Samsung F3

VeNT

VeNT

VeNT

Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2003
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Location
Cornwall
looking to get rid of my old slow hard disks (all 4) and get one nice big 1TB hard disk.
I'll leave the old ones in and maybe raid them up and make a little backup but I want something fast fast fast!
I can't afford a SSD and I need more than 750GB to start with, is the F3 THE DRIVE to go with or should I go for another?
also is there any difference between the F1, F2 and F3 drives?
 
Yes, it's the quickest regualr drive. F1 is an older 333GB platter version and F2 is the 5400rpm version.

Bear in mind that spreading the load over disks makes things a lot better than a faster single disk much of the time. Extracting from one drive to another is far faster, pagefile on another disk, downloading to another etc. The drive can only do one thing at a time so if you're trying to read or write multiple things at once or doing something that does both it'll thrash about.
 
F1 = old model. Quietest, but not the fastest.
F2 = new model but more aimed at energy efficiency than outright speed.(Runs at 5400rpm).
F3 = Newest and fastest. 7200rpm version of the F2.

Note: As the F1 uses less dense platters it will be slower at same RPM- hence why the F3 is faster. So a F2 with 5400rpm will be similar to a F1 with a speed of 7200rpm- however it will still be slower.
 
As an owner of both an F1 and F3 I can say the F3 is considerably faster and would definitely say to go for it.

With regards to your old drives, I would recommend something like the Antec Easy SATA to allow you to use them only when needed and swap between them.

In my PC the older hard drives run at considerably higher temps than my Samsungs.

The Seagate and Wastern Digitals I have run at arount 45c. The Samsungs in the same place on my case run around 35c.

So you will reduce case heat if you removed them and only used when you needed.

There is no real point in RAIDing (if you meant for speed) as you will only be using them as storage drives and nobody needs fast storage drives, just fast boot drives for the OS.
 
Also went for the F3 as storage drive. I used to have an F1 and the F3 is significantly faster. I have found it to be quiet, and idles in the low 30's after the computer has been switched on for long periods. The other alternative is the Caviar Black which have a longer warranty. Sequential r/w faster on the F3 though making it perhaps more suityable as a storage drive. If you plan to run apps from it, the WD may be the better choice. As Anth said I don't see much point of RAID for the storage scenario, unless of course you think you'll need more than 1 TB capacity. You could always recycle the old drives on a cheap controller or external caddy and make them part of a backup strategy.
 
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