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I need an internal 1TB hard drive.

M

MegaMillions

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 1, 2009
243
0
My 500GB startup disk is filling up, and i'd like to replace it with a 1TB drive.

Hitachi has an enterprise class 1TB drive for $197, and a "lesser" 1TB drive for $89. What's the difference? Is the enterprise class worth the difference in price?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0A38016/

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0A35772/

Also, any other recommendations for other models/companies?

Edit: I notice that Seagate has a 1.5TB drive for $147. It's a 7200.11. I remember that the 7200.9 drives had a firmware clash issue with the Mac Pro. Has that issue been fixed? Do the latest seagate drives run at full speed in the Mac Pros? I think i'll go with the Seagate drive if that's the case.

Edit 2: There's also a Seagate 7200.12 available from newegg. I don't know what to choose! Hitachi enterprise class? Seagate 7200.11? Seagate 7200.12? Seagate ES-2? Currently I have a 500GB Maxtor w/16mb cache as my startup disk and other than the capacity, I have no complaints. Which drive should I get?
 
wpc33 said:
I'm pretty sure you need a SAS setup to use Enterprise-Class drives, no?
Click to expand...

Oh. Haha. See, I had no idea what "Enterprise-Class" meant. It just sounded fancy and was more expensive... :eek:

Which drive would you recommend? I'd love to get the Seagate 7200.12 but there's mixed reviews about it. A lot of people say it's amazing, but others say that seagate has issues.
 
MegaMillions said:
Oh. Haha. See, I had no idea what "Enterprise-Class" meant. It just sounded fancy and was more expensive... :eek:

Which drive would you recommend? I'd love to get the Seagate 7200.12 but there's mixed reviews about it. A lot of people say it's amazing, but others say that seagate has issues.
Click to expand...

Not sure about that Enterprise - SAS link. If Hitachi's Enterprise class is like WD's RE3, or Seagate's ES2, they use the same connector. But as far as I know, you don't gain anything by using these types of drive outside of a RAID. So if you're planning to use them as regular drives, don't bother paying extra.

As for which brand to choose, WD's Black Caviar has a very good reputation right now. On the other hand, there's just about only one way to know how good a drive really is: hindsight.

Forums are always filled with quality assessments on "old" drives. We won't know how the latest models fare until a year or so has passed!

Loa
 
Loa said:
Not sure about that Enterprise - SAS link. If Hitachi's Enterprise class is like WD's RE3, or Seagate's ES2, they use the same connector. But as far as I know, you don't gain anything by using these types of drive outside of a RAID. So if you're planning to use them as regular drives, don't bother paying extra.

As for which brand to choose, WD's Black Caviar has a very good reputation right now. On the other hand, there's just about only one way to know how good a drive really is: hindsight.

Forums are always filled with quality assessments on "old" drives. We won't know how the latest models fare until a year or so has passed!

Loa
Click to expand...

So, if I got a hitachi, this would be the one to get? http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0A35155/

I recall that the 7200.9 seagate drives had a firmware issue with the Mac Pro.. but i've also heard people talking about firmware issues with the 7200.11s.... do you know anything about that?

I think I might just get the Seagate 7200.12. I like Seagate.
 
No, no... "enterprise-class" is a marketing buzzword that typically just means rugged, robust, large scale, or multi-node / multi-user. For example an "Enterprise-class Server" is also commonly known as a mainframe. :D An Enterprise-class application is one that can operate, search, or control something over multiple nodes or can be used by multiple users.

It's not a totally meaningless buzzword tho - at least when it comes to drives. There it pertains to any drive including SCSI, SAS, SATA, and FC which typically have the following attributes:

  • About double the MTBF rating as desktop drives. Current typical: > 1,000,000 hours. But recently a Start/Stop Cycles rating is published instead sometimes.
  • A higher Unrecoverable Bit Error (UBE) rate - typically specified at 1 bit in 10^15 (or 1 bit in 1,000,000,000,000,000) or higher.
  • Better thermal rating. This is dynamic with whatever desktop drives are that year but typically about a 10c higher max operating temperature.

The term "Enterprise-class" is also commonly interchangeable with the term "RAID-class" when pertaining to HDDs.
 
MegaMillions said:
So, if I got a hitachi, this would be the one to get? http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0A35155/
Click to expand...
Yep.

MegaMillions said:
.... do you know anything about that?
Click to expand...

Yes there have been problems with Seagates, latest being the .11s. But Seagate has enjoyed a VERY good reputation before those conflicts, and I'm pretty sure that their .12s will be top notch.

Then again, I repeat myself, we cannot know in advance which companies will produce the best drives. Just as we can't know in advance if the individual drive we buy won't turn into a brick after a week. But that's true of everything we buy, so don't fret too much about it, as long as you're buying from one of the big names (WD, Seagate, Hitachi...).

Loa
 
I suggest Samsung as well. They favor higher density platters and fewer of them, a drive tech that is likely to result in longer lasting, cooler running drives. Mine work great, and I have yet to have a Samsung drive fail on me. Of course, it's only a matter of time, but still.
 
It seems like there's horrible cons for any of them. The hitachi tested terribly in the barefeats test (http://www.barefeats.com/hard94.html), but the Seagate performed horribly in certain aspects of other tests. Overall I think i'm leaning in the direction of the Seagate 7200.12. It seems solid, and fast, and I like that there's only two platters in it.
 
j2048b said:
a japanese web site? sorry cannot read it, or pay for it over here in the usa!
Click to expand...
It was YOU who asked for it :D;)
weckart said:
5400rpm is what probably accounts for the low price. Good for storage, would not want to use it as a start up drive.
Click to expand...
Density is at 500 GB per platter! So I wouldn´t hesitate to use it as a start up drive. Should achieve nearly the same rates as a 7200 drive with less GB per platter.
 
Mac Husky said:
It was YOU who asked for it :D;)

Density is at 500 GB per platter! So I wouldn´t hesitate to use it as a start up drive. Should achieve nearly the same rates as a 7200 drive with less GB per platter.
Click to expand...

haha true it was!!

:D

thanks for the info!!
 
wpc33 said:
I'm pretty sure you need a SAS setup to use Enterprise-Class drives, no?
Click to expand...
Actually, No. :eek: :)

They are however, meant for higher reliability than consumer models, and in particular, RAID. :D
Loa said:
Not sure about that Enterprise - SAS link. If Hitachi's Enterprise class is like WD's RE3, or Seagate's ES2, they use the same connector. But as far as I know, you don't gain anything by using these types of drive outside of a RAID. So if you're planning to use them as regular drives, don't bother paying extra.
Click to expand...
SAS & SATA use the same connectors for both power and data. Also, a SAS controller can operate SATA drives. Unfortunately, the reverse is not true.

This class of drives are geared more for RAID, but they work as a single disk as well, but with a higher reliability. :D Some consumer drives have gotten close (Unrecoverable Bit Error rates of 1E15), but not quite. ;)

Loa said:
As for which brand to choose, WD's Black Caviar has a very good reputation right now. On the other hand, there's just about only one way to know how good a drive really is: hindsight.
Click to expand...
Given the different drives the OP asked about, the Caviar Black (WD1001FALS) would likely be just right. ;) But if RAID is intended, the RE3 variant would be the better choice.

MegaMillions said:
It seems like there's horrible cons for any of them. The hitachi tested terribly in the barefeats test (http://www.barefeats.com/hard94.html), but the Seagate performed horribly in certain aspects of other tests. Overall I think i'm leaning in the direction of the Seagate 7200.12. It seems solid, and fast, and I like that there's only two platters in it.
Click to expand...
I have two issues with Hitachi.

1. They don't support their products. If you ever have a problem, they'll pass the blame to some other company (part of the system), and tell you to contact them for a solution. :mad:

2. They seem to have too high a defect rate from what I've seen. :rolleyes: Though they aren't the only ones...:eek: :rolleyes:
 
I'm personally using a Hitachi 1TB 7,200rpm drive along with a new Western Digital Green 1TB drive (and the stock 320GB from Apple) and they all work fine. No need to splash out on an "enterprise" drive really.
 
As others have mentioned, "Enterprise-class" drives (or similar monikers) just mean that the drives are rated for higher sustained usage, better MTBF, etc. Often they're the exact same drives as the equivalent standard SATA ones, but have gone through more rigourous testing. Unless you're running high-availability servers with RAID arrays, etc., you don't need them.

Secondly, take every opinion you read about what hard drive manufacturers are reliable or not with a very large grain of salt, particularly those on NewEgg and the like - it's all anecdotal and not really representative overall. Quality amongst the manufacturers is all pretty high, and generally even - most of them have pretty strong products, and every one of them will ship some lemons, but that doesn't mean it's a systemic problem. Once in a while (as we've seen recently with Seagate), there may be a bigger issue that slips through QA, but those are rare, and generally the response is good. Personally while I'm probably going to avoid Seagate drives for the next 6-12 months to be on the safe side, I don't think that in the long run the quality will be any worse than the others.

As for your specific situation, have a look at the WD 1TB "Black" drives. They've been on sale many places recently, and they're very strong performers, which you want if it's going to be your boot drive. However it's hard to go wrong with any of the 1TB drives, they all tend to be pretty strong performers - look for drives with 3 platters (rather than 4; not always easy to tell, but check reviews), they'll be the fastest as well as having the lowest noise and power consumption. Just watch out for the WD "Green" drives, they're excellent for data storage, but as a boot drive they'll be a little too pokey (but for others reading this looking for a secondary storage drive, go for it, they're great).
 
weckart said:
Maybe you can read numbers, though? 5400rpm is what probably accounts for the low price. Shipping will kill any price advantage in any case. Good for storage, would not want to use it as a start up drive.

Kakaku.com via Google translate
Click to expand...

Not really true tho. The Samsung F2 Ecogreen HD154UI 1.5 TB profiles very close to the WesternDigital Black 1TB.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...compare,1017.html?prod[2365]=on&prod[2372]=on

Seeks are slower but that's most of the difference. So boot up will take 1 to 5 seconds longer on the Samsung is all. I can live with that for the extra 500 Gigs at roughly the same price.
 
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