OWC with Seagate, Samsung, or Hitachi drive?

[ilikenascar]

I think I've finally decided on going with an OWC external drive. I don't want to build my own, so I'm down to deciding between some of their external 3.5"s.

I was thinking I'd go with the 500gb firewire 800 with the hitachi drive, and that I didn't want to spend the extra $50 for the 750gb one with the seagate barracuda 7200.11 drive. However, I did some more digging and came across one with the samsung spinpoint F1, and I've heard a lot of people talking about the F1 lately.

Anyway, long story short, the samsung is $169 for a 750gb vs. the 750gb with the seagate for $189, and then of course my original choice of the 500gb hitachi for $139.

What do you all think? Any particular internal drive that is better than others?

Thanks again!

 

[JustGretchen]

I like hitachi.

Have always heard good about samsung drives, but never owned one, they aren't one of the big guys when it comes to HDD. Hitachi is and has been for some time.

Right now, I wouldn't touch anything seagate with a 10 foot poll becuase of their firmware issues and they continue to sell drives w/ bad firmware instead of issuing a recall. Additionally, they do not provide a way for Mac users to flash their HDD firmware to fix the issue. I have a 500gb that is effected, and I can't fix it if it wanted to because it's formatted for the mac.

I'm pretty pissed about that.

 

[Abstract]

I read that the new Seagate 500 GB 7200 rpm is MUCH faster than drives from other maufacturers, even other 320 GB 7200 rpm drives.

Check this out.

 

[Amdahl]

Right now, I wouldn't touch anything seagate with a 10 foot poll becuase of their firmware issues and they continue to sell drives w/ bad firmware instead of issuing a recall. Additionally, they do not provide a way for Mac users to flash their HDD firmware to fix the issue. I have a 500gb that is effected, and I can't fix it if it wanted to because it's formatted for the mac.

I'm pretty pissed about that.

I updated mine in PC. Being formatted for Mac is irrelevant. I think if you have the drive installed in an intel Mac, you can firmware update it too by just booting off the CD ISO.

 

[SaSaSushi]

Right now, I wouldn't touch anything seagate with a 10 foot poll becuase of their firmware issues and they continue to sell drives w/ bad firmware instead of issuing a recall. Additionally, they do not provide a way for Mac users to flash their HDD firmware to fix the issue. I have a 500gb that is effected, and I can't fix it if it wanted to because it's formatted for the mac.

I recently installed a Seagate 1.5TB Barracuda drive into an IcyDock MB559EUB1-S enclosure. My drive shipped with the latest firmware and has had zero issues. It's quiet, cool and fast.

Oh, and the Icy Dock enclosure deal above is awesome too. I think it also includes a further $15 manufacturer's rebate off the $99.

 

[sickmacdoc]

I read that the new Seagate 500 GB 7200 rpm is MUCH faster than drives from other maufacturers, even other 320 GB 7200 rpm drives.

Check this out.

Yeah, but since the OP was including 750Gb drives in the discussion, it would seem that they are discussing 3.5" drives rather than 2.5" notebook drives.

 

[sickmacdoc]

I think I've finally decided on going with an OWC external drive. I don't want to build my own, so I'm down to deciding between some of their external 3.5"s.

I was thinking I'd go with the 500gb firewire 800 with the hitachi drive, and that I didn't want to spend the extra $50 for the 750gb one with the seagate barracuda 7200.11 drive. However, I did some more digging and came across one with the samsung spinpoint F1, and I've heard a lot of people talking about the F1 lately.

Anyway, long story short, the samsung is $169 for a 750gb vs. the 750gb with the seagate for $189, and then of course my original choice of the 500gb hitachi for $139.

What do you all think? Any particular internal drive that is better than others?

Thanks again!

Asking any group of 10 computer users as to which internal drives are best is always interesing as you will probably get 12 different answers! Everybody has their own experiences and expectations and many are willing to defend their choice to death. With the sizes of drives you have mentioned, I really don't think you will go wrong with any of them. The noted Seagate troubles have been with 1 and 1.5Tb drives from what I have read, and I haven't seen anything to suggest that similar problems exist in the 500 or 750Gb lines.

That being said, you really just need to make sure that the enclosure on the one you select has the appropriate connection types that you want to use on it first. Then if you have a choice of drives to be used in it as you have indicated, that is your call.

Not that it really matters, but my personal prefs (with 4.5Tb online and the same for backup on my main system and others on two other systems) are:
1 Samsung F1 series- fast, quiet and cool with no failures so far
2 Western Digital- some very fast (640Gb in particular) with no failures so far
3 Seagate- in my experience, hotter and louder than the others. One failure so far.
4 Hitachi- two failed within a year out of 6

 

[longball11]

none of the above

 

[TheReef]

My Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB has the problem and no current firmware updates seam to be fixing it

 

[maestrokev]

Have you read this Tom's hardware review? There are other similar reviews that show the same conclusion in drive choice. Other than reading the reviews I check forums for retailers like Newegg to see if there have been problems with RMA.

I'd go with the Hitachi if it is the Deskstar 7K.B model. The Samsung Spinpoint F1 is also a fine choice if you need slightly faster but higher power consumption.

I second staying away from Seagate's latest generation for the time being.

 

[GregE]

I know you don't want to do it but I would buy the enclosure and build my own with a Western Digital drive. I've had great success with them so I will stick with them for now.

 

[Patriks7]

I would say all the brands are equally good (except for Seagate with its 1.5 TB). So it really is just about the size/speed you want. I personally would go with a WD though

 

[Patriks7]

Asking any group of 10 computer users as to which internal drives are best is always interesing as you will probably get 12 different answers!

I would say that counts about anything computer related Try this with screens, SSDs, RAM, even camcorders and DSLRs and you won't have any answer, you will just be more confused (experience)

 

[Dimwhit]

I'd do the 750GB Seagate drives. I have two of them at home in a dual-drive enclosure and two of them in our G5 at work. All four work like a charm.

 

[SaSaSushi]

I would say all the brands are equally good (except for Seagate with its 1.5 TB).

Actually, the problems some users are reporting with Seagates are on both the 1TB and 1.5TB.

That said, as I mentioned above, many of us bought them and have not had a single problem from the start. My 1.5TB Barracuda is far cooler and quieter than the WD 500GB it replaced.