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Samsung spinpoint m8 vs scorpio blue

W

where is waldo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
4
0
Hi all, since hard drive prices are pretty low right now I thought I'd pick up a drive. Since both samsung and WD make 1tb hard drives that will fit in the optibay, I'm just wonder which model you guys think would be better in terms of reliability.

Thanks!
 
M8. I have had one in the optibay for almost 6 months. It is super quiet, reliable, little heat, and there is little to no vibration when doing a lot of read / writes. Completely happy with the purchase. I do purposefully spin it down when I don't need it as well.
 
g3funk said:
M8. I have had one in the optibay for almost 6 months. It is super quiet, reliable, little heat, and there is little to no vibration when doing a lot of read / writes. Completely happy with the purchase. I do purposefully spin it down when I don't need it as well.
Click to expand...

While on the hard drive topic, which ssd do you use? I need to buy one of those as well, and I'm currently looking at the samsung 830 and the crucial m4(leaning more towards the m4).

Thanks for the advice thus far!
 
Well I don't mean low comparing to before. But the WD scorpio blue I was watching is at $155-$160 now, and was around $220 two weeks ago. I figure I might as well buy one now since I'm running out of room.
 
where is waldo said:
Well I don't mean low comparing to before. But the WD scorpio blue I was watching is at $155-$160 now, and was around $220 two weeks ago. I figure I might as well buy one now since I'm running out of room.
Click to expand...

Im in the same situation as you, running out of room. But i would wait though.
 
Don't expect hard drives to go down anytime soon. Supply is really low because of flooding in Thailand. Personally I would rather has the spinpoint, but I would go with whatever is cheaper.
 
where is waldo said:
While on the hard drive topic, which ssd do you use? I need to buy one of those as well, and I'm currently looking at the samsung 830 and the crucial m4(leaning more towards the m4).

Thanks for the advice thus far!
Click to expand...

I run one of those gnarly 8mb plagues Intel 320's. I have never had the 8mb problem though. I decided to purchase the drive during the height of the issue (things seem to be quiet these days) and have yet to regret it. It has never skipped, paused, SBOD, etc. It is running in a first gen unibody 17 (2009) and I believe it to be the best setup for speed/reliability that is possible on the Sata II powered Macbook Pros.

On the hold out for the 2012 refresh where I will either ditch the pro line (I run 99% of my VM's in Vagrant so 4gigs is "sufficient") and pick up an Air or get a 15 inch pro depending on internals, HD/SSD limitations.

Also, I picked the M8 up for around 80 USD as a reference on current costs...which are very high.
 
I am going back and forth between these two drives and cant decide. I have heard good things about both and the posters here seem to like the Spinpoint, can someone give a reason why? I can see the Spinpoint has a height of 9.5mm and the scorpio is 12.5mm, but they will both fit in my MBP so I am not really concerned about that, unless there is something else to factor in like noise reduction or vibration. Any advice would be appreciated.

Last I checked Prices are:

Spinpoint ~115.00 USD
Scorpio ~140.00 USD

Anyone see anything cheaper right now, I am not sure if I am looking in the best places?
 
ericrwalker said:
Don't expect hard drives to go down anytime soon. Supply is really low because of flooding in Thailand. Personally I would rather has the spinpoint, but I would go with whatever is cheaper.
Click to expand...

Prices have gotten better, though there is still room to get back to pre-flood prices. At least with the limited sampling that I've done. I'm seeing a 1TB 2.5" Scorpio Blue back to a bit above what I purchased one for just before the flooding. I expect prices to get better with time, but at the moment I've changed my position from "Wait" to "Buy if needed, wait if it is an upgrade"
 
CorporateFelon said:
Prices have gotten better, though there is still room to get back to pre-flood prices. At least with the limited sampling that I've done. I'm seeing a 1TB 2.5" Scorpio Blue back to a bit above what I purchased one for just before the flooding. I expect prices to get better with time, but at the moment I've changed my position from "Wait" to "Buy if needed, wait if it is an upgrade"
Click to expand...

It appears to have gone down a little, but only a little. A couple of years ago I bought 4 WD green 2TB drives, $69 each. Amazon and newegg has them for $130 still.
 
I have a 1TB WD from a while back when they were 12.5mm and that still works.

I also picked up a 1TB 9mm Samsung over the summer and that also works very well.
 
Would the 9mm spinpoint work in the main bay of a 2011 MBP? I know that a 12.5mm will, but will the 9mm slop around and damage things?
 
ericrwalker said:
It appears to have gone down a little, but only a little. A couple of years ago I bought 4 WD green 2TB drives, $69 each. Amazon and newegg has them for $130 still.
Click to expand...

Like I said, I have a very limited sampling. I guess I assumed that other stuff had seen similar rebounds, I guess some stuff is still up there in price.

Callumbear845 said:
Would the 9mm spinpoint work in the main bay of a 2011 MBP? I know that a 12.5mm will, but will the 9mm slop around and damage things?
Click to expand...


Considering that the MBPs ship with 9mm drives, I dont think it will be a problem.
 
I dont see a reason why I can not but I would like some confirmation. Can I install a new hard drive and RAM at the same time? Sorry if it is stupid, I am just not sure if the computer needs to recognize the new RAM before I copy my cloned old Hard Drive to the new one...
 
PoseidonMac said:
I dont see a reason why I can not but I would like some confirmation. Can I install a new hard drive and RAM at the same time? Sorry if it is stupid, I am just not sure if the computer needs to recognize the new RAM before I copy my cloned old Hard Drive to the new one...
Click to expand...

That's fine. I deliberately do things like this at the same time so I don't have to open it a lot.
 
PoseidonMac said:
I dont see a reason why I can not but I would like some confirmation. Can I install a new hard drive and RAM at the same time? Sorry if it is stupid, I am just not sure if the computer needs to recognize the new RAM before I copy my cloned old Hard Drive to the new one...
Click to expand...

If you're using Windows 7 in Boot Camp, you need to do it individually, else you'll screw up the stupid DRM.

If you're just using OSX, then do it all at once, or not, it doesn't matter.
 
Erasmus said:
If you're using Windows 7 in Boot Camp, you need to do it individually, else you'll screw up the stupid DRM.

If you're just using OSX, then do it all at once, or not, it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

Thats one thing that extremely annoys me about windows 7. It virtually makes it impossible to run parallels off of the Bootcamp partition. After a couple of different start up it screws up the activation. What makes it worse is that Microsoft does not even acknowledge the problem, they see them as two separate installs in which needs two separate license keys, which would be impossible to do.
 
CorporateFelon said:
Thats one thing that extremely annoys me about windows 7. It virtually makes it impossible to run parallels off of the Bootcamp partition. After a couple of different start up it screws up the activation. What makes it worse is that Microsoft does not even acknowledge the problem, they see them as two separate installs in which needs two separate license keys, which would be impossible to do.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I suffer the same problem with VMware Fusion. Basically, I've just stopped using Fusion, and only use Boot Camp. Microsoft have introduced DRM to try and force everyone who uses it to pay for their software, but instead have given everyone a legitimate reason to hack their software, so it actually works as it should.

Now, if only I knew the existence of suck a hack, so I wouldn't have to feel so ripped off that I actually paid money for W7 :(
 
Erasmus said:
If you're using Windows 7 in Boot Camp, you need to do it individually, else you'll screw up the stupid DRM.

If you're just using OSX, then do it all at once, or not, it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

Wow thanks so much for that. I was not aware. I did plan to delete my partition before I do all the hardware changes and then remake the partition with a larger amount allotted to it, but this is just one more reason to delete it. Stupid Windows.
 
Just to give an update if anyone is still debating these drives. I think they are both great options. I decided to go with the WD because I have numerous other WD drives and they have all treated me well.

FYI newegg has a killer deal on the WD right now.
 
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