Quote:
Originally Posted by Max8
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For use in SnapServers (& normal PC use also?)
Western Digital - Have not used them some love them some hate them
Seagate - Preferred / No problems with my last PATA upgrade
Hitachi - Have not used them but I hear they are ok
Samsung - Never used not a fan from all I have heard
Desktop V's Enterprise
There is a definite difference, Enterprise are better but the cost for most uses the extra cost does not justify choosing Enterprise over Desktop HDD's with the reliability we are seeing with Desktop these days & considering in most cases we are home users.
To avoid issues we should be limiting our 3Gbps drives to 1.5Gbps when using in SnapServers
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Normal PC use and Snap Server use is not the same IMO and thus should not be grouped together. The key word there is "server".
Western Digital - I have used many of them (still do) and I like Western Digital drives. The problem with WD is when it comes to RAID arrays. If you plan to use them in a RAID array, PC or Server, they have proved unreliable this past year or two unless you buy the more expensive RE (RAID Edition) drives.
Seagate - Has their ups and downs, but at least used to, recently, made great reliable drives for servers or PCs. There "seems to be" a drop off in quality since they bought out Maxtor. Is it releated, I have no idea.
Maxtor - Junk, junk, and more junk, IMO.
Hitachi - I do not have a ton of personal use with them, but I have had decent luck with them. As a general rule (but not always) they run a bit hotter and are slower than others, but again, I have not had any real problems with them myself. This is one of those companies I can say you will get very mixed opinions on. Some people hate them with a passion and some love them, so...
Samsung - Used to be low end inexpensive drives, but they have been slowly coming up in the world and from all reports, are making great drives these days, better than others in some cases according to many people. I am just now switching over to them for server use and will find out myself (I explain more below).
Western Digital used to be one of my all time favorite drives and I do still like them, but I use a lot of RAID arrays and whatever change you attribute it to, this last couple years of their RAID problems has cut my use of them greatly. Problem is, if you are using RAID arrays, there is good chance you are looking for large capacity drives also. This is where the bite comes in. For whatever reason, this last year or two, many of the drive manufacturers higher capacity drives have been having higher than normal failure rates also. It seems they just don't test like they used to. For whatever reason or conspiracy theory you prescribe to, the bottom line still comes down to much higher failure rates in the first year than there used to be by leaps and bounds. The only exception(s) to this seem to be the Samsung drives and
some of the Hitachi drives. This is why I am going over to Samsung right now and see for myself.
For Snap Servers, it is a crap shoot with the WD drives, you can expect to use your warranty at least once if you use Seagates, you might hate Hitachi, and that leaves Samsung which I cannot recommend due to lack of data yet.
Desktop vs Enterprise
This varies greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer and time in history back and forth.
As a general rule, enterprise drives are designed with higher tolerances, are tested better, have better bearings, etc etc etc. Simply, they are designed to last longer and have better reliability in 24/7 server business environments. To say they are the same is a bold face lie. They are not,
with any manufacturer. As a minimum, the enterprise drives, even if they come of the same line, are tested more thoroughly and usualy have different firmware. And in other cases, are built completely different to a much higher standard. Again, it varies.
Do you need them in a home environment? Only YOU can decide that. It depends on too many variables of your usage and budget.