Looking for HDD recommendations.

[Cyberspirit]

Hey, could you guys help me find a reliable 4TB drive?

 

I ran out of SATA ports so it's time to swap the smaller drives out for a bigger one but, I'm unsure about what I should get.

The drive would be used for general mass storage so, nothing super important but, of course, I don't want to cheap out on it.

 

My budget is about $175 or 50.000 HUF max.

[Origami Cactus]

I used Toshiba P300 (X300) and it was fine, worked well, but a bit loud. The seagate Barracuda is fine too, it is a bit less loud.

There is also WD Red, which should be decent, but i haven't tested it.

[Spotty]

Really only 3 HDD brands these days, Toshiba, Western Digital, Seagate. For your needs you'd be looking at either the WD Blues, Seagate Barracudas, or the Toshiba P300. Just go with whichever is cheapest in the capacity that you need. They'd probably all be within a few dollars of each other anyway.

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

 

i assume you take hgst into that?

 

and what about Hitachi?

[Kedohawyr]

Run out of SATA ports? So then I assume you've got a lot of drives stuffed in your machine.

 

For reliablity in that situation I'd recommend a drive designed for NAS use. A WD Red would be my pick but if you've had problems with WD then a Seagate Ironwolf should work just as well. In both cases buy the non-pro model, in a consumer use case like yours (where it's not actually being accessed constantly 24/7) it's not only cheaper but more preferable due to the lower noise and vibration.

 

If you're really worried about reliablity and considering something like a WD Gold then I'd save your money and instead make sure you've purchased and use external backups.

 

 

[Spotty]

11 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

i assume you take hgst into that?

 

and what about Hitachi?

Hitachi = HGST. HGST no longer exist. They were split up and bought out by WD a few years ago.

Quote

HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) was a manufacturer of hard disk drives, solid-state drives, and external storage products and services.

It was initially a subsidiary of Hitachi, formed through its acquisition of IBM's disk drive business. It was acquired by Western Digital in 2012, but required to operate autonomously from the remainder of the company due to conditions imposed by Chinese regulators. However, in October 2015, Chinese regulators permitted Western Digital to begin wider integration of HGST into its main business. By 2018, the HGST brand had been phased out, with its remaining products now marketed under the Western Digital name.

Samsung HDDs was acquired by Seagate like 5 or so years ago 8 years ago as well. Fujitsu was gobbled up by Toshiba something like 10 years ago. It's just WD/Toshiba/Seagate left.

Edited April 21, 2019 by Spotty
Correction: Seagate acquired Samsung back in 2011.

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Hitachi = HGST. HGST no longer exist. They were split up and bought out by WD a few years ago.

Samsung HDDs was acquired by Seagate like 5 or so years ago as well. Fujitsu was gobbled up by Toshiba something like 10 years ago. It's just WD/Toshiba/Seagate left.

i know about hgst

 

but those Hitachi's, are those old stock then?

[Cyberspirit]

11 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Really only 3 HDD brands these days, Toshiba, Western Digital, Seagate. For your needs you'd be looking at either the WD Blues, Seagate Barracudas, or the Toshiba P300. Just go with whichever is cheapest in the capacity that you need. They'd probably all be within a few dollars of each other anyway.

The cheapest one is a Seagate Barracuda 4TB 3.5" 5400rpm 256MB ST4000DM004 for about $105 or 29.000 HUF which is pretty nice for 4TB.

 

8 minutes ago, Kedohawyr said:

Run out of SATA ports? So then I assume you've got a lot of drives stuffed in your machine.

 

For reliablity in that situation I'd recommend a drive designed for NAS use. A WD Red would be my pick but if you've had problems with WD then a Seagate Ironwolf should work just as well. In both cases buy the non-pro model, in a consumer use case like yours (where it's not actually being accessed constantly 24/7) it's not only cheaper but more preferable due to the lower noise and vibration.

 

If you're really worried about reliablity and considering something like a WD Gold then I'd save your money and instead make sure you've purchased and use external backups.

 

 

My Mobo only has 4 ports so it wasn't too hard to use them up.

 

I wouldn't mind less HDD noise so, I'll consider them.

 

Right now the two available are:

WD Red 4TB 3.5" 5400rpm 64MB SATA3 WD40EFRX

SEAGATE IronWolf 4TB 3.5" 5900rpm 64MB SATA3 ST4000VN008

[Spotty]

12 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

i know about hgst

 

but those Hitachi's, are those old stock then?

Well searching for "Hitachi" on Amazon didn't give me the results I was looking for...

Searching for "Hitachi HDD" on amazon all the results I see are all of old models HDDs. They even have the production date printed on the label and all the ones I can see on Amazon are from 2011 or 2012 production date, and even those are labelled as Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Anything newer is labelled as HGST and is labelled as "HGST A Western Digital Brand". According to the wikipedia quote I posted earlier WD still sold under the HGST brand name until as late as 2018, so there's possibly still stock in stores of new HDDs that carry the "HGST A Western Digital Company" name on the box.

 

6 minutes ago, Cyberspirit said:

I wouldn't mind less HDD noise so, I'll consider them.

Right now the two available are:

WD Red 4TB 3.5" 5400rpm 64MB SATA3 WD40EFRX

SEAGATE IronWolf 4TB 3.5" 5900rpm 64MB SATA3 ST4000VN008

Don't use NAS drives if you want them to be quiet. I use the 7200RPM 6TB & 8TB IronWolfs and they're loud. The 4TB might be a bit better if its 5400RPM, but idk. Should be noise specs for them on the Seagate website in the product spec sheet.

[Cyberspirit]

19 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Don't use NAS drives if you want them to be quiet. I use the 7200RPM 6TB & 8TB IronWolfs and they're loud. The 4TB might be a bit better if its 5400RPM, but idk. Should be noise specs for them on the Seagate website in the product spec sheet.

The 4TB Ironwolf is 5900RPM and according to the sheets, it's about 26 dB max while seeking which is pretty nice. My current drives (WD10EZEX) are about 30 according to WD's website. Though, they are 7200 RPM.

[Spotty]

3 minutes ago, Cyberspirit said:

The 4TB Ironwolf is 5900RPM and according to the sheets, it's about 26 dB max while seeking which is pretty nice. My current drives (WD10EZEX) are about 30 according to WD's website. Though, they are 7200 RPM.

What's the price difference between the Ironwolf and the Barracuda?

[Cyberspirit]

Just now, Spotty said:

What's the price difference between the Ironwolf and the Barracuda?

About $22

[Spotty]

Just now, Cyberspirit said:

About $22

That's what, ~20% price difference? Go with the cheaper one (I'm guessing Barracuda). How much for the 6TB Barracuda?

[Cyberspirit]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

That's what, ~20% price difference? Go with the cheaper one (I'm guessing Barracuda). How much for the 6TB Barracuda?

Yeah, the Barracuda is cheaper. The 6TB is $180 or 52.000 HUF.

[Spotty]

Just go the 4TB Barracuda then.

Also another option not yet mentioned are PCIe SATA expansion cards if you do find that you need more SATA ports in the future.

[Cyberspirit]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Just go the 4TB Barracuda then.

Also another option not yet mentioned are PCIe SATA expansion cards if you do find that you need more SATA ports in the future.

You know what, I never thought of that. Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for the future.