Spec me 1/2 TB HDD

PwnDirect

PwnDirect

PwnDirect

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So at the moment I've got 120 SDD & 500gb storage drive
But with the size of stuff these days 500gb isnt enough!.

So in the market for a good performing 1/2tb drive for my games, movies, music etc.

less than £100 preferred but if the best things £110 etc ill stretch

Although there are a lot of new designs or remodels theres no reviews or roundups, as there all focused on 3/4tb drives or SDD's :(
 
The Seagate 2tb Barracudas are pretty good. I've been impressed by how quiet and cool they run, and they are cheap at about £70-80. They are on offer right now at OCUK.
 
Well as I expected my research has lead me into a dark & strange world :eek:

While the seagates review well, There is two issues, the first is Platter gate Basicly same model number but one version has 3 platters the other 2 only way to tell is to check the top notch right side of the hard drive. Not sure if this is still an issue or if they were just using up old stock parts.:eek:

Second is the noises some make unless you carry out a firmware update.


Am leaning towards the WD10EZEX WD Blue 1TB single-platter drive, Massive thread of overclock.net, detailing how good they are & how they are in fact faster than the blacks in all aspects bar access time due to newer design :confused:
 
PwnDirect said:
Well as I expected my research has lead me into a dark & strange world :eek:

While the seagates review well, There is two issues, the first is Platter gate Basicly same model number but one version has 3 platters the other 2 only way to tell is to check the top notch right side of the hard drive. Not sure if this is still an issue or if they were just using up old stock parts.:eek:

Second is the noises some make unless you carry out a firmware update.
Click to expand...

OCUK specify they sell the two platter drives (1TB per platter), and that's what I got. If they send you something else, you can send it back as not what was advertised.

It runs some different firmware that doesn't have an update at Seagate, so maybe they've made those changes to keep the noise low and shipped new drives in that state. These drives I got last week are massively quieter than the 7200.11 and 7200.12 they replaced.
 
I think I've figured out how Seagate made these drives so quiet. I think they've pulled a fast one by forcing on the acoustic control. While this makes the drives very quiet, it is doubling their seek time. I can't get anything under 15ms in HD Tune , and they are supposed to be specced at 8.5ms. Can anyone confirm the kinds of seek times they are getting? I've tried in both single drive and RAID, on both SATA2 and SATA3 interfaces.

A lot of people complained about noisy drives and wanted Seagate to make a utility to adjust acoustic control, so I think Seagate did this new firmware that forces it on, hence no firmware update on their website.
 
Does the WD Black 1TB have a single platter too, or just the WD Blue? The Black appeals to me more because of the better warranty.
 
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