Samsung SpinPoint F1 ECO Green 500Gb for $50 (Warm?)

[ibex333]

Shipping was 7.63 to NYC for me... Good deal?

http://www.nowdirect.com/exec/...tsb?prcpart=SADHD502HI

 

[Stas]

Lame. There are better drives to be had at that price than a 5400RPM one. It's an older drive, so there are 3 platters, thus linear speed would be quite low. Although, it should be ok for a HTPC that only need like 20MB/sec for a high def video.

 

[mechsiah]

"Lame" seems a tad harsh. 500G 7200 tend to be about $60. As you say, the slower (assuming quieter) speed would be ideal for an HTPC.

 

[jjmIII]

Not bad, but free shipping is needed to warm this up a bit 😉.

 

[Doomer]

Beware of Samsung HD's. They have a high failure rate and do strange things when they fail.

OTOH, Samsung's warranty service is pretty good.

 

[ibex333]

I've been using my 120gb Samsung for 6 years now. Never a single hiccup.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: Doomer
Beware of Samsung HD's. They have a high failure rate and do strange things when they fail.

OTOH, Samsung's warranty service is pretty good.

Beware of mechanical HDs, they have a high failure rate.

Goes for all drives. But I've had fewer Samsung drives die than WD for me. 1 Samsung, 4 WD drives.

 

[bkoepp2]

OK. I never post here, so take that as an indicator. Samsung spinpoint drives are incredibly reliable. I've built about 300+ machines and they never come back with issues.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Stas
Lame. There are better drives to be had at that price than a 5400RPM one. It's an older drive, so there are 3 platters, thus linear speed would be quite low. Although, it should be ok for a HTPC that only need like 20MB/sec for a high def video.

I can't seem to find much on this drive but everything I can find on it suggests it's a 500GB single platter drive and it's actually an F2 drive instead of the F1 series (based on model HD502HI listed on nowdirect). Also, the model number seems to indicate that this is a brand new series drive and just reaching distributors (with Seagate and WD to release 500GB platters soon - WD to release 2TB- 4 platter drive).

Wrong language (French possibly) but listed as 500GB Plateau....

I didn't know that 500GB platter drives were released yet. Maybe I missed something....


This doesn't state platter density but it does state 3 platter 1.5TB drives indicating 500GB platters. Wow.

 

[Stas]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: Stas
Lame. There are better drives to be had at that price than a 5400RPM one. It's an older drive, so there are 3 platters, thus linear speed would be quite low. Although, it should be ok for a HTPC that only need like 20MB/sec for a high def video.

I can't seem to find much on this drive but everything I can find on it suggests it's a 500GB single platter drive and it's actually an F2 drive instead of the F1 series (based on model HD502HI listed on nowdirect). Also, the model number seems to indicate that this is a brand new series drive and just reaching distributors (with Seagate and WD to release 500GB platters soon - WD to release 2TB- 4 platter drive).

Wrong language (French possibly) but listed as 500GB Plateau....

I didn't know that 500GB platter drives were released yet. Maybe I missed something....


This doesn't state platter density but it does state 3 platter 1.5TB drives indicating 500GB platters. Wow.

If that's true - then this is a much better buy. 500GB platter drives from Seagate have been in stores for a couple of weeks now.

 

[bradley]

This hard drive is indeed part of the latest Spinpoint F2 EcoGreen series with 500 GB per platter.

HD502HI: 500GB (5400rpm 16MB)
HD102SI: 1TB (5400rpm 16MB)
HD103SI: 1TB (5400rpm 32MB)
HD153UI: 1.5TB (5400rpm 32MB)
HD154UI: 1.5TB (7200rpm? 32MB)

Some benches for the 500GB model. The drive transfers on average around 80 MB/sec in HD Tune. For comparison's sake, the Seagate 1.5TB (ST31500341AS 7200.11) 375 GB platter drive hits around 99 MB/sec.

Appears as though Samsung might first be cautiously focusing on reliability and power consumption over pure performance to avoid a Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB-type scenario. Though I believe Seagate is about to launch their newest 2 TB 7200rpm drive based on 500 GB platters; while WD is also focusing on a Green 2 TB 5400rpm drive.

 

[bradley]

BTW, the one-platter Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200rpm 16MB drive is also now available. The drive is testing at an average transfer rate around 103-108.0 MB/sec. I believe the cheapest shipped price is at Newegg for $65.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148377


For a general comparison's sake....
----------------------------------------------------------
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB (500GBx1) 7200rpm 16MB

Min xfer: 69.8 MB/sec
Maximum xfer: 131.8 MB/sec
Average xfer: 108.0 MB/sec
Access time: 14.9 ms
Burst: 180.5 MB/sec
CPU usage: 3.3%
----------------------------------------------------------

Samsung Spinpoint F2 500GB (500GBx1) 5200rpm 32mb

Min xfer: 50.4 MB/sec
Maximum xfer: 99.7 MB/sec
Average xfer: 80.1 MB/sec
Access time: 16.8 ms
Burst: 127.7 MB/sec
CPU usage: 8.0%
----------------------------------------------------------

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB (375GBx4) 7200rpm 32MB

Min xfer: 61.2 MB/sec
Maximum xfer: 125.9 MB/sec
Average xfer: 100.8 MB/sec
Access time: 13.5 MB/sec
Burst: 176.4 ms
CPU usage: 3.1%

----------------------------------------------------------

Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB (333GBx3) 7200rpm 32mb

Min xfer: 52.9 MB/sec
Maximum xfer: 111.9 MB/sec
Average xfer: 90.4 MB/sec
Access time: 13.7 ms
Burst: 156.7 MB/sec
CPU usage: 8.0%

----------------------------------------------------------
Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB (320GBx2) 7200rpm 16MB

Min xfer: 55.5 MB/sec
Maximum xfer: 113.7 MB/sec
Average xfer: 91.5 MB/sec
Access time: 12.0 ms
Burst: 144.2 MB/sec
CPU usage: 4.3%