# WD Caviar black VS. Samsung F3



## Gordon.C

Hello, 

I am about to buy new hard drive and have reads loads of forum discussions about there particular disk. There are people who say WD is better and there are people who say Samsung is better. 
Also the conversations I read were usually over 9 months old. 

What I like about the WD is the 64MB cache, two chips and 3 platters - I am very probably gonna settle for that one.
I have in mind this particular one http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=551 or its 1TB alternative. 

Which one would you pick?


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## spynoodle

Gordon.C said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am about to buy new hard drive and have reads loads of forum discussions about there particular disk. There are people who say WD is better and there are people who say Samsung is better.
> Also the conversations I read were usually over 9 months old.
> 
> What I like about the WD is the 64MB cache, two chips and 3 platters - I am very probably gonna settle for that one.
> I have in mind this particular one http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=551 or its 1TB alternative.
> 
> Which one would you pick?


The only black that I think compares in speed to the Spinpoint F3 1tb and 500gb models is the WD1002FAEX. If I could afford it, I would definitely get that one. I actually just ordered the Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ, but haven't gotten to try it yet. I guess I'll see how it goes.


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## Shane

If i were buying another HDD,Id probably go with the WD black 64mb cache,Its a good performer.


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## wag 42

If I was a gambling man, I would have to say the WD black is better. Larger cache, better warranty. 

I did recently buy 3 F3 1TB's. Not the best, but from what I have read, really good performance for the price ($30 cheaper per).


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## G25r8cer

It really depends on your wants and uses. If its going to be a OS Drive I would get the Black. Although I am using an F3 500gb as my OS drive. I have not had any stutters, slow downs, or any noise from the drive. I am personally sticking with Samsung drives as far as disk drives.


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## Drenlin

I have the F3 1TB...great drive. If I remember correctly, the 32MB WD black models were just a bit slower, so the 64MB model should be faster. The F3's are cheaper though, and I don't know that there'd be a _hugely_ noticeable difference. They do use less power than WD's Green drives, if that matters to you.


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## jevery

.
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I just got an F3 500GB, (HD502HJ), Here's my HD Tune,
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.
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Here's what I've found for the WD6401AALS,
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.
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From here, though I can't speak for the accuracy of the bench, but the F3 also looks better in Passmark
.


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## bomberboysk

The WD drives are actually technically faster for everyday use,its got 1.5ms faster random seeks. However, to be honest,between the 7200.12, Caviar Black, and Spinpoint F3, you can't go wrong with any of the three, go with whatever you can get the best price on. I've had some killer deals on 7200.12 drives, and they are quite peppy drives on the latest firmware.


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## Gordon.C

thx everyone, very good points stated. 

I am gonna use the drive for both OS and data (separate partitions) I am still going to go with the Caviar Black since it supports 6G speed therefore much more future proof and indeed the 5 year varanty


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## Drenlin

The Sata 6GB/s interface is more of a marketing thing for optical drives...but if the warranty is worth it, then :good:


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## bomberboysk

Drenlin said:


> The Sata 6GB/s interface is more of a marketing thing for optical drives...but if the warranty is worth it, then :good:



Hard drives

Yeah, mechanical drives arent pushing anywhere near the Sata 3Gb/s spec, let alone Sata 6Gb/s. Sata 6Gb/s is really more for SSD's.


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## spynoodle

bomberboysk said:


> Hard drives
> 
> Yeah, mechanical drives arent pushing anywhere near the Sata 3Gb/s spec, let alone Sata 6Gb/s. Sata 6Gb/s is really more for SSD's.


Agreed. The main performance increase with the 1002FAEX is actually the switch to 500gb platters. That, combined with the 64mb cache and dual-processors should make it a bit faster than the Samsung HD103SJ. It's probably about as fast as the 500gb Samsung. I considered getting the 1002FAEX, but my motherboard supposedly has issues with it. The 1001FALS is a good amount slower than the HD103SJ, since it has 333gb platters. Good choice on the drive! :good:


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## JakeMFBacon

the 500gb F3 is only 16mb cache.. does that matter since it's a smaller drive?


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## bomberboysk

JakeMFBacon said:


> the 500gb F3 is only 16mb cache.. does that matter since it's a smaller drive?



Cache isnt especially vital, however at this point in time i wouldnt even consider a 500gb drive, as even the cheapest 500gb drives are only like $7 less than a 1TB spinpoint F3 is currently(the HD103SJ is out of stock on newegg currently, but it has a $15 coupon code going last i checked).


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## JakeMFBacon

bomberboysk said:


> Cache isnt especially vital, however at this point in time i wouldnt even consider a 500gb drive, as even the cheapest 500gb drives are only like $7 less than a 1TB spinpoint F3 is currently(the HD103SJ is out of stock on newegg currently, but it has a $15 coupon code going last i checked).




Yeah i remember seeing that $15 code yesterday, but looked today and it was out of stock, but didn't show the promo code. Hopefully it's just not on there because the product is out of stock.


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## wag 42

Check out Superbiiz (ewiz.com). They have them for under $60 ($59.49) using football15 promo code.


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## bomberboysk

JakeMFBacon said:


> Yeah i remember seeing that $15 code yesterday, but looked today and it was out of stock, but didn't show the promo code. Hopefully it's just not on there because the product is out of stock.


Coupon codes are never shown on OOS items.


wag 42 said:


> Check out Superbiiz (ewiz.com). They have them for under $60 ($59.49) using football15 promo code.


ewiz always has some good deals on the HD103SJ's.


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## spynoodle

bomberboysk said:


> Cache isnt especially vital, however at this point in time i wouldnt even consider a 500gb drive, as even the cheapest 500gb drives are only like $7 less than a 1TB spinpoint F3 is currently(the HD103SJ is out of stock on newegg currently, but it has a $15 coupon code going last i checked).


Lol, that's why I got mine.  I got it for $60 while it was on sale last weekend. I was thinking about the 500gb F3, but it cost $55 and I saw the 1tb one go on sale for $60 the week before too. Patience is DEFINITELY a virtue. :good:


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## wag 42

^^^ I hear that. I bought 3 of those at $60 each about 3 or 4 weeks ago...


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## bomberboysk

spynoodle said:


> Lol, that's why I got mine.  I got it for $60 while it was on sale last weekend. I was thinking about the 500gb F3, but it cost $55 and I saw the 1tb one go on sale for $60 the week before too. Patience is DEFINITELY a virtue. :good:



Yeah, and the 1TB 7200.12's can be had for pretty much the same price as well, newegg generally has either the spinpoint F3 or 7200.12 for $59 after a coupon code or something, the 7200.12's are quite peppy drives with the latest firmware.


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## Ryan_Fpv

They're both pretty close performing drives. I ordered a Samsung F3 1TB 2 days ago, and before buying it I had a quick look at some reviews of the drive around the net, and most of them said that it's a great performing drive for the money, and that in *some* benchmark tests it outperformed the WD Black. The WD Black also outperformed it in other tests.
I'd have to say that the Black is probably a tiny bit better as far as performance, but for me at least, not better by enough to justify being 50% more expensive than the F3.

... Just gotta wait for my damn F3 to arrive...


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## Drenlin

^ that



bomberboysk said:


> Hard drives



That's what I meant to type 



bomberboysk said:


> ewiz always has some good deals on the HD103SJ's.



+1, that's where I got mine. Shipped pretty fast too.


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## spynoodle

bomberboysk said:


> Yeah, and the 1TB 7200.12's can be had for pretty much the same price as well, newegg generally has either the spinpoint F3 or 7200.12 for $59 after a coupon code or something, the 7200.12's are quite peppy drives with the latest firmware.


Yeah, I was pretty much choosing between the 1tb Caviar Blue, the HD103SJ, and the 1tb 7200.12. I chose the Samsung partially just for exploration. I've already had a WD for ~5 years, so I already know that they're good, but I wanted to see how Samsung is when it comes to reliability. Plus, the thing's supposedly really quiet and really fast, so I thought that would fit my media center quite nicely.


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## terror_alpha

*My samsung drives died on me*

I had a RAID 5 set up with 4 x 1TB Samsung Hard drives. one fine morning, i got a message from my RAID controller saying that 2 of the drives need attention. 1 hour later, 2 of the 4 drives died, simultaneously. Luckily, I was paranoid enough to back up a RAID 5. I RMA's not 2 but 3 of the drives because one of the remaining 2 also started acting up. These hard drives were less then 6 months old. My 1TB WD Caviar Black has more then 10,000 hours of use and is still going strong. It took a lot of use and abuse (constant wiping and reinstalling).

Long story short. If you want RAID, I would not recommend any of the drives you listed. Otherwise, the caviar black is king. In the end, the WD black drive performs a ton better because it has features that others don't (dual processors, StablleTrac, etc). This hard drive handles intense load very well, way better then the hitachi, Seagate (1TB 7200.12) and samsung drives ever did, in my system anyway.

There, I hope that helps.


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## JakeMFBacon

Newegg used to have the corsair force 60gb ssd for $145 now its $155 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0233124&cm_re=60gb_ssd-_-20-233-124-_-Product

But this one is $145 shipped. would you guys recommend it? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0226151&cm_re=60gb_ssd-_-20-226-151-_-Product

nevermind just saw that it's out of stock haha...


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## Gordon.C

So I got the Caviar Black I was asking about and I am quite satisfied with the outcome. I can only recommend it.


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## Hsv_Man

Nice one man yeah i will probally look into getting a WD caviar black when i run out of space on the seagate barracudas.


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