SOLVED New Hard Drive to replace the one that got FRIED!

[Nibiru2012]

I'm sure most of you remember last week or so when that "whatever it was" got into my system and took it down hard, even crashing my internal secondary hard drive.

Found a new one today on eBay (Yes Cliff, I know you don't like eBay but this was a "one of kind deal" that I couldn't pass up.) for $41 plus $5 shipping. I won the auction. BUT first I did my homework on this little puppy.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 16 MB cache, 1 platter only. When Samsung announced this drive, when new, as the “WD Black series killer”.

That statement in itself is one that really got me curious about this HDD. It also has average read and write speeds of over 110MB/s ! Again VERY impressive.

Here are some tests and benchmarks I found from a review at InsideHW.com:

Here's the HD Tune Pro v3.5 READ Benchmark test.

Here's the WRITE Benchmark test.

This is the ATTO Disk Benchmark

So after all is said and done, this is one HELL of a ROCKIN' hard drive! Most other e-tailers are selling it for anywhere from $59.95 to over $80 plus shipping.

I think the HDD gods were with me on this baby. With speeds like this I'm going to make it my primary drive and make my other Samsung HD502IJ my secondary drive.

Should have by the end of next week.

NOTE: I would like to thank InsideHW.com for the review and benchmark captures.


This is a very interesting statement from the review

This Spinpoint F3 model can be compared even with newest ultra-fast WD Raptor that has lower access times that allows it to have slightly higher transfer rates. Interesting detail when it comes to Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ is the fact that write speeds were always higher than read speeds which is the phenomena that we encountered for the first time.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Found a new one today on eBay (Yes Cliff, I know you don't like eBay but this was a "one of kind deal" that I couldn't pass up.)

:lol:
Why should I complain if you are satisfied with your purchase.

 

[Mychael]

I was aware that Samsung drives were around but are they relatively new in the HDD market.?

 

[catilley1092]

The hard drive in my laptop is a Samsung, I don't know if it's the original. If it is, it's five years old.

Nibiru, there's a 1TB drive of the same series (Spinpoint F3, 32MB) up for bid now. It's currently at $41, but that will go up.

 

[AK762]

Samsung drives are a poor choice; they are loud and run relatively hot. I would only consider Seagate for my hard drive purchases now - cheap and quiet. Hopefully that drive isn't used. As for performance, all hard drives are roughly the same if they are built within the same period, that's why virtually all modern hard drives receive a WEI of 5.9 unless they are really old and decrepit. Anyway, I would never purchase Samsung anymore.

 

[Fire cat]

I have 3 samsung drives, and they're great! They have loads of storage with high speeds while keeping silent and cool.

They're pretty long lasting too. In other words, Samsung drives rock! Very good choice Niburu!

I'm going to buy the "Samsung 1 TB Spinpoint 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.5 inch Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive HD103SJ" with an enclosure. 300mb/s! WOW!
Definitly going to store all data on it, might even conect it to my home network.

 

[Nibiru2012]

AK762 -

Samsung drives are a poor choice; they are loud and run relatively hot.

Apparently you didn't read the review, sigh. I have 2 Samsung HDD currently and they're the quietest hard drives I have ever owned, so you're mistaken again.

From the review:

When it comes to vibrations and noise levels that Samsung Spinpoint F3 produces we must admit that this is one of the quietest hard drives that we encountered, which are great news. Until now we accepted Raptor noise levels as something that comes with territory and high transfer rates, but after Samsung Spinpoint F3 - no more.

Regarding the heat factor, my two Samsung drives usually run around 23 - 26 Celesius, so you're mistaken again. Also, my Western Digital run 7-8 Celsius warmer than my Samsung drives.

From the review:

Only area where Samsung offered average performances is heating up. It is not getting unpleasantly hot so it cannot be held with bare hands, neither it is warm as WD Raptor with Ice Pack, but rather somewhere in the golden mean where most other HDDs can be also found.

No, the drive is not used, it was advertised as "brand new, in factory packaging".

Regarding WEI scores, 5.9 is the best any platter drives are getting. One must own an SSD to get higher scores.

Oh, by the way, thanks for your positive, uplifting comments... again.


@Cat -

Nibiru, there's a 1TB drive of the same series (Spinpoint F3, 32MB) up for bid now. It's currently at $41, but that will go up.

I bought the F3 1TB 32MB cache drive about three weeks ago at eBay for $59 w/free shipping. Another good purchase in my opinion. Thanks for the heads up though. :top:

 

[Nibiru2012]

Got the drive on Wednesday and it works great!

Here's a Snagit capture of the HD Tune Pro Benchmark section:

Pretty Decent Specs if you ask me, I forgot to turn off Folding@Home, so I think that's why the CPU usage is so high.

Read Speeds are comparable too!

 

[Veedaz]

Samsung HDDs are recognised as one of the better makes (Ive had a few over the years and they last for bloody years ! )

 

[Mychael]

Still cant beat the WD drives with 5yr warranty. I had a look at the website for the retailer where I mostly get my stuff. Pricing for the Samsung drives seems competitive with other brands,

 

[Nibiru2012]

WD may have better warranty, but they always run hotter that my Samsung dirves. About 6-8 Celsius hotter.

Three versus five year warranty... that's not a big deal for me.

Samsung is extremely competitive with other other brands for sure.

 

[Mychael]

What means do you use for measuring drive temps? Is that a feature on newer HDD or something special you've set up yourself?

 

[clifford_cooley]

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology)

Any software that is programed to monitor hard drives can report the temperature.

 

[catilley1092]

There's nothing wrong with Samsung drives, the 100GB one in my notebook has ran nearly non stop for almost two months now. There was a time that the notebook was so hot that it burned my leg, waking me up. So as to those who feels that Samsung drives are no good, think again. They can go through hell and back and still keep running fine.

As to whether Samsung or WD is the better drive, time will tell for me, I have two of them, a Caviar Blue (320GB) and a 750GB Caviar Black. I do not intend to put my desktop through what my notebook has endured, so I can't say who is better. But I can say that both are well built drives with a solid reputation behind them, so you can't go wrong either way.

Cat

 

[Nibiru2012]

What means do you use for measuring drive temps? Is that a feature on newer HDD or something special you've set up yourself?

Just use S.I.W. - System Info for Windows. It's free and shows everything about your hardware, software, network connection, ex-wife, mother-in-law, etc.

Download it here: http://www.gtopala.com/download/siw-setup.exe

Try it... you'll like it!
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My new Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB Hard Drive is running smoothly and is very fast. If I do say so myself... it was an excellent purchase.

I'm a Happy Camper now, time for S'Mores!!

 

[TrainableMan]

The two platter 1TB spinpoint F3 HD103SJ is on sale this weekend at Newegg for $59.99. It is $15 off their price and $5 off the best price I could find elsewhere. I just bought one 2 weeks ago for $64.99 price and it is perfectly quiet and relatively cool - it is sitting here in my Thermaltake esata Blacx right now. I may pick up one or two more, maybe put one at my brother's house for backups.

 

[catilley1092]

A good freeware drive monitor is Acronis Drive Monitor, developed by the same company as the well known Acronis True Image. In fact, when you register for the download, you're given the option to download a free trial of Acronis True Image Home 2010.

The monitor alerts you to high drive temps, warns you of possible data loss situations, gives you a complete list of your drive specs, hours (or days) powered on, and backup reminders (assuming that you're using an Acronis product).

It can be found at:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/drive-monitor/

Hope that this is a useful app to suit your drive monitoring needs. It has worked well for me.

PS: Since I downloaded the product, the version of the backup software has been updated to Acronis True Image 2011.

Cat

 

[Nibiru2012]

The two platter 1TB spinpoint F3 HD103SJ is on sale this weekend at Newegg for $59.99.

I bought one of those back in April. I got it for $69 w/free shipping at eBay. Best price I could find at the time.

I would definitely jump on the chance to get another one, but I need to get a new DECT 6.0 cordless phone set and a PCI-E eSATA Dual Port card for my JBOD case.

Both should run about $35 total at eBay. I am watching a couple of really good deals at the moment.

 

[TrainableMan]

I installed one of the SATA to ESATA adapters in mine. It just runs 2 Motherboard sata connections to a bracket over an unused PCI slot but I had the SATA slots to spare.

 

[catilley1092]

I get Newegg's emails too, I tried to resist the purchase, but it was just too tempting to turn away from it. The Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ is on it's way to me. I just ordered it thirty minutes ago, with the discount, it was a total of $59.99.

I wished that this drive was available when I bought the WD Caviar Black (750GB) a few months ago. I've never owned a TB sized drive of any kind.

What has happened is this. I bought a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent backup drive, not long ago, and thought that it would be all that I would ever need. Man, was I wrong. That drive is full, 400GB of the Caviar Black has been partitioned as a backup one, too. The rest of the drive, I run Linux on it.

When I purchased that drive, I intended for it to be my main drive, it was advertised as "cool & quiet", but it's been everything but that. From day one, there was a slight rumbling, I thought I knocked something loose while installing it. Also, where the drive is, I could feel the case and it was much warmer than the 320GB stock Caviar Blue, which is much quieter & cooler than the Caviar Black is. So I simply put it into my drive case, and made extra backup storage, as well three Linux partitions.

Personally, I feel as though either I was a victim of false advertising, or the Caviar Black is simply overrated. The ad stated cool & quiet, as well as fast. While it's not a slowpoke, I see it as no faster than the OEM provided Caviar Blue that I reinstalled just a month after removing it. It runs noticeably warmer, and isn't quiet by any stretch of the imagination. However, it does make a good extra backup drive.

Hopefully, the Samsung drive will be a more satisfying one for my use, I intend for it to be my main drive. I can't afford to keep accumulating backup drives. Specially priced or not, I expect a top rated drive to run cool & quiet. I can't even hear my OEM Caviar Blue drive running during operation. I hope that the Samsung turns out the same.

Cat