I always like to use good performing drives. I have been very lucky with the WD Black series drives. I will be upgrading all my 1TB drives to 2TB drives when money and time permits. Does anyone ever see these drives on sale anywhere? The only drives I ever see are the real slow, less power hungry drives.

 

 

Appears to be some recertified ones on NewEgg for $139

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136824&cm_re=wd_black_2tb-_-22-136-824-_-Product

I've been using the Hitachi 7200 2TB drives with great success, and they are MUCH cheaper than the Blacks.  Fry's just had a sale a while back for $100 per drive.

why buy recertified drive with 90 days warranty when you can get hitachi 7200 drives for less ~109-129$

 

bought 3 so far and not 1 RMA

 

compared to my last few seagates 1 DOA - 1 dead  within a week and the last one still running

why buy recertified drive with 90 days warranty when you can get hitachi 7200 drives for less ~109-129$

 

bought 3 so far and not 1 RMA

 

compared to my last few seagates 1 DOA - 1 dead  within a week and the last one still running

 

 

uhhhh.....a black drive is not a Seagate...lol

most people on here have some brand of hard drive preference from years on laying down money......as I'm sure there are plenty of people who would swear by the Hitachi just like you

and there are def people who would swear by the wd black drive......options are good....

I just don't get paying the $60+ premium for the Black drives.  Adds up to $1200 over a 20 drive beast.

Ford Chevy Mopar

 

Without options we would all have the same stuff.

I actually don't have a brand bias at this point.  It's more a matter of getting the specs I want at a good price, and while I would love to have some other brands in the mix, only WD makes a 7200 drive besides Hitachi, and it's just priced too high.

I just don't get paying the $60+ premium for the Black drives.  Adds up to $1200 over a 20 drive beast.

 

I was under the impression that the Black makes a good parity drive, never being the bottleneck when all your other drives are green.

I was under the impression that the Black makes a good parity drive, never being the bottleneck when all your other drives are green.

 

The Black isn't the only 7200 rpm drive.  Hitachi also makes a 7200 rpm drive, and it can be had well below the cost of the WD black series.

I was under the impression that the Black makes a good parity drive, never being the bottleneck when all your other drives are green.

 

The Black isn't the only 7200 rpm drive.  Hitachi also makes a 7200 rpm drive, and it can be had well below the cost of the WD black series.

 

WD makes "non-black" 7200 rpm drives too - the "blues" I believe. However, the Black drive is supposed to be more reliable and still faster.

WD makes "non-black" 7200 rpm drives too - the "blues" I believe.

 

Blues don't go larger than 1TB.

 

However, the Black drive is supposed to be more reliable and still faster.

 

The 64MB cache is better on the WD's compared to the 32MB cache on the other brands.  But the reliability of any drive is usually a very subjective topic because of all the variables over its life (temp, usage, power conditions, etc), unless it's having a generational issue like the Samsung F4s did with their early firmware.

I have been using Western Digital for over 15 years and must have spent thousands of dollars over that time. Not once did I ever have a bad drive. I always went for the better performing drives, more expensive of course but never had compatibility issues or a hardware failure. That's the only reason why I tend to stay with WD Black series drives. Money being VERY tight right now it does kill me to have to spend the high price for Black drives. I would like to buy them all at once. I made a 4TB server and I'm already over half full.

I have been using Western Digital for over 15 years and must have spent thousands of dollars over that time. Not once did I ever have a bad drive. I always went for the better performing drives, more expensive of course but never had compatibility issues or a hardware failure. That's the only reason why I tend to stay with WD Black series drives.

 

Brand loyalty is not a curse, so no worries.  I'm just trying to be impartial. 

 

I would like to buy them all at once.

 

Why, when you can expand anytime you want?  I've been buying 2TB drives at the rate of about 1 every quarter, and have enjoyed watching the prices drop over that time.  As long as you leave yourself a good week to preclear a drive, you can use the same strategy.  What is the advantage to buying them all at once?

I have been using Western Digital for over 15 years and must have spent thousands of dollars over that time. Not once did I ever have a bad drive. I always went for the better performing drives, more expensive of course but never had compatibility issues or a hardware failure. That's the only reason why I tend to stay with WD Black series drives. Money being VERY tight right now it does kill me to have to spend the high price for Black drives. I would like to buy them all at once. I made a 4TB server and I'm already over half full.

 

I've had two WD raptors fail.

I've had two WD raptors fail.

 

I've had one of every major brand of drive fail.  However, with the small sample sizes we are all likely to see, this doesn't mean much.  My drive biases are based on price, performance, and efficiency.  If I learn about a bad batch of drives/firmware/etc I'll avoid it (such as the current Samsung F4s), otherwise I consider all drive manufacturers to be equally reliable.

 

2.5" drives are a different story.  I haven't seen a single Toshiba or Fujitsu laptop drive last more than a year or so...

Remember...

 

No matter the brand.. any drive from any manufacturer can be considered

 

A) Not having failed yet

B) failed

 

All drives will fail. And like Rajahal, I've had a drive fail from every vendor.

 

All drives will fail. And like Rajahal, I've had a drive fail from every vendor.

 

I haven't had a single Quantum drive fail in the past 10 years.

 

Also, to note not all HDs of the same capacity and spindle speed are equivalent. I know that some of the Hitachis used to have more platters, each of lower capacity to make up the total. This resulted in more heat/noise etc.

 

All drives will fail. And like Rajahal, I've had a drive fail from every vendor.

 

I haven't had a single Quantum drive fail in the past 10 years.

 

Also, to note not all HDs of the same capacity and spindle speed are equivalent. I know that some of the Hitachis used to have more platters, each of lower capacity to make up the total. This resulted in more heat/noise etc.

That same older/lower capacity per platter can be looked at two ways.  Yes, more power to spin, but also less bit density and less problems with un-readable sectors.  (better data)

 

Joe L.

I would like to buy them all at once. I made a 4TB server and I'm already over half full.

 

Bad strategy, what if all the drives you purchase happen to be from a bad/bugged batch. There's a much much higher chance of that happening when you purchase all from the same place and all at the same time. If one goes down, there's a raised chance another will go down with it.... this is deadly with unRaid since it can only recover from 1 drive failure... simultaneous failures are very very bad. Think about the Seagate firmware catastrophe from a few years back... many people had drives failing together.

 

And there's also the benefits of dropping prices as time goes on not to mention better hardware. AAAAND from a power usage stand point... only having the drives you need won't waste as much energy (a bunch of empty drives sitting there is just wasteful and adds up in $ over time).

I also treasure WD drives...I like the quiet operation. Seagates always seem noisy to me. Having said that, I had two WD drives fail on me within 2 weeks of each other, however, I think the cause was environmental. There was an ionizer running in that room and it was closed up most of the time (the dude in there was a smoker - this was 12 years ago). When I removed the ionizer, my drives started living longer. Don't know if that ionizer ever had anything to do with drive life, but I don't allow ionizers anywhere near my computers now. I am convinced that the ionizer killed two WDs, back to back.