Samsung F1 vs WD Caviar blue 320GB

para08 · 7 Aug 2008 at 23:52

ocuk say the new 320GB F1 will be arriving here in the next couple of days, just wondered if anyone knows if it'll be the same performance as WD's 320GB.

i want to get 2 but cant decide which brand to go for or whether i should just go for one of each, does it really matter? is there much difference?. thanks

samsung: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-057-SA

western: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-130-WD

clocka · 8 Aug 2008 at 00:10

samsung f1 320gb is faster, the WD drive is slowed down because OEM manufacturers wanted the drive quieter to put in their desktop systems so go with the samsung f1, the seek time is much better.

Slackworth · 8 Aug 2008 at 00:19

The WD is slower unless Samsung have changed their firmware on this new batch and broke the nice fast transfer times. I guess we'll soon know

clocka · 8 Aug 2008 at 00:37

do hdtach and hdtune tests when you get stock slackworth

Undecided whether to get 2 * 320GB samsung f1, 2 * 250GB WD RE3, 2 * 320GB WD RE3. Depends on the speed and the price of the 320GB WD RE3 as ocuk are charging way too much but not many places have the 320gb version yet. Wanna see full reviews of the RE3 drives too, not just hdtune and hdtach screens.

flamey · 8 Aug 2008 at 01:15

My WD is faster than my F1 - the OEM status is irrelevant, you can easily change this using certain (dos) programs. For reference, my access went from 16.5ms to 12.2ms.
The F1 sits at 13.5ms, on the whole there is not much noticeable difference though.

clocka · 8 Aug 2008 at 01:23

what program changes the speeds as 1 guy tried 2 apps a few days ago in a thread and neither worked.

flamey · 8 Aug 2008 at 01:33

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

The hitachi tool works fine, just boot it up in dos and adjust the acoustic management (254 for best performance iirc).
Some windows programs indeed do offer such functionality (hdtune pro for example) but don't always work, in which case something more low-level is needed.

clocka · 8 Aug 2008 at 01:47

the guy tried the hitachi tool but it didnt work on his WD 320gb. I'll look for the thread tomorrow. Also you lose your warranty if you do this

clocka · 8 Aug 2008 at 16:04

slackworth, have you heard back from WD about whether the 74gb raptor uses a 150gb platter and if the RE3 drives are black drives but optimised for raid and that both the 250gb and 320gb drives use 320gb platters?

thanks.

para08 · 8 Aug 2008 at 16:05

ok thanks everyone, samsung it is

Slackworth · 8 Aug 2008 at 16:27

clocka said:
do hdtach and hdtune tests when you get stock slackworth

Undecided whether to get 2 * 320GB samsung f1, 2 * 250GB WD RE3, 2 * 320GB WD RE3. Depends on the speed and the price of the 320GB WD RE3 as ocuk are charging way too much but not many places have the 320gb version yet. Wanna see full reviews of the RE3 drives too, not just hdtune and hdtach screens.

Shouldn't be too much of a problem! I've knocked a little bit of dosh off the 320GB RE3 drive.

clocka said:
slackworth, have you heard back from WD about whether the 74gb raptor uses a 150gb platter and if the RE3 drives are black drives but optimised for raid and that both the 250gb and 320gb drives use 320gb platters?

thanks.

I will post in the other thread for the sake of keeping this one tidy.