Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
A poll for who makes the best hard drive for the Mac Pro
- Thread starter krye
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Of course, everything mechanical will fail eventually. It just seems crazy to me that there is no industry leader when it comes to hard drives. They are one of the most important components in a computer and it just seems crazy to me that one isn't any better than the other.
After reading the back and forth on this thread it has been quite apparent that one brand is no better or no worse than the other. From the poll it would seem that Seagate and Western Digital are neck and neck, but I wonder how many people are fans of Western Digital because the startup drive that came with the Mac Pro is a Western Digital.
Apple mostly uses WD's, FUJITSU, toshiba and hitachi in their computers, FUJITSU and toshiba in their laptops mostly, and hitachi in the laptops and imacs. though its realy WD, they use it across the line, but less commonly in their notebooks, so really the imac and mac pro (mac mini is a notebook really), but apple also sells seagates in their macs, but due to their higher price, its not common, and if you have a mac with a Seagate, you're lucky to be as one of the few, and usually the Seagate's are better, but run really hot. And the seagate's apple put in their imacs are faster than the WD's, take it from someone whose seen both, a WD in my friends, a Seagate in mine.
It's sort of disheartening to see a poll that's quite this stupid... I mean, even back when Macs were still basically Macintoshes instead of Mactels (Pre-x86 architecture), this would have been pretty ****ing stupid. But now that they're basically just PCs in Mac cases.. this is a whole new level of stupidity.
You an take any hard drive in the world and put it in a Mac. Always could. You don't live in a microcosmic little world; the best drive is the best drive, period ;x
You an take any hard drive in the world and put it in a Mac. Always could. You don't live in a microcosmic little world; the best drive is the best drive, period ;x
I had a Western Digital die on me shortly after I purchased it. I cringe at having the stock Western Digital in my new Mac Pro and don't think I would buy their brand again. I have had several Maxtor hard drives, none of which had ever failed on me. But I guess there is someone out there that has had enough Maxtor hard drives fail that they would never buy another... guess it really is a crap shoot.
But consider that each line is the product of a huge corporation with immense resources striving to push the envelope of modern technology. Even if one achieves some sort of breakthrough, the others will imitate it.
It wasn't so long ago Seagate, I believe, was really making news with perpendicular hard drive technology, high speed and capacities of 750 gigabytes & later 1 terabyte. Now, you get fast 750 gig & 1 terabyte drives from a range of vendors.
It stands to reason that there will be slight-to-modest differences in failure rates & varied types of data throughput between models, but who's going to do the large-scale comparison runs for several months or a few years to determine those subtle differences, when the models being studied will be out-dated old news by the time the results are in?
Richard.
Call me lucky. My Mac Pro was delivered with a Barracuda. I've since added 3 750GB Samsung F1s.
This has nothing to do with Mac or PC, is has to do with me finding out who is the industry leader for hard drives. Levis makes the best Jeans, Nike makes the best sneakers, Sony makes the best Walkman. Who makes the best hard drive? Nothing is created equal. And when there is no equality, someone has to be the best. You missed the whole point.
The poll is, I'm afraid, rather meaningless. All of the manufacturers you mention have, at some point, produced a batch of duff hard drives, but problems are, in general, rare.
No one company 'makes the best hard drive', and no amount of wishing it was so is going to change that.
Examine the specs and buy whatever gives you the size and performance you require at the best price.
No one company 'makes the best hard drive', and no amount of wishing it was so is going to change that.
Examine the specs and buy whatever gives you the size and performance you require at the best price.
It's funny how you all still voted for who you think it the best anyway. That may just a feel good measure, backed by nothing but a popular vote. To tell you the truth, that's probably better than anything you'll read in the spec sheets.
When I looked into 1TB drives for the Mac Pro, there were pros and cons of each one. The Samsung sounded like the fastest but some people had compatibility/reliability issues, Seagate seem to be having some drive issues recently which put me off, Western Digital seemed to be best if you want one that is energy efficient and produces less heat, Hitachi is an older design but generally quite reliable and moderately fast. In my case, I already had 2 Hitachi drives which I use as my main drives for OS and scratch (one was DOA...) and the latest was the WD Green Power for backup - high speed wasn't so important for that, and if it generates less heat hopefully the fans will run slower and make the computer quieter. To summarise: I don't think there is a 'best' - it depends what your priorities are.
But I voted because the poll question reads:
I don't know the Samsung to be 'better;' I have some justification to think it might be, and with little differentiation between lines, that was good enough.
But I don't presume that it IS better than, say, a Seagate or Hitachi.
Richard.
True. I'm just looking for a popular vote. It's like they say, 100 people can't be wrong.
My MacPro came with a WD 320GB drive, it did 14th on the Geekbench overall stats, I added 2 Seagate 1tb 7500 11's and took 5th place overall with Geekbench.
They run at about 85 degrees which is on parity with the WD 320 according to IStat. I just ordered another Seagate last night as well as a WD RaptorX 150 GB to boot with. I will run geekbench once again & see which is faster when they get here.
The Seagates have been super quiet which is cool because I record my acoustic guitars with Soundtrack Pro.
Hoping the WD Raptor helps a bit more with startup & access times.
Will let you know.
They run at about 85 degrees which is on parity with the WD 320 according to IStat. I just ordered another Seagate last night as well as a WD RaptorX 150 GB to boot with. I will run geekbench once again & see which is faster when they get here.
The Seagates have been super quiet which is cool because I record my acoustic guitars with Soundtrack Pro.
Hoping the WD Raptor helps a bit more with startup & access times.
Will let you know.
well that's just incorrect.
no hard drive BRAND is better than any other...at least not for any reasonable amount of time.
3-4 years ago, Seagate was king. Then maxtor had one last good series of drives before fading into mediocrity (and eventually being bought).
Then WD put out a nice line of drives and seagate made a couple of not-so-great drives that tarnished their reputation.
hitachi has usually been floating around in the middle of the pack and never really stood out as particularly good or bad.
samsung has recently become quite well-thought-of because of their F1 series drives, which are fast, quiet, big, and cheap. Not a bad combination. They seem to have trouble with some PC motherboard chipsets, but not Intel, so Macs are fair game for them, which is why you see so many people here saying they bought a couple or a few 750 GB F1 drives (I did, too).
I think the important lesson with hard drives is that you shouldn't expect today's best hard drive to be the best one when the next generation comes out...and you have to be willing to abandon brand loyalty if you want the best from a particular generation...
no hard drive BRAND is better than any other...at least not for any reasonable amount of time.
3-4 years ago, Seagate was king. Then maxtor had one last good series of drives before fading into mediocrity (and eventually being bought).
Then WD put out a nice line of drives and seagate made a couple of not-so-great drives that tarnished their reputation.
hitachi has usually been floating around in the middle of the pack and never really stood out as particularly good or bad.
samsung has recently become quite well-thought-of because of their F1 series drives, which are fast, quiet, big, and cheap. Not a bad combination. They seem to have trouble with some PC motherboard chipsets, but not Intel, so Macs are fair game for them, which is why you see so many people here saying they bought a couple or a few 750 GB F1 drives (I did, too).
I think the important lesson with hard drives is that you shouldn't expect today's best hard drive to be the best one when the next generation comes out...and you have to be willing to abandon brand loyalty if you want the best from a particular generation...