Lukewarm: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ $79.99 shipped

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: mindless1
Aren't the F1 and that Hitachi both old 350GB platter designs? If so, IMO no reason to buy this today instead of a 500GB/platter 7K2 RPM drive if you want performance. $80 isn't even all that cheap for last-gen tech (gen meaning relative to HDD industry even if current per some manufacturers).

Samsung is 3x333gb platters just like the WD black, and is very fast still

 

[mindless1]

I do think there are deals to be had for the last generation of 350GB/platter, I just (personally) don't like trusting data to any drive with more than 2 platters. Call it what you will, I've had far fewer failures with 2 or 1 platter drives than 3 or 4, even when it's a model notorious for problems. Plus, I recently bought a Seagate LP 1TB and am quite satisfied with it, so long as it keeps running as expected instead of premature failure.

With how cheap memory has become, I just don't see a need for higher RPM OS drives, unless it is a special scenario where the use is similar to the misleading benchmarks where a system is rebooted between runs, flushing the file cache which defeats all reasonable optimizations of Win2k and later Windoze OS.

On the other hand, for a high IPOS web or data server, a different strategy is in order.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Wow, I spoke too soon. The F1 is on fire - literally.

Mine just went up in smoke 🙁

Update: Here's a pic:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/4121/dsc0065f.jpg

Samsung is on the left, my WD drive was right underneath it - the top got scorched! The Samsung was the boot drive, the WD actually wasn't even plugged in at the time. I booted up the computer, heard a click-click-click, then smoke started come out...🙁

Must be bad ventilation and cooling in his case for it to burn another HDD.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Whats up with newer drives and their failure rates. I've had my WD 120gb drive running for about 10 years now in 4 different builds and nothings happened to it.

 

[Emulex]

well maybe because its almost 1/10th the density?

fwiw i've still got a 3gb drive from an old compaq running just fine. 3gb IDE. it is a dinosaur and it runs 24/7 with a load on it. don't dare turn it off! might get stiction.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Scholzpdx

Originally posted by: Kaido
Wow, I spoke too soon. The F1 is on fire - literally.

Mine just went up in smoke 🙁

Update: Here's a pic:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/4121/dsc0065f.jpg

Samsung is on the left, my WD drive was right underneath it - the top got scorched! The Samsung was the boot drive, the WD actually wasn't even plugged in at the time. I booted up the computer, heard a click-click-click, then smoke started come out...🙁

Must be bad ventilation and cooling in his case for it to burn another HDD.

It didn't "burn" the other hard drive, something on the bottom of the drive exploded. For the record, awesome cooling in the case 😉

The only thing I can really think of is, it either touched the bottom drive and shorted, or the click-click-click resulted in the capacitor or whatever it was exploded downward on the drive. Bummer either way 🙁

 

[Greg04]

Originally posted by: mindless1
Aren't the F1 and that Hitachi both old 350GB platter designs? If so, IMO no reason to buy this today instead of a 500GB/platter 7K2 RPM drive if you want performance. $80 isn't even all that cheap for last-gen tech (gen meaning relative to HDD industry even if current per some manufacturers).

right - I just picked up a Hitachi for backups, and was less concerned with overall performance. And, the new Hitachi runs cooler than other drives:

tom's comparison of new and old hitachis

But, as we know from the Google hard drive research, heat does not have the impact once thought on drive failure. So, if you go hitachi you're left with the rationalization that a) you don't care about absolute speed supremacy, or b) you like to save energy.

Edit: the speed difference between the Hitachi and Samsung is ~10%, I think, no so huge IMO (but I'd rather have the 10% for an OS drive 🙂)

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: Greg04
But, as we know from the Google hard drive research, heat does not have the impact once thought on drive failure. So, if you go hitachi you're left with the rationalization that a) you don't care about absolute speed supremacy, or b) you like to save energy.

We don't actually know that heat does not have a significant impact, we have to keep in mind that the Google systems in the study were, at the time of selection, construction meant to have adequate cooling regardless of the differences in HDD temp between different drive models.

All we really know from the study is that if you keep a drive "cool enough", below an excessive temp, then temp may not matter much. Unfortunately, AFAIK, Google did not provide all ambient and system design parameters so we could see the study in context, we dont' even know if they had different system designs or parts used in systems across the study that might have contributed if not outright caused a difference in failure rate.

Even so, assuming a well designed and thought out system, I'll agree that temperature isn't necessarily a big factor. Then again, like Google I, and probably you too, reject crappy cases, plus having air conditioning I never have a concern about summer ambient temps. Someone without A/C could easily see their drive temps 20C hotter than I do, or Google experienced in their study.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
Whats up with newer drives and their failure rates. I've had my WD 120gb drive running for about 10 years now in 4 different builds and nothings happened to it.

IIRC, there weren't 120GB drives 10 years ago. Maybe 7 or 8 years ago and they'd have been quite high priced at the time? I have receipts for 40GB & 60GB drives bought in 2002, then 80GB in 2003, though at that point they were the lower capacity models, bought because they were about $30 after a rebate. Middle of '03, 120GB were $150, down to $100 by the end of 2004 (regular price, less AR).

We're quite fortunate that perpendicular recording was implemented, pretty amazing that a HDD under $100 holds 1TB now.

 

[Tullphan]

I remember the big-azz external 5GB hdd for my Tandy TRS-80 Model 4P...it sold for a few hundred in 1985, IIRC. 🙂
It sure was an improvement over the dual 5-1/4" drives!

 

[zposter]

Originally posted by: Tullphan
I remember the big-azz external 5GB hdd for my Tandy TRS-80 Model 4P...it sold for a few hundred in 1985, IIRC. 🙂!

I think you mean 5MB. That was the normal hard drive size back then.

I bought one of the first available external 5MBs a year or two earlier for about $1200. It replaced my dual 8" floppies.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: Tullphan
I remember the big-azz external 5GB hdd for my Tandy TRS-80 Model 4P...it sold for a few hundred in 1985, IIRC. 🙂
It sure was an improvement over the dual 5-1/4" drives!

5MB?

Here's an interesting page that shows some HDD capacity vs pricepoints from 1980 thru 2004.
http://www.alts.net/ns1625/winchest.html

The further back it goes the more the price seems inflated like a retail list price vs real market prices. I vaguely recall a 10MB internal HDD (5.25") was almost $300 market price in '86 or 87.

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: zposter

Originally posted by: Tullphan
I remember the big-azz external 5GB hdd for my Tandy TRS-80 Model 4P...it sold for a few hundred in 1985, IIRC. 🙂!

I think you mean 5MB. That was the normal hard drive size back then.

I bought one of the first available external 5MBs a year or two earlier for about $1200. It replaced my dual 8" floppies.

My gawd what was I thinking??
You're correct...it was a 5MB...I stand corrected.
I used it in conjunction w/the above computer & a 300 baud acoustically coupled modem. 🙂

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Originally posted by: mindless1

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
Whats up with newer drives and their failure rates. I've had my WD 120gb drive running for about 10 years now in 4 different builds and nothings happened to it.

IIRC, there weren't 120GB drives 10 years ago. Maybe 7 or 8 years ago and they'd have been quite high priced at the time? I have receipts for 40GB & 60GB drives bought in 2002, then 80GB in 2003, though at that point they were the lower capacity models, bought because they were about $30 after a rebate. Middle of '03, 120GB were $150, down to $100 by the end of 2004 (regular price, less AR).

We're quite fortunate that perpendicular recording was implemented, pretty amazing that a HDD under $100 holds 1TB now.

Sorry 7 years. I got it when the Pentium 4 2.26 ghz came out. I remember that it was quite a bit. I bought an 80gb for my friend's build about a year after for like $100

 

[dbk]

$74 at ewiz with coupon code AWESOME10