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Seagate 7200.12 500GB or WD640GB Black?

C

cjbee

Member
So, I'm in the market for a new hard drive...I was pretty much settled on the WD, however, I saw that these new Seagate 7200.12 500GB drives are single platter.

Now, the difference in capacities isn't too big of a deal (ie. I'd be happy with either 500GB or 640GB), so with that in mind, which would be the better performing drive? Noise & temperature are not an issue. This is going to be my primary system drive...will contain OS, games, programs, documents, etc.

I've done some research about it on my own, however, definitive reviews/opinions/benches/comparisons on the 7200.12 are pretty scarce as it's a pretty new drive IIRC. Also, FWIW, the WD Black drive would cost me ~$20 more than the Seagate.

Also, is there anything other than these two that I should check out?

Thanks for chiming in.
 
A lot of folks was beating me up when my WD 1TB died and I said buy Seagate..

I did read of a firmware issue with the 7200.11 and Toms rated them almost even with WD from what I remmeber and I guess the 7200.12 is the same drive with new firmware..

I'm not sure what to say as I had two WD drives die with in a few months and one was onlt 20 days old.. The other was only two months..
 
Thanks, rarebear.

Actually, I've been using two 7200.11 drives without problems basically since they were released...and even before that, I've never had any problems with Seagate stuff. The current drive I'm using is a WD (250GB), but I'm just looking for a little more storage. I guess you could say I'm fairly confident with either brand here...no real bias either way.

The only drive I've ever had die on me is a Maxtor. Ugh.
 
The 7200.12 isn't a 7200.11 with new firmware. It's a new platter technology (density).

If you're not partial to either brand, and you're not scared off by the recent Seagate firmware debacle, I'd suggest figuring out $/GB on the best deal you can find on each drive from a reputable vendor (in case you get a bad one and have to return it) and buy the one that is cheapest per gigabyte.
 
Originally posted by: cjbee


The only drive I've ever had die on me is a Maxtor. Ugh.
Click to expand...

For the record, Maxtor are made by Seagate heh. I'm looking to buy and have been scanning the same drives myself though. Just had one of those Seagate failures. But I'm still somehow contemplating their newer drives.
 
I just got the Seagate 7200.12 500GB last week. I also considered the WD Black as an option. My previous drive was the 7200.10 and I must say that this one is much better. It runs cooler, more quiet (can't even be heard compared to my old one) and faster.

My decision really came down to already having a Seagate and I was just going to use Seagate's DiscWizard to clone from my old drive. They also have made these drives smaller than the previous versions. I know you said noise and temperature were not an issue, but it was for me so I'm happy with my decision.
 
Originally posted by: BaneSilvermoon
Originally posted by: cjbee


The only drive I've ever had die on me is a Maxtor. Ugh.
Click to expand...

For the record, Maxtor are made by Seagate heh. I'm looking to buy and have been scanning the same drives myself though. Just had one of those Seagate failures. But I'm still somehow contemplating their newer drives.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm aware of that...although the drive I had fail on me was older...from 2004, before Seagate's acquisition of the company.

Originally posted by: Blain
All the cool kids are running the WD Black drives. 😎
Click to expand...
Heh.

I ran the calculations last night...the $/GB is about the same on both of them...but is the performance better on one or the other or are we talking a difference so small that it's negligible in real-world situations?

*Edit...just saw your post, StarBlast...thanks!

 
I am thorougly happy with my WD 640GB black drive. I'd recommend it for its speed, quiet, low temps and low noise. I'm sure the Seagate is a fine drive, but I'd be wary of it just for the recent troubles even if logic tells me it's really a non issue. Amazing how consumer psychology works, eh?
 
Well, I ended up going with the Seagate...and the store I purchased it from had a sale going, so all in all, it ended up being about $40 cheaper than the WD would have been.
 
Originally posted by: LokutusofBorg
The 7200.12 isn't a 7200.11 with new firmware. It's a new platter technology (density).

If you're not partial to either brand, and you're not scared off by the recent Seagate firmware debacle, I'd suggest figuring out $/GB on the best deal you can find on each drive from a reputable vendor (in case you get a bad one and have to return it) and buy the one that is cheapest per gigabyte.
Click to expand...

that is the way to do it 🙂
 
all in all, you will hardly notice a difference in speed between the two drives.
benchmarks can only tell you so much
 
cjbee, can you run HD Tune's benchmark when you get the drive up and running?

I am curious about its performance.
 
FUD is fear uncertainty and doubt... a classic example of fud is "noone got fired for buying IBM" or "my programs might not be compatible with an AMD CPU", as a means to justify buying overpriced products that perform exactly the same. If anything seagate is selling overpriced harddrives via FUD on their competitors...
The seagate issue is a FACT, not FUD, there is no misinformation to scare consumers, the drives are genuinely defective, there is no "doubt" "uncertainty" or "Fear" about it.
 
Originally posted by: cjbee
Originally posted by: BaneSilvermoon
Originally posted by: cjbee


The only drive I've ever had die on me is a Maxtor. Ugh.
Click to expand...

For the record, Maxtor are made by Seagate heh. I'm looking to buy and have been scanning the same drives myself though. Just had one of those Seagate failures. But I'm still somehow contemplating their newer drives.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm aware of that...although the drive I had fail on me was older...from 2004, before Seagate's acquisition of the company.

Originally posted by: Blain
All the cool kids are running the WD Black drives. 😎
Click to expand...
Heh.

I ran the calculations last night...the $/GB is about the same on both of them...but is the performance better on one or the other or are we talking a difference so small that it's negligible in real-world situations?

*Edit...just saw your post, StarBlast...thanks!
Click to expand...

I've gone through 7200.8s, 7200.9s, 7200.10s, but not 7200.11s, but if you check it out Seagate has gone down in reliability. The 7200.7s were LEGENDARY in reliability. Remember how fast (slow) they were? Ever since they started competing in speed with WD very well, their reliability has slipped up. StorageReview's reliability survey shows it and I have experienced it too. No longer are Seagates the quietest and coolest.

The new WD Blacks are far cooler and even the Blues are sexy. I wonder why my old Raptor + 3x Seagates is now a Raptor + Blue + Black + 7200.10 system. I'd prefer cooler running drives in my computer if the performance is almost the same. Now if the 7200.11s blew the WD Black away then given my thirst for performance, I would still buy the 7200.11 even if it means slightly less reliable drives.

Overall, I would take past experiences and past data in the previous generation battle and apply it to the 7200.12. If you want THE fastest drive, the 7200.12 probably wins because no one is on the 500GB/platter competition yet. Until WD comes out with its challenging model, the 7200.12 is a generation ahead. However, given how the 7200.11 vs 1tb Black faced up, I would be inclined to wait... And unless the new Black drives totally fail against the 7200.12 in terms of performance (unlikely), I'll probably stick with WD.
 
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