[Odar]

Hi.

Actually I am using Western Digital WD5000AAKS. But I am looking for a bigger one.

The first option:
My candidate is WD15EARS, but I have red some discutions, that 4kb clusters caused some problems in performance under Win XP. I am using Win 7 Ultimate. Will it be without performance problems under Win7?

I need cool and quiet drive. But, is the performance of WD15EARS against my WD5000AAKS too slower?
I want to split it on 2 partitions: 1) for Win7 2) data for my HTPC

Or are there any better hard drives for HTPC? I red review Samsung EcoGreen F2 VS WD15EARS and WD had better performance.
I don't want SSD hard drive - it's too expensive for me.

The second option, I was thinking of - 2 x Western Digital Green Power 750GB Hard Drive into RAID 0. But 2 drives = more noise, higher temperature in case and higher chance of loosing data

Sorry for my poor English.

[cowfodder]

I'm using a WD5000CSRTL 500gb Green Drive, and it generates almost no noise whatsoever. My case and CPU fans are much louder than the drive.

[poofyhairguy]

Bigger maybe?

I couldn't imagine not getting a 1.5TB drive at least nowadays. That is where the value is.

[gabbott]

Bigger maybe?

I couldn't imagine not getting a 1.5TB drive at least nowadays. That is where the value is.

agreed, right now 1.5TB is the sweet spot for HD prices.

Win7 can use the 4k clusters on the new drives, you shouldnt have any problems.

[Sam.Nazarko]

i had the 1.5tb wd and it failed on me constantly. I looked up reviews and it turns out that others suffered from this too. I was disappointed as WD are normally a promising brand for HDDs. Anyway, I bought a 2TB Hitachi - yes it's loud, but it does its job.

[akelley]

It's hard to go by what you read in forums and customer responses regarding hard drive reliability as it's sometimes difficult to tell how the person set them up in their system, if their system has proper air flow, etc. In short, there are many things that will shorten a HDD's life or cause very early failure. In my opinion, the major brands like WD and Seagate appear to have similar numbers of happy and disappointed customers. I just bought two Seagate 2TB drives for my new array - crossing my fingers that I don't have any problems.

But I'll agree with the others that 1.5TB is a good value now. You can find good deals on 2TB drives as well.

[Odar]

I had 40 GB Maxtor 7200 RPM. No problem. Then I bought WD5000AAKS. I still use it and I have no problems. My parents have in their PC Hitachi 320GB 7200 RPM, and no problem.

I am from Slovak republic. At this time I have 2 options:
WD15EARS - 94,58 €
WD20EARS - 120,56 €
But it is big mystery for me, why WD20EADS still costs 146,08 € :confused2: WD20EARS has 64MB cache, WD20EADS only 32MB cache. It could be probably not actual price on my favourite E-Shop Or mistake.

O I think, that WD20EARS will be good choise for 120 EUR. What do you think? A one week ago, it costs aproximately 140-150 EUR, but I see, that price is dropped.

[drewbagel423]

Are you guys using the Green drives for your OS? If so, how is the speed?

[sraue]

I am from Slovak republic. At this time I have 2 options:
WD15EARS - 94,58 €
WD20EARS - 120,56 €
But it is big mystery for me, why WD20EADS still costs 146,08 € :confused2: WD20EARS has 64MB cache, WD20EADS only 32MB cache. It could be probably not actual price on my favourite E-Shop Or mistake.

O I think, that WD20EARS will be good choise for 120 EUR. What do you think? A one week ago, it costs aproximately 140-150 EUR, but I see, that price is dropped.

here in switzerland is the same... the (older 32MB) Modell is more expensive as the newer 64MB Modell, but i have buyed for my NAS the WD20EADS, because my other 3 HDDs are also WD20EADS and its an great HDD

[wittaker25]

If you want the best performance, you should get a small 30 gig or 60 gig SSD and dedicate your OS to it. Then use a large 5400 rpm spindle drive for your data. More expensive, but much faster too.

Newegg currently has a special on the samsung 2 TB 5400 rpm spinpoint drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822152202

Here's a sick deal on one of Intel's 40 gb SSD's (Intel ones are typically the best):

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=X25V-40GB&c=CJ

[sraue]

If you want the best performance, you should get a small 30 gig or 60 gig SSD and dedicate your OS to it. Then use a large 5400 rpm spindle drive for your data. More expensive, but much faster too.

Newegg currently has a special on the samsung 2 TB 5400 rpm spinpoint drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822152202

or use a small distribution like OpenELEC.tv on a small flash-drive/disk/card and use a normal HDD for your content :-)
that is cheaper and also very fast (including less cpu/mem usage).

[drewbagel423]

If you want the best performance, you should get a small 30 gig or 60 gig SSD and dedicate your OS to it. Then use a large 5400 rpm spindle drive for your data. More expensive, but much faster too.

Newegg currently has a special on the samsung 2 TB 5400 rpm spinpoint drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822152202

Here's a sick deal on one of Intel's 40 gb SSD's (Intel ones are typically the best):

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=X25V-40GB&c=CJ

I agree that's the best way to go, but my budget just doesn't support buying another $100 drive to use only for the OS. If the WD Greens are that bad I'll just choose another drive. Has anybody tried running Windows off one of these yet?

[Odar]

My collegue from work have one Green Power WD Hard drive. He told me, that the difference between my WD5000AAKS and new Green Power hard drive is not too big. He runs undes Win7.
I know, that SSD + WD GP is the best solution, but it is too expensive for me. I will buy 1,5 or 2 TB.