What is the best 2TB drive for under £70??

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 7 Oct 2011 at 15:15

I am looking for a replacement for my Samsung F2 1.5TB which I bought last year. Basically the SMART info is reporting the spin up time for the drive has dropped to around 61. The drive still seems fine but I think I will return it back to the DAS I had it in for secondary storage.

The drive has to be around the same speed at least,but more importantly I would prefer a drive which does not run too hot and is relatively quiet as it will be going in a SFF PC. Reliability is also important.

There is a 1.5TB 7200RPM Caviar Black HDD which I have seen but it seems to run very hot.

Davefran · 7 Oct 2011 at 15:21

Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 7 Oct 2011 at 18:12

Thanks for that! How do the other drives compare to the F4 and will it be a big improvement over an F2 in speed??

Surveyor · 7 Oct 2011 at 18:43

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Thanks for that! How do the other drives compare to the F4 and will it be a big improvement over an F2 in speed??

Just get a Samsung F4. It's the bees knees.

1.5TB Samsung F2:

2TB Samsung F4:

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 7 Oct 2011 at 18:53

Thanks!! The Samsung F4 looks pretty decent!!

What type of temperatures do you get for both drives?? BTW,what is the spin up count for your F2 and F4 drives?? I want to know as I am only getting 61 with my F2 with 800GB used.

Surveyor · 7 Oct 2011 at 19:00

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Thanks!! The Samsung F4 looks pretty decent!!

What type of temperatures do you get for both drives?? BTW,what is the spin up count for your F2 and F4 drives?? I want to know as I am only getting 61 with my F2 with 800GB used.

I can't tell you anything about the F2 as it's not my benchmark.

The F4 is mine but it's connected using a USB 3.0 dock so I don't get any SMART data from it.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 7 Oct 2011 at 19:08

Surveyor said:
I can't tell you anything about the F2 as it's not my benchmark.

The F4 is mine but it's connected using a USB 3.0 dock so I don't get any SMART data from it.

How quiet is it though?? The previous Samsung drives I have had have been quiet.

Surveyor · 7 Oct 2011 at 19:15

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
How quiet is it though?? The previous Samsung drives I have had have been quiet.

Very quiet.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 7 Oct 2011 at 20:52

Surveyor said:
Very quiet.

It looks a winner then!!

GoogalyMoogaly · 9 Oct 2011 at 00:28

I'm also looking for a drive like this to go in a NAS.
Which is better (I guess quieter and more reliable since the NAS will prevent speed being an issue) out of the Samsung F4 and the WD Caviar Green?

rarryawn · 9 Oct 2011 at 01:20

Seagate 2TB ST2000DL003 (140MB/s sequential and its very cheap!)

GoogalyMoogaly · 9 Oct 2011 at 01:33

Looks like I've managed to answer my own question. The WD Caviar Green and Seagate Green drives mentioned are note recommended for the NAS I was leaning towards (Qnap Turbo NAS TS-112).
The Samsung apparently has issues but there seems to be a patch (firmware update?) for it on the Qnap website.

InfiniteNoise · 9 Oct 2011 at 16:23

rarryawn said:
Seagate 2TB ST2000DL003 (140MB/s sequential and its very cheap!)

This.

I went from 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 to this, I'm glad I did, the F3 was annoying me to no end, it produced far too much vibration. (This seems to be a common issue)

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 17 Oct 2011 at 12:45

Is it possible,anyone can run HDTune 2.55 and CrystalDiskMark 3.01 on their F4 2TB please?? I am not sure about the scores I am getting!!

Tolmekian · 18 Oct 2011 at 08:43

Quick question, which drive will be better as purely a Steam games storage drive - the 1TB F3 or the 2TB F4?

I thought the F3 had the performance whilst the F4 had the eco features, although from what I've read before ordering the F4 is the suggested one?

If there's no actual noticeable difference when gaming then I'll get the F4 for the extra storage

OS is installed on a 64GB Crucial C300 and I'm currently using a WDCB 640GB for my media/steam drive but have run out of space

JTrickle · 18 Oct 2011 at 10:52

Surveyor said:
Very quiet.

From the S4 thread it seems that some have from the high vibration problem that the 7200rpm F3s do.

After suffering from an incredibly poor F3 for the last year I decided not to risk it and go for the fractionally cheaper Western Digital. The F3 has been hanging outside my case resting on foam on the carpet. Its not the pure noise, its the noise from the vibration thats the problem. I could have spent £30 on an anti vibration 5.25 bay enclosure... or just get round to ditching it completly for a 5200rpm drive.