Recommend a 1.5TB

[watchthisspace]

I'm in the market for a 1.5TB hard drive as my current 500 and 750 are full.

What would be better out of Seagate, Samsung or Westerndigital?

The main purpose is just storing media, which is recorded tv shows, music etc..

[nd4spdbh2]

IMO steer clear on seagate... their hd quality has gone downhill over the past year or so... lots of probs with the 7200.11's no clue on the .12's but they dont preform as good as WD's offerings.

[BossBorot]

avoid the Seagate 7200.11 other then that any will do.

You should avoid the Seagate 7200.11 because not only does it have a bad track record, even though it was corrected enough for me to buy a few, but it also should consume more power over the lifetime of the drive because its smaller platter size and higher RPM.

For storing media you want a green/low power drive with a platter density of 500gb. Certain 1.5tb Western Digital drives shipping now are 500gb/platter and all versions are green but you have to read around to make sure you are getting the newer ones. The Samsung F2 has 500gb/platter and is also green. As for Seagate they just launched the LP (low power) line which is biased on the 7200.12 which so far has a good track record and also fits the 500gb/platter and green standing of the other drives.

Basically beyond avoiding the Seagate 7200.11 I would go with whichever is cheapest or whichever brand you have the best track record with in the past if the price is close enough.

[BossBorot]

IMO steer clear on seagate... their hd quality has gone downhill over the past year or so... lots of probs with the 7200.11's no clue on the .12's but they dont preform as good as WD's offerings.

although your statement on speed is true for 7200.12 vs 7200 RPM Western Digital drives it does not hold true at the 1.5tb size. Western Digital currently does not have a 7200 RPM drive of that size and Seagate's LP line, which runs at 5900 RPM, consistently beats Western Digitals green lineup unless you toss the much more expensive RE4 in the mix

[Marshmallow64]

Western Digital Green is a good brand. Low power consumption and quite inexpensive.

[watchthisspace]

I really like the look of this: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=575

But does the slower spindle speed matter when transferring stuff or streaming?

[BossBorot]

doesn't matter in the slightest for streaming. As for transferring it does affect transfer rates but not if you are passing info to the drives over gigabit to another computer.

Basically it will take longer to add new files to the drive vs a 7200rpm drive if you are transferring internally but if you are transferring externally then speeds will be the same. Also the speed loss vs 7200rpm isnt worth moving the the only 7200rpm 1.5tb drive the seagate 7200.11

also transfer rates are only a bit slower internally the difference isn't an order of magnitude or anything

[watchthisspace]

Then I have found my new hard drive :D

Thank you everyone for all your help!

[ou_phidelt]

I have two of the troubled Seagates and haven't had any issues but I wouldn't buy another, there just wasn't any other option at the time. My recommendation would be the Samsung 1.5TB 5400RPM drive. The performance will be similar to the WD at a much cheaper price. Newegg has them for 2/$200 saving you $60 over the WD's.

[grishenko45]

generally the highter capacity of a hdd (over 1tb) the slower they are - unless your talking about a samsung 1tb - which are the fasts hdd out there - why not get 2 750gb samsung spinpoint f1's??? then put them in a raid config - thats a lot faster that a 1.5 tb hdd...

[neonblingbling]

The main purpose is just storing media, which is recorded tv shows, music etc..
why not get 2 750gb samsung spinpoint f1's??? then put them in a raid config - thats a lot faster that a 1.5 tb hdd...
Usually people don't need fast storage, but rather have reliable storage...

Also, I haven't heard much about drives larger than 1TB are slower than those smaller than 1TB, could you please post a link to a benchmark? :)