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Samsung F1's? Yay or Nay?
- Thread starter ventro
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The Seagates are plagued by bad firmware that disables the cache, and the Hitachi drives use 5 platters, soooo... I went with 2x the 1TB WD GreenPowers. They're a tad slower than the rest, but for me, they're just for storage. I wasn't gonna use them to boot. Quiet and low power. Oh and $180 each (if you want to know how PM me). I'll eventually throw in a next-generation Raptor as a boot drive.
I bought two of the F1 1TB drives for my Mac Pro last December and at first I was really impressed by the speed difference, compared to Seagate and WD. After a couple of hours I experienced the first freeze on my Mac Pro. Guess what? It was the Samsung HDs. I removed one of them and after a while the freeze repeated. I removed the first and installed the second one and...again the same freeze. The Samsung drives froze my Mac Pro many times....I tested both drives on PCs...again the same issues. I returned both and got them exchanged for new ones...again the same issues!!! I now returned both and got Seagate drives which work for me pretty reliable. I don't think I will ever consider getting Samsung drives...
My Samsung works fine. I've not heard of anyone else having problems with them in their Mac Pros either. Very fast and quiet drive, for me it was the best choice out of all the available options.
My two 1TB Samsung F1s are arriving today, ordered from Newegg. I'll test them if my mac pro ever ships!!!
There are so many users reporting that "Check M.C." error when checking the drive with HUTIL that I really believe it is actually the HUTIL application rather than thousands of bad drives. Here are a few posts from a user who claims to have had Samsung indicate it is in fact an HUTIL problem:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=393855&sid=5faf535b9ae14b9e592c7cd857978c17
Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:20 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Update from Samsung
They have admitted that their software (HUTIL version 210) DOES NOT work with the 1TB F1. The gentleman was not at liberty to tell me whether their software does not work with the entire F1 line or not.
Samsung are working on a new utility, a new version of HUTIL, or a piece of software specifically to test the F1 line (or just the 1TB model).
Keep your eyes on the following page for more information or the new utility.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/utilities/Support_HUTIL.html
Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:53 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Another update from Samsung.
The 750GB is also affected by the "bugs" in the HUTIL 210 software.
The gentleman who phoned me said that the software had bugs in it, and should not be used for the 750GB and 1000GB F1 drives, and likely any others in the F1 range (if anyone has any of them).
He suggests that people assume that there is not a problem with their drives unless they have problems or suspect a fault, and test the dirves using a different utility if they want to do any testing such as "HD Tune" (my suggestion).
Version 211 of the software is being made, but due to the main Korean holiday of the year this will likely take 2-3 weeks, keep your eyes on their website.
I would personally suggest that no-one uses the v210 software at all as I have had many issues with other drives as well, such as not evenb being able to scroll down within the software.
There are so many users reporting that "Check M.C." error when checking the drive with HUTIL that I really believe it is actually the HUTIL application rather than thousands of bad drives. Here are a few posts from a user who claims to have had Samsung indicate it is in fact an HUTIL problem:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=393855&sid=5faf535b9ae14b9e592c7cd857978c17
Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:20 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Update from Samsung
They have admitted that their software (HUTIL version 210) DOES NOT work with the 1TB F1. The gentleman was not at liberty to tell me whether their software does not work with the entire F1 line or not.
Samsung are working on a new utility, a new version of HUTIL, or a piece of software specifically to test the F1 line (or just the 1TB model).
Keep your eyes on the following page for more information or the new utility.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/utilities/Support_HUTIL.html
Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:53 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Another update from Samsung.
The 750GB is also affected by the "bugs" in the HUTIL 210 software.
The gentleman who phoned me said that the software had bugs in it, and should not be used for the 750GB and 1000GB F1 drives, and likely any others in the F1 range (if anyone has any of them).
He suggests that people assume that there is not a problem with their drives unless they have problems or suspect a fault, and test the dirves using a different utility if they want to do any testing such as "HD Tune" (my suggestion).
Version 211 of the software is being made, but due to the main Korean holiday of the year this will likely take 2-3 weeks, keep your eyes on their website.
I would personally suggest that no-one uses the v210 software at all as I have had many issues with other drives as well, such as not evenb being able to scroll down within the software.
I have the Samsung F1 750 GB and it works just fine - quiet, fast, and reliable (so far, knock-on wood). I've heard a lot about the newegg reviews, but those are mostly on home-built pc's not macs (i think).
I bought two Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500gb's... I made the right choice.
Two platters, low power, low heat, super fast. Mine (from NewEgg) came with the latest firmware and worked perfectly in Leopard and my new Mac Pro. The 32mb cache is recognized.
If you want a 500gb, I'd go with the Seagates.
Two platters, low power, low heat, super fast. Mine (from NewEgg) came with the latest firmware and worked perfectly in Leopard and my new Mac Pro. The 32mb cache is recognized.
If you want a 500gb, I'd go with the Seagates.
What firmware did they state on the drive label? I got 2 1TB's and they had the SD04 firmware which Seagate told me that they did not recognize the cache. I sent them back to Newegg.
Why not make it public knowledge? I think we'd all appreciate that very much.
I would love to get 2x1TB drives but I'm still hurting from the memory upgrade.
Okay, it's just got a few steps to it...
Buy.com has the Cavalry 1TB USB 2.0 External Drive for $229 - $30 rebate = $199
Apply 5% off coupon for -$11.50
= $188.49 with free shipping
Undo 4 screws and pluck the drive out... they are WD10EACS 1TB GreenPower drives. Full 3 year warranty from Western Digital (verified by running the drive serial numbers through the WD warranty checker). I apologize about the $180 number earlier, it was actually $188. The USB 2.0 cases are pretty nice (metal) but I won't be using them. I heard about this on SlickDeals.net and it worked.
Can you not just upgrade the Firmware? I know I had on previous drives in the past.
Thanks for that. I've been a long time loyalist of Western Digital drives so this is great news; unfortunately, Buy.com doesn't ship to Canada but I'm going to get the drives locally for $249 w/o enclosure. Still good price for 1TB, imo.
I'm curious, do you plan on striping them?
As I said in an earlier post, you can only flash the firmware internally in a PC (which I do not have). I didn't want to run around trying to get someone to do it for me so I sent them back. Since Newegg cannot guarantee that the next ones they send will have the new firmware, I didn't want to keep playing craps sop I just ordered the F1s. I believe they may be a bit faster anyway.
Hi mogrefy,
How did it go with your Samsung F1s drives?
I'm thinking to order one or two today and I saw this thread.
Did they work for you?
THanks
Hi mogrefy,
How did it go with your Samsung F1s drives?
I'm thinking to order one or two today and I saw this thread.
Did they work for you?
THanks
I've been running a 640GB Samsung F1 in my Mac Pro for a while now, and I've never had a problem. It's cool, quiet, and fast.
How do you do that?
Or is there a way to change how long it takes for it to go to sleep? Sometimes I get sidetracked when working and when I go back, I have to wake it up, which is kind of annoying, but I'd like to increase the time of inactivity to like, an hour, rather than the 5 or 10 minutes mine seems to be.
I just installed 2 1TB in my MP today, set them up as a mirrored RAID and dumped 260GB of photos on there. Not a hiccup, nor a problem, nor a write error; everything seems to be just fine.
Right now I have my from-Apple Seagate 320GB, a WD GreenPower 500GB in Bay 2 for Time Machine, and two F1's in bays 3&4 in the mirrored RAID and my MacPro is still silent as ever.
All I'm doing is surfing MacRumors right now, so no heavy HD usage, and my current temps are:
Seagate - 94F
WD Green - 83F
F1 - 79F
F1 - 79F
I just did some easy editing in Aperture 2.1.1 (no importing of files, just manipulation) and the temps went up to 81F. As you can tell, they run much cooler than the Seagate that came with my system.
Right now I have my from-Apple Seagate 320GB, a WD GreenPower 500GB in Bay 2 for Time Machine, and two F1's in bays 3&4 in the mirrored RAID and my MacPro is still silent as ever.
All I'm doing is surfing MacRumors right now, so no heavy HD usage, and my current temps are:
Seagate - 94F
WD Green - 83F
F1 - 79F
F1 - 79F
I just did some easy editing in Aperture 2.1.1 (no importing of files, just manipulation) and the temps went up to 81F. As you can tell, they run much cooler than the Seagate that came with my system.
Hi,
Got delivery of MAC PRO, RAM and Samsung 1TB F1 drivers yesterday.
So far so good!
I installed both F1 drives, one in Bay 2 and one in Bay 3 and formatted, the Verify tools says it's all good. I'm new to MAC so I didn't do any other special test and stuff. I didn't even get time to do copying or whatever.
They are very silent, well I can't hear them a part a zip sound when they start that's it.
Hopefully they will keep working as I start to used them:0)
Got delivery of MAC PRO, RAM and Samsung 1TB F1 drivers yesterday.
So far so good!
I installed both F1 drives, one in Bay 2 and one in Bay 3 and formatted, the Verify tools says it's all good. I'm new to MAC so I didn't do any other special test and stuff. I didn't even get time to do copying or whatever.
They are very silent, well I can't hear them a part a zip sound when they start that's it.
Hopefully they will keep working as I start to used them:0)
I bought three Samsung F1's 1TB when I first got my MACPRO this year around April, I have 1 as an audio drive for samples and projects (Logic Studio) and 2 drives in Raid 0 for my video drives as a scratch and project drive (Final Cut Studio) and haven't had any problems yet. If I was to buy new drives today I believe the best performance would be:
Either a new WD VelociRaptor 300GB or an Intel Intel X25-M SSD as the boot drive
2 x Samsung F1 in Raid0 as my video drives (long sequential reads/writes)
1 x Seagate 7200.3 as my Audio drives (short random access)
From what i've read since Samsung are good for long sequential read&writes and the Seagates are good for random access.
Either a new WD VelociRaptor 300GB or an Intel Intel X25-M SSD as the boot drive
2 x Samsung F1 in Raid0 as my video drives (long sequential reads/writes)
1 x Seagate 7200.3 as my Audio drives (short random access)
From what i've read since Samsung are good for long sequential read&writes and the Seagates are good for random access.