streaming pauses during seeks (both for reading and writing). A normal use drive will use its RAM differently to try to cache most recently used data rather than to store the current track so it can feed it out while read seeking.

AV drives cost more because they are special use items and unless you are using them for streaming media they will not perform better. Even for streaming purposes, it isn't a big deal because most video applications buffer independently to the drive with a much larger amount of ram available.

So paying extra for an AV drive is generally a waste of money.

 

[LunarMist]

It worked when I bought 5! So basically it took 45 minutes to sell out.

I wonder why they made the limit 5 instead of 1, unless they wanted the total coupon amount to be redeemed quickly.

 

[Stereodude]

I wonder why they made the limit 5 instead of 1, unless they wanted the total coupon amount to be redeemed quickly.

Well, a limit of 1 totally sucks if you want to do RAID-1 or any other RAID level for that matter. In the past they did promotions like this that were limit 1, but more recently that hasn't been the case. Ultimately, I guess they get to do what they want.

 

[BingBangBop]

I wonder why they made the limit 5 instead of 1, unless they wanted the total coupon amount to be redeemed quickly.

My assumption is that they do want it to sell out quickly. Faster turnover == higher profits because they get to reinvest their capital quicker.

 

[LunarMist]

:eek4: 0.75 vs. 24 hours?

 

[BingBangBop]

:eek4: 0.75 vs. 24 hours?

It is cumulative over time. Think of it as a turnover rate that is 32x faster. if you can maintain it over time then your capital usage is very very efficient. You can sell things with a much much lower margin (because you can sell far more), be incredibly competitive (lower prices) and still get more profit because you are selling things 32x faster than others are.

 

[Stereodude]

So, of the 10 new Samsung F3EG HD203WI's I recently bought, one of them wasn't exactly new. Windows XP reported a "foreign" partition on the drive. When I decided to test the drive to make sure it wasn't a bad / returned drive from someone's RAID array that was shipped to me as new with a simple HD Tach run, it started doing the ol' whir, click... whir, click... whir, click... whir, click... Now that's all it does at power on and of course isn't detected by the SATA controller in more than one PC. :cursin:

Of course I should have known better than to buy a "new" but not in original packaging HD via ebay even though the seller was a store, not some random person. wneddnce:

I sent them a message through ebay. We'll see what they do.

 

[Stereodude]

I got my two HD204UI drives today.

HD Tach:

ATTO: (unaligned)

I will repartition it under Windows 7 (creating an aligned partition) later and test again w/ ATTO.

 

[LunarMist]

Is there a special alignment command needed in 7? For example, if I initialized a disk in 7 and then formatted it, would it be aligned when used in XP64?

 

[LunarMist]

So, of the 10 new Samsung F3EG HD203WI's I recently bought, one of them wasn't exactly new. Windows XP reported a "foreign" partition on the drive. When I decided to test the drive to make sure it wasn't a bad / returned drive from someone's RAID array that was shipped to me as new with a simple HD Tach run, it started doing the ol' whir, click... whir, click... whir, click... whir, click... Now that's all it does at power on and of course isn't detected by the SATA controller in more than one PC. :cursin:

Of course I should have known better than to buy a "new" but not in original packaging HD via ebay even though the seller was a store, not some random person. wneddnce:

I sent them a message through ebay. We'll see what they do.

Newegg was still selling the 2TB F3 a few days ago. :aok:

 

[Stereodude]

Is there a special alignment command needed in 7?

Don't think so.

For example, if I initialized a disk in 7 and then formatted it, would it be aligned when used in XP64?

I don't think you even need to format it, just partition it under 7.

 

[Stereodude]

Newegg was still selling the 2TB F3 a few days ago. :aok:

I've got 1 spare now. I wouldn't mind a 2nd. They were out of stock and even delisted as of Newegg a few days ago also.

 

[LunarMist]

How can I determine if the dics is aligned? There is no obervable difference when partitioned with XP alone.

 

[LunarMist]

I got my two HD204UI drives today.

HD Tach:

ATTO: (unaligned)

I will repartition it under Windows 7 (creating an aligned partition) later and test again w/ ATTO.

I tried two of the F4 and they were faster than that in XP64. I have not tried the others, but assume they are all the same.

I am getting 143 reads and 138 writes on USB 3.

 

[LunarMist]

It is cumulative over time. Think of it as a turnover rate that is 32x faster. if you can maintain it over time then your capital usage is very very efficient. You can sell things with a much much lower margin (because you can sell far more), be incredibly competitive (lower prices) and still get more profit because you are selling things 32x faster than others are.

$110 today. It's like a commodity with different prices every day. :joker:

 

[Stereodude]

Here's an ATTO run on an Aligned Partition:

IOmeter ATTO Clone (disc is not partitioned):

 

[BingBangBop]

$110 today. It's like a commodity with different prices every day. :joker:

HD's and RAM are both priced like commodities. In my observation they have been for a very long time. For the most part, the differences between brands are small so that most people only pay attention to size and price.

 

[Buck]

$110 today. It's like a commodity with different prices every day. :joker:

From what I've seen over the past few decades, commodities hold their value better than hard drives.

 

[sechs]

I'm thinking of starting a drive futures contract. That way I can buy tomorrow's data storage at today's higher prices.

 

[Stereodude]

HD Tach on the other 2TB Samsung 5400RPM drive (HD203WI):

HD Tune Samsung HD203WI:

HD Tune Samsung HD204UI:

 

[LunarMist]

Are you going to replace F3s with F4s? I'm trying to decide for myself if there is any real advantage.

 

[Stereodude]

Are you going to replace F3s with F4s?

No. I still don't want advanced format drives on my RAID card.

I'm trying to decide for myself if there is any real advantage.

I don't think there is in my case.

I have to admit I was a little surprised at how much faster the F4 is vs. the F3 simply by going from to 3 platters from 4 though.

 

[LunarMist]

Basically the Samsung F4 has achieved similar STR to a WD 7200 RPM 4-platter drive from a year ago. The latter does not use the advancing format. A 3-platter 2TB 7200 RPM drive would be nice.

 

[LunarMist]

Back down to $80 today.