More MP HD advice sought . . .

[sturob]

OK, since my MP is moving into shipment, I am trying to make a decision.

I have been thinking that I'd get Spinpoint F1 HDs. I have been searching around NewEgg, and now I notice the Seagate Barracuda ES drives. I assume they're "enterprise" drives.

More reliable than regular drives? They have a NICE long MTBF (1.2M hrs) and look like they're designed to run all the time . . . hmm.

Just want something reliable. I wasn't planning on RAIDing, but I was planning on Time Machining.

Stuart

 

[jtblueberry]

what do you do that requires more than the standard 7200.11 barracuda?

 

[sturob]

Nothin'. I guess I would be served just fine with the regular offerings; I was just curious if people would say, "Oh, you HAVE to get the ES ones because the others will fail."

The only thing I've ever had go wrong on a computer is a hard drive failure; I suppose that's normal, since I bet they're the most failure-prone part.

I guess I was just wondering if there might be some hugely compelling reason to go with one over the other.

Stuart

 

[jtblueberry]

That's a legitimate question. I'd be curious to hear someone make that argument for a normal user.
My way of thinking is that I am better off spending less on the hard drives and replacing them when they're full. I'm a photographer so I basically mirror two seagate barracuda 7200.11 1TB drives. When they fill up I replace them. No need for "enterprise grade" because it only takes a year or so to fill them up.
I guess you may want to consider the higher end drives if you plan on running your computer constantly for many years without replacing the drives.
Also, if you back up your information, you'll be fine when a drive goes down. It will be cheaper to replace a standard drive and you can move on without a hitch. I'm loving my barracudas and all of the relatively cheap space.

 

[sturob]

I've just about decided that, if I'm spending about $100-$150 for a hard drive, I can just replace it when it dies (like you say).

And, probably get something bigger, perhaps faster, when I do that.

I think I had a little bit of an epiphany on the subject.

Stuart

 

[barefeats]

Samsung Spinpoint F1 too slow internally

We just acquired a 750GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 sample. When we installed it inside our 2008 Mac Pro and tested it with QuickBench 4.03, we only got 70MB/s average sustained large block READ speed.

When we moved it outside and connected it to a PCIe 3G SATA host adapter (LaCie 4 external port), the average sustained large block READ speed jumped to 91MB/s.

On the other hand, the Western Digital 750GB WD7500AAKS and WD7500AYYS ran just as fast inside as outside of the Mac Pro (96MB/s). Plus the small random read/write transfers were faster than any 7200RPM 3D SATA drive including the Samsung F1. Therefore, we recommend the WD7500AYYS (24/7 Enterprise) for the best Mac Pro boot drive choice rather than the Samsung F1.

 

[jtblueberry]

Ok...why not go with what barefeats said. The drives don't cost much more than barracuda 7200.11.
Barefeats...are those wd's the best drives for back up and editing as well? The barracuda 7200.11 seemed to perform better on most of the tests at your web site.
Is the wd just better for the boot drive because of the faster small random read/write?
Would it make sense to use wd for boot and 7200.11 for back up and editing?
Have you done any tests using http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MPQXES2/

 

[sturob]

Had they posted sooner, I would have. I bought F1s.

Oh, well. I suppose I could just not use them and exchange them for the others.

It's kind of a crapshoot as to what stock drive (I ordered a single 500GB drive) my MP will come with . . . ?

If UPS and FedEx are correct, my MP, RAM, and HDDs will all come Monday.

Stuart

 

[jtblueberry]

Yeah...i got a stock 500gb. It looks like I got a st3500630AS which appears to be a seagate 7200.10 (bummer).
I think I will get a 500 gb wd for my boot drive. I'll move my stock 500gb seagate 7200.10 to bay 3 and use it to back up my wd boot drive (using time machine only at night to minimize use of the slow drive). I'll keep my 1TB seagate 7200.11 photography drive in bay 2. And, I'll keep my backup photography drive (also 1TB seagate 7200.11) in an external enclosure connected via eSATA (also using Time Machine for backup).
Would this be the best solution for me? I was using software raid 1 to mirror my photography drives but recently decided Time Machine backup is better for my needs (photography). The ability to "go back in time" seems more valuable than instant backup as long as I set time machine to back up every night.
Any ideas on how to improve the set up?