What to look for in a good HDD?

[Cacophonical]

It's coming up to Christmas, and my boyfriend was telling me how his hard drives are running out of space. I'm not sure if this was a subtle hint as to something he wants me to get, but I'm going to anyway!

The problem is, he's a bit of a techie (and "a bit" is selling it short), so I can't just buy him any old thing. What are some well-known reliable Hard Drive brands, and is there any other kind of information I should be keeping an eye out for?

Thanks in advance for any information.

 

[Captain Pooka]

Well, I seem to always buy Western Digital. They're reliable, they're always the cheapest... and I've never had one go out on me (in computers I've built). You may want to get him a 1TB drive... 7200 RPM. Those are the only numbers you NEED to look at. Don't worry about the cache...

He'll probably, if he's a super techie, "Notice" the difference between 6Gb/s... If you get one of those they all come with 32mb or 64mb cache that I'm looking at. Here's an option

1TB
7200RPM
6Gb/s

or

1TB
7200 RPM
3Gb/s

If you see a 2TB drive that's really close in price to the 1TB, get it! As long as it has good ratings! I buy at newegg.com

Seagate or Western Digital is what I would go with. Looks like they upped their warranty to 5 years. That may be where the cost came in.. gotta look at my old drives. I thought the warranty was 1, 2, or 3 years!

The prices for hard drives has gone up.. no idea why. They're in the 100s of dollars now. Just in the last week I've noticed this... I payed 50$ for my most recent build (a week ago) and they've almost doubled in price...

-Q

 

[strollin]

Western Digital divides their drives into groups labeled "Green", "Blue" and "Black". The WD Black drives are considered among the best drives available. I'd go with 7200rpm but the 6Gb/s vs 3Gb/s is mostly marketing drivel since no mechanical hard drive can reach 3Gb/s performance, let alone 6Gb/s. A larger cache is more desirable.

 

[Captain Pooka]

Well, most claims in terms of speed is hardly reachable. Benchmarks are always going to show less... Those numbers are more of a "guide". It looks to me like 3GB/s would be slower than 6GB/s ... and it is. 1TB/2TB drives in 3/6GB/s are going to have 32 or 64MB cache. Just depends how big your budget is

Here's a peek:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1306 600003269&IsNodeId=1&name=1TB and higher

Good luck! I wish my fiancé bought me computer parts!

 

[Cacophonical]

Thanks for the quick response, guys! That's very helpful.

Unfortunately it seems Newegg doesn't ship to the UK, but the link gave me a good idea of what to look for.

 

[arsenalbates]

I personally would hold fire to buy a new hard drive if you can help it. I dont know about other countries but in the UK prices have nearly doubled for hard drives due to the floods in Thailand destroying manufacturing buildings where HDD's are made.

See Hard drives in short supply

The prices are expected to come back down after the new year. A Samsung TB F3 hard drive which was £40 is now £90 ! that's more than double. if you can hold back until later in the year just before Christmas

BTW I use Novatech here in the UK as they have a code to get free next working day delivery . tap in FREEDEL11 on the basket screen. Other companies include Ebuyer, Amazon and Kikatek.

Oh and as you could prob guess, I am a fan of the Samsung 1TB drives. Search for Samsung F3 in Google's shopping search for a comparison.

 

[dred]

I have used several hard drives, the most reliable is Hitachi and Seagate barracuda, 1TB, and of course it is better to have hard drive with 64MB cache. But it depends on you. I don't like Samsung because I had bad experience. Try to find information here. Customer reviews of computer bands, computer dealers and stores

 

[Captain Pooka]

I personally would hold fire to buy a new hard drive if you can help it. I dont know about other countries but in the UK prices have nearly doubled for hard drives due to the floods in Thailand destroying manufacturing buildings where HDD's are made.

That means bad for people I'm building computers for I would listen to him and wait until after Christmas... but hey, if it's a christmas present you gotta do what you gotta do! Plus if he's super geeky then he'll know about the HDD crisis right now. He'll appreciate the fact that you still bought him one anyway And he'll have a HDD from the "Thai Flood Crisis"!

 

[strollin]

It's hard to say for sure when HDD prices will drop again, if ever. You might need to wait a long time. They have been downright cheap lately compared to any other time in their history.

 

[Indigo]

I have used several hard drives, the most reliable is Hitachi and Seagate barracuda, 1TB, and of course it is better to have hard drive with 64MB cache. But it depends on you. I don't like Samsung because I had bad experience. Try to find information here. Customer reviews of computer bands, computer dealers and stores

Hard drive experiences tend to be related to specific users, and I've noticed that it doesn't really matter who buys which brand of drive, they are all pretty equal in terms of perceived performance and value.

Also, sites like "pissed consumer" rarely have "reviews" I would consider valuable. Going to a site where the overall audience is pissed off people is not a good place to get comprehensive reviews of drives.

That being said, reliability wise, I have WD, Samsung and Seagate at home. They all work great.