Samsung F4 2TB Drive any good ?

Just checked and we're talking about different drive ranges.

There's the F4 and there's also the F4EG. Looking at the specs there are significant differences between them. I would have been nice if they’d chosen names that’d differentiate them more easily.

I hadn't even realised that the F4EG was available. I'm in the market for some big drives, so I'll be keeping my eye on this thread.

Just realised that EG presumably stands for EcoGreen.
 
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Just some questions on the F4

Q1 Would a 3 platter be faster than a 4 platter drive ? or have better performance.
Q2 Would the drive be more reliable ?
Q3 would it be quieter
Q4 and would it produce less heat
Q5 what about buffer as this is 32mb and the other drives now have 64mb does this matter and if so why

i have 1 2TB F3 and was woundeirng if this drive would be better?

thanks
 
Cache size makes no difference, it'll be a little faster but since it's a 5400rpm storage disk it's not really important. I'd buy one over a 4 platter drive but it's not an upgrade.
 
It's not an upgraded I am after another 2tb drive as my other one is full and wanted to know what the advantages are of the new f4 over the f3 and if it's better to go for the f4

Can anyone help on the above Questions

thanks
 
Meridiusuk said:
Just some questions on the F4

Q1 Would a 3 platter be faster than a 4 platter drive ? or have better performance.
Q2 Would the drive be more reliable ?
Q3 would it be quieter
Q4 and would it produce less heat
Q5 what about buffer as this is 32mb and the other drives now have 64mb does this matter and if so why

i have 1 2TB F3 and was woundeirng if this drive would be better?

thanks
Click to expand...

1) providing they are running at the same rpm and are the same total storage then yes
2) yes providing they are running at the same rpm
3) possibly
4) yes
5) it doesn't matter too much after 32MB at the moment, maybe a few MB/s
 
Just some hypothetical answers on the F4:-

A1) A 3 platter drive will potentially be faster than a 4 platter drive and have better performance in sequential read/writes, however seek times may be slower. Please note that this is comparing drives of the same speed (5400 RPM for the F4EG) and TBH the actual difference in performance will be so close as to probably not be noticeable.
A2) The drive would theoretically (I seem to remember Samsung using the word 'statistically' when advertising previous drives) be more reliable but in practice this may not be so. AFAIK HDD manufacturers are very protective over failure rates, so actual statistics are hard to find.
A3) It should be quieter, but probably not so much as you'd notice.
A4) It should produce less heat but as the difference will probably only be a few degrees, I don't see how this matters.
A5) Cache size between 32mb and 64mb would make no noticeable difference.
A6) An un-asked question answered ;). The F4EG should be more power efficient too, if left on 24/7 for 365 days compared to an F3EG you may save enough to buy a cheap can of beer :eek:... or not :(.

To sum up, if you're after a new storage drive because your old one is full then it makes sense to buy the F4EG instead of the F3EG, unless it's noticeably more expensive.

You could always wait for reviews though :D.
 
I've bought two - and one of them is faulty. Not a great start.

Here's some quick benchmarks for the working drive -

hd204uicdm.png


hd204uihdtuner.png
 
redballoon said:
I've bought two - and one of them is faulty. Not a great start.

Here's some quick benchmarks for the working drive -

hd204uicdm.png


hd204uihdtuner.png
Click to expand...

Interesting. I bought 2 WD Caviar Green's 2TB's from OCUK recently. What people don't realise is WD have been shipping the Greens with 667GB platters since late May (model WD20EARS-00MVWB0). I will run the same bench as above to compare.
 
What was wroung with the faulty drive ? I have a f3 2tb that is faulty but works as mine sounds like a bearings problem as the sound goes away after 2 min this is the reason I am sending it back

I bought s f4 2tb to back the data onto that before I send the f3 back.

Them specs above is that good for a drive. ?
 
redballoon said:
hd204uicdm.png


hd204uihdtuner.png
Click to expand...

I just ran the same benchmark on my drives from comparison. Only did HDTune for Caviar green and Caviar black as trying to decide if Samsung can replace these.

WD Caviar Green 2TB
Model : WD20EARS=00MVWB0, 667GB per platter
http://vr-zone.com/articles/667gb-p...l-caviar-green-2tb-wd20ears-00mvwb0/9335.html





WD Caviar Black 2TB




WD Velociraptor 600GB X 2 Striped in Windows 7. I use these for gaming.



Crucial C300 256GB (using Intel RST SATA 2 driver). OS and Apps drive.


Considering just the 3 platter designs, it looks like the Samsung beats the WD hands down. It's faster in every area almost (except maybe burst mode), and has a lower access time and higher sustained transfer rates. The WD Caviar Black though a 4 platter design still has the fastest sustained rates and access times. They are a little noisy and can cause resonance in my case. I used HD Tune Pro to put them into quiet mode but access times and performance went to hell. Still as I only use my Blacks for Storage and access to Media streaming I wonder would be better off with the Samsungs. Will order some I think and give it a try.

One last thing, when I had 2 2TB Caviar Blacks in my 800D actively cooled they would both read 45 degrees according to HD Tune. Removing 1 of the 2TB blacks and replacing it with a Green dropped the max temp of the Black to 39 degrees and the Green maxed out at 35 degrees. Interestingly the Green does not go over 32 degrees in a passively cooled enclosure, implying those blacks put out a lot of heat which affect other drives. Even the sticker on the C300 SSD has started to shrivel and come loose. I think these Samsungs might be a good idea.
 
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Meridiusuk said:
What was wroung with the faulty drive ? I have a f3 2tb that is faulty but works as mine sounds like a bearings problem as the sound goes away after 2 min this is the reason I am sending it back
Click to expand...

Well, it's not totally dead but it's barely working.
Windows 7 came up with a message saying that the drive was about to fail minutes after initializing it. Can't format it either, it just hangs and vanishes from the list of hard drives after making clicking noises. During POST it's listed as having an error.
 
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