[rustybx]

My RAID array had two 7k500 failures (out of five drives) in the past two years. Both were replaced under warranty but the experience has led me to value reliability higher than performance. With the longer waranty and lower ERR I think I'm going for the ES.2.

[Telstar The Sorcerer]

DigitalFreak, on Oct 1 2007, 08:49 PM, said:

Good review. However, I don't think any valid comparisons can be made between the WD GP and the Seagate ES.2 architectures until a 7200.11 1TB drive gets reviewed. It's pretty obvious that the ES.2 is not meant for desktop usage.

Exactly my thoughts. The 7200.11 should have a firmware optimized for desktop use instead of multiuser applications.

Please add review it soon

BTW, the SR application suite should be definitely updated with newer program versions. Nobody still uses photoshop 7

For me the GP made the day for the HTPC i'm building.

rustybx, on Oct 2 2007, 12:39 AM, said:

My RAID array had two 7k500 failures (out of five drives) in the past two years. Both were replaced under warranty but the experience has led me to value reliability higher than performance. With the longer waranty and lower ERR I think I'm going for the ES.2.

The MTBF doesn't mean anything in the real world. But the 5y warranty is great, expecially considering the excellent Seagate policy (i.e. direct return from anywhere in the world).

[yehuda]

Olaf van der Spek, on Oct 1 2007, 04:14 PM, said:

Does WD have any plans to release a normal-performance 1 tbyte drive? Cool & Quiet is nice, but I don't think everyone likes to trade in performance like this.

I wonder if they could release a firmware tuning utility for the GP drive that would allow the user to switch between 5400rpm and 7200rpm operation modes.

[Loomy]

Olaf van der Spek, on Oct 1 2007, 09:14 AM, said:

Does WD have any plans to release a normal-performance 1 tbyte drive? Cool & Quiet is nice, but I don't think everyone likes to trade in performance like this.

No, they will never release another type of hard drive...

The GP page says that they are putting GP tech into all their drives. This drive is supposed to be a SE16, no? So it is safe to assume that eventually, say when the sequel to the RE2 comes along, its version of IntelliPower will be 7200rpm and tweaked for performance!

[whiic]

DigitalFreak: "I don't think any valid comparisons can be made between the WD GP and the Seagate ES.2 architectures until a 7200.11 1TB drive gets reviewed. It's pretty obvious that the ES.2 is not meant for desktop usage."

Telstar: "Exactly my thoughts. The 7200.11 should have a firmware optimized for desktop use instead of multiuser applications."

You have the right to remain optimistic but I have bad feeling that at best, 7200.11 would just suck slightly less. It'd still suck. But miracles do happen...

Telstar: "But the 5y warranty is great"

Matter of opinion. HDD will be obsolete by the end of 5 year warranty. Some people would consider it obsolete even at 3 years. And even if it was not obsolete, that now-so-expensive 1000-gigger will be dirt cheap between 3 and 5 years (which is what extended warranty applies to).

Telstar: "expecially considering the excellent Seagate policy (i.e. direct return from anywhere in the world)."

Some people like, some people don't. In some countries retailers take care of warranty replacements (by forwarding it to importer who forwards it to manufacturer). I don't think I know a single Finnish person who has actually him/herself shipped a HDD abroad to another country to be replaced by manufacturer. But I don't know that many people and I don't present such a question to random bystanders.

Sure, I think it's possible to ship a HDD from Finland to whatever country, properly packed at consumers cost and probably receive a replacement (return shipping payed by manufacturer) but if you can have free shipping to both directions, then...

Of course things don't work like this in every country.

Why can't we ever talk about Seagates without fixating on warranty that has very little value after 3rd year? Is it really that there has been nothing else positive about Seagates lately?

Olaf: "Does WD have any plans to release a normal-performance 1 tbyte drive? Cool & Quiet is nice, but I don't think everyone likes to trade in performance like this."

I seriously hope not... at least not using the same model code, like they usually do when they reduce number of platters. Someone in SPCR thread got a sample of WD10EACS which run hotter than Samsung HD501LJs and vibrate only slightly less. Considering that Samsungs tend to vibrate most of all brands, this is real bad and would probably mean 7200rpm spindle speed.

Quoting user Firetech from SPCR: "I've got one WD10EACS sitting here in my storage box with three 501LJ's and all seems well.
Transfer rates are higher with the WD but burst speed and access time is marginally slower.
Noise wise it's not too bad (I'd even say there's slightly more vibration from the Samsungs) but 4 drives running in a small Dell server does create bit of resonance....
The WD does run a fair bit hotter than the Samsungs but that's a trait I noticed with my Seagate perpendicular HDD too and can also be partially blamed on position in the case"

Noticeable vibration, faster STR, noticeably warmer... all support my suspicion that some "WD10EACS" should indeed be called "WD10AAKS". Sure, it may be a bad sample or a proto, but bad samples don't typically perform better.

[Mickey]

888, on Oct 2 2007, 05:54 AM, said:

yehuda, on Oct 2 2007, 02:44 PM, said:

I wonder if they could release a firmware tuning utility for the GP drive that would allow the user to switch between 5400rpm and 7200rpm operation modes.

It's technically almost impossible. It needs changing of heads (sliders) too. Yes there are some methods for changing slider's angle but... don't know...

I could maybe see someone doing this for a couple preset speeds, since the motor and heads both need to be tuned for a specific spin speed. However, they will not be optimized for both speeds; it's usually an either/or, so it comes down to whether the design compromises are acceptable, with decreased reliability the biggest risk. The clock speed of the drive would also be problematic; I don't know if there's a way to write two clock speeds or the drive would have to be smart enough to interpolate two speeds based on one set of clock tracks.

It'd be an interesting science project, though.

[continuum]

Now if Samsung will hurry up...

[Telstar The Sorcerer]

whiic, on Oct 2 2007, 05:04 PM, said:

Matter of opinion. HDD will be obsolete by the end of 5 year warranty. Some people would consider it obsolete even at 3 years. And even if it was not obsolete, that now-so-expensive 1000-gigger will be dirt cheap between 3 and 5 years (which is what extended warranty applies to).

Telstar: "expecially considering the excellent Seagate policy (i.e. direct return from anywhere in the world)."

Some people like, some people don't. In some countries retailers take care of warranty replacements (by forwarding it to importer who forwards it to manufacturer). I don't think I know a single Finnish person who has actually him/herself shipped a HDD abroad to another country to be replaced by manufacturer. But I don't know that many people and I don't present such a question to random bystanders.

Sure, I think it's possible to ship a HDD from Finland to whatever country, properly packed at consumers cost and probably receive a replacement (return shipping payed by manufacturer) but if you can have free shipping to both directions, then...

Of course things don't work like this in every country.

Why can't we ever talk about Seagates without fixating on warranty that has very little value after 3rd year? Is it really that there has been nothing else positive about Seagates lately?

It is.
When my cheetah got poof after 4 years and half of service without any warning sign!