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Help me pick between these hard drives

F

faumble

macrumors regular
Original poster
Quick question, need to decide, which of these hard drives is better? I will use it to save my daily work (storage, not boot drive)

WD 640
Seagate 750
Thanks in advance 🙂
JJ
 
Go with the Seagate. Much more reliable, and a very nice drive. It's also got more storage and a bigger cache.
 
Thanks, hadn't seen the difference on cache, by the way, what is cache for or how are the 32MB of segates beneficial?
also, Why is seagate more reliable? just read the WD has only 2 platters vs the 3 from seagate so I am guessing the WD might have a smaller chance of failing?
 
faumble said:
Thanks, hadn't seen the difference on cache, by the way, what is cache for or how are the 32MB of segates beneficial?
also, Why is seagate more reliable? just read the WD has only 2 platters vs the 3 from seagate so I am guessing the WD might have a smaller chance of failing?
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong but the bigger the cache, the more you can store (obviously) making the fetching of files, therefor the actual hard drive faster. The seagate is one of the best drives on the consumer market. I have an external with a barracuda inside and have been very pleased with it.
 
faumble said:
Quick question, need to decide, which of these hard drives is better? I will use it to save my daily work (storage, not boot drive)

WD 640
Seagate 750
Thanks in advance 🙂
JJ
Click to expand...


The WD is a great drive, the AAKS are very quick & quiet (I have 3), just for saving your daily work 16mb or 32mb cache won't really make a difference,
it really depends on the HDD size you want 640gb or 750gb ??
have a look at the Samsung f1 1tb HDD's they have 32mb cache too 😉

Telp said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but the bigger the cache, the more you can store
Click to expand...

The Cache is about the Read & Write time to the Disk, it's a buffer to reduce the number of times data has to be physically written and read from the hard disk platter. By retaining recent data in the cache, Increasing performance as this memory is much faster and saves time on keep recalling information, thats why even though the WD is 16mb it will be faster than the Seagate due to the fact it has less Platters, It's now 2, WD used to use 3, my 3x 500gb WD5000AAKS are triple platter and still very fast & quiet, not sure about Seagate nowadays, they used to use 4 platters, but hey it's all just numbers to the average outsider, my wife said i'm a geek for knowing this 😱
 
The Seagate has a five year warranty compared to the three year warranty of the Western Digital. I think it says a whole lot is Seagate can stand behind their drive and guaranty it for five whole years. The Western Digital is almost half that.

When purchasing a storage drive the number one thing you should be concerned about is reliability, then after that speed. A fast drive does you no good if it fails and you loose all your data.
 
That WD is faster, quieter and runs cooler than the Seagate. As far as Seagate standing behind their products, try dealing with their firmware issue on a Mac (If you don't have Windows installed, it is impossible).

The WD is a much better drive, all around.
 
I have 2 500GB WD's and 2 320GB Seagates in my MP. The smaller Seagates are running at 27C and 26C and the larger WD's are running at 24C and 23C. Not much difference. The WD's are quieter, but not by much.
 
I think the specs on barefeats and other sites argue that the 640 WD is faster. No one really knows if it'll be more reliable yet.
 
Definitely the WD 640. I have two of them and they are awesome. I've owned many WD drives over the years and have always been happy with them.
 
the 640 — and it's not even a fair fight. 640 uses less platters, produces less heat, less noise, AND is faster than the the 32mb cache seagates (and doesnt have the firmware issues seagate does). what else do you need to know?
 
big dainjerus said:
What do you think would be a better boot/app drive, a WD 640 or samsung 1 tb?

I am already planning on having 3 samsungs in bay 2, 3, and 4, but was wondering what would be the better boot drive.
Click to expand...
They're pretty close in performance -- I'd use the 6400AAKS just to save some money, as 1TB probably isn't necessary for a boot/apps drive. Can't go wrong either way with either of these drives.
 
It's the 640 WD for me, very quick and very quiet. Awesome boot drive but equally good for storage. I hope they bring out a 1TB 3 platter version, with 32Mb cache too. 😎
 
need some help with a hd external enclosure for one of these hds, there are so many to choose! and dont know anything about any of these brands.
having a fan is really helpful? I really dont know how to choose, am looking for recommendations I'm searching for something that has esata and either firewire or usb or both (is firewire substantially better than usb?)
these are some I found and think might be good
Macally
Vantec
Thermaltake
Rosewill
Bytech


Thanks in advance
JJ
 
What firmware issues? I have two samsung 750's in my MacPro. Other than having one Samsung 750 arrive DOA from Newegg, which they promptly replaced, they work fine. The Barefeats test appeared to like WD for some tests, other drives for other tests.

My impression is that both are good drives. I would go with whatever is less expensive or has some feature that is important to you. A five vs. three year warrantee is only an indication of the manufacturer's confidence in the drive. You will probably replace the drive with a better one before the expiration of the warrantee.
 
The WD640 is vastly superior to the 750 in every metric besides size. They use two 320 gig platters and it's faster than a Raptor by many benchmarks.

Don't forget to take off the jumper before installing it - that will increase your speed from 1.5 gigs to 3 gigs.
 
faumble said:
Quick question, need to decide, which of these hard drives is better? I will use it to save my daily work (storage, not boot drive)

WD 640
Seagate 750
Thanks in advance 🙂
JJ
Click to expand...

the 640, definitely. Its average transfer rate is near 145 MB/s. Ironically though, I'm looking to get a 640 for my boot drive and a 750 seagate for my Time Machine HD.
 
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