[Kramy]

I keep seeing people posting that the "F3 1TB is the fastest drive."

That's wrong on so many levels... Hitachi drives have higher sequential speeds... WD Blacks have lower access times... 10k/15k RPM drives often have higher/lower of both...

I've also seen a lot of posts recently saying "The F3 1TB is faster than WD Black 1TB"

That's also wrong. And earlier today I stumbled across proof. I've been saying for many weeks that a new revision of WD1002FAEX's is out, which is far faster. Today I stumbled across some benchmarks of the newer (and quieter) revision.

I've also copied some F3 benchmarks from another thread, for comparison. Enjoy.

Now, I have a request. (not aimed at anyone in particular)

Please stop recommending the F3 1TB over the WD Black 1TB when their price is equal. The new WD1002FAEX has got Speed, Reliability, Warranty, and now noise levels on its side. I know the HD103SJ has awesome prices in the US and Australia, but in Canada and many EU countries the Blacks have better prices.

It saddens me when I see people paying $75 for an F3 1TB in Canada when they can get a WD 1TB Black for about $5 cheaper...

And all because of outdated information.

Anyway, /end rant.

 

[accskyman]

I'm not going to say one is better than the other without actually testing them myself, but are those tests from the same systems?

 

[Trippen Out]

im out of the loop. i didnt realize there was a revision to the black 1tb drives.

 

[Biscuits_N_Gravy]

Interesting.

 

[mdatmo]

Even if the tests aren't from the same system HDDs are slow enough that doubt the chipset, CPU or RAM would bottleneck the drive. The performance is close enough that I think price must be the deciding factor when choosing between these drives.

 

[Kramy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by accskyman;14903017
I'm not going to say one is better than the other without actually testing them myself, but are those tests from the same systems?

Different systems, but should be the same southbridge / SATA controller. (Intel ones - both are from SB builds, I believe)

There's no major bias from a dedicated RAID card or anything like that. RST versions could be different, though.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Trippen Out;14903075
im out of the loop. i didnt realize there was a revision to the black 1tb drives.

That's what I wanted to point out. It's significantly faster than the older revisions... it puts everything out there on review sites to shame!

It's about 15-20MB/sec faster.
Quote:

Originally Posted by mdatmo;14903106
Even if the tests aren't from the same system HDDs are slow enough that doubt the chipset, CPU or RAM would bottleneck the drive. The performance is close enough that I think price must be the deciding factor when choosing between these drives.

I agree.

Base it on price, and whether you want (for example) a 5 year warranty. But price is the main thing. And when they're roughly equal in price (or even favouring the Black), don't go for the F3 1TB because "The F3 1TB is the fastest drive."

 

[Vlasov_581]

love wd drives

 

[SacredChaos]

I think you just made up my mind lol. Someone just recommended the F3 to me in my HDD questions thread, but this settles it.

 

[parityboy]

@Kramy

The problem with Western Digital Caviar Black drives (at least in the UK), is that the price is never the same as the F3; it's always £20 more expensive. Price-wise, the latest Caviar Blue WD10EALX units are closest to the F3, but are noticeably slower, at least on sequential transfers, and are still £10 more.

The only thing I could use to justify the price premium that Western Digital hold over other drive manufacturers is that their warranties are solid and their RMA process is second to none.

 

[Kramy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by parityboy;14914334
@Kramy

The problem with Western Digital Caviar Black drives (at least in the UK), is that the price is never the same as the F3; it's always £20 more expensive.

I wonder why Canada is so different?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=F3%201TB

$74.99 + $10.74 shipping. Sometimes it has free shipping, and sometimes it has a $59.99 price. (but usually it's with a coupon code applied after tax, which really lessens the discount)

WD 1TB Blacks are usually on sale for about $69.99 (often with free shipping); I just checked, and this week it's $73.99. That's $27 cheaper than the US price. Western Digital must love us.

 

[denial_]

WD1001FALS (older): 32 MB cache, Sata II, three platters
WD1002FAEX (newer): 64MB cache, Sata III, two platters (higher data density translate into faster drives)

Although I said "newer", the WD1002FAEX is about 18 months old. This is the earliest review I could find :
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Western-Digital-SATA-6Gbsec-1TB-Caviar-Black-WD1002FAEX-Review?aid=870&type=expert
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy;14914542
WD 1TB Blacks are usually on sale for about $69.99 (often with free shipping); I just checked, and this week it's $73.99. That's $27 cheaper than the US price. Western Digital must love us.

And we love WD in Canada

 

[Kramy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by denial_;14918552
WD1001FALS (older): 32 MB cache, Sata II, three platters
WD1002FAEX (newer): 64MB cache, Sata III, two platters (higher data density translate into faster drives)

Although I said "newer", the WD1002FAEX is about 18 months old. This is the earliest review I could find:

That review shows 66/108/135 MB/sec speeds in HDTune rather than 74/119/151 MB/sec speeds.

It's definitely a newer faster revision of the WD1002FAEX.

I've heard the original 1002FAEX's were three-platter designs, which was partly responsible for how noisy they were. These are definitely two-platter.

 

[TFL Replica]

The quality of F3's has nose dived. F3 batches from at least one year ago and onwards show a disturbing performance drop after only being moderately used for 6 months. I would rather buy a Seagate than a Samsung but my last 2 purchases were Hitachi.

 

[996gt2]

If you are using these drives as a storage drive and have an SSD as the primary, then the speed difference between a 1TB WD Black, 1TB Hitachi, or 1TB Samsung F3 is probably irrelevant.

Just throwing it out there.

 

[FreekyGTi]

hm...i bought a WD 1tb black 2 weeks ago...that thing was LOUD and not all that fast...it was extremely slow at copying files back and forth to the drive...i ended up RMAing the Black and getting a F3 and couldnt be happier...this drive seems a little faster at boot and copying the same files i copied with the WD drive are at least 10-15% faster

now could have be a bad drive or whatever...but i dont think the 30$ difference on the price tag for the WD Black is worth the extra noise and slightly better speeds (according to the OP)

 

[Cyrilmak]

I have owned and used both. I prefer the Samsung F3R's over the WD Blacks. Besides the fact the F3R's have the RAID firmware, I've found them to be faster in RAID 1 with less issues than the Blacks.

 

[wot]

1 Tb Black cost 74.90€
1 Tb F3 - 53.90€ right now.

tapajabatalk

 

[Kramy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TFL Replica;14918957
The quality of F3's has nose dived. F3 batches from at least one year ago and onwards show a disturbing performance drop after only being moderately used for 6 months.

I've noticed the same thing with Hitachi drives. I thought it was Hitachi specific, but recently I noticed the same thing with some of my WD Greens.

My WD Black and Raptor are as fast as the day I got them...
Quote:

Originally Posted by 996gt2;14918974
If you are using these drives as a storage drive and have an SSD as the primary, then the speed difference between a 1TB WD Black, 1TB Hitachi, or 1TB Samsung F3 is probably irrelevant.

Just throwing it out there.

Yeah. Access times matter the most for mixed OS-Games drives, which often have the head seeking out of position due to background tasks. A fast seeking drive like the 1TB Black feels a lot less stuttery in high demand situations like that, and when multi-tasking.

But if you have an SSD as your OS drive and you want a dedicated games drive, your drive's head isn't going to be moving out of position constantly... in such a case, access times matter far less. The F3 is going to perform very well.
Quote:

Originally Posted by FreekyGTi;14918993
hm...i bought a WD 1tb black 2 weeks ago...that thing was LOUD and not all that fast...it was extremely slow at copying files back and forth to the drive...i ended up RMAing the Black and getting a F3 and couldnt be happier...this drive seems a little faster at boot and copying the same files i copied with the WD drive are at least 10-15% faster

now could have be a bad drive or whatever...but i dont think the 30$ difference on the price tag for the WD Black is worth the extra noise and slightly better speeds (according to the OP)

You probably got an older revision. The newest revision is apparently quite quiet, and benchmarks like a beast.

Both are still in the channel. It takes a while for all the old stock to be cleared out. It goes from WD to major warehouses, then to large eStores. Depending on how long it takes the warehouse+eStore to clear out their old stock, you can still get the old revision for many months.

It partially depends on popularity. I picked up a Hitachi drive last month (for benchmarking!

...and external backup) and it had a manufacture date of Feb 2011. (7 months prior to when it was purchased)

I'm in Canada, and I buy most of my drives off NCIX. When I last purchased a WD drive there, it had a manufacture date of just two weeks prior. I didn't realize they could go from factory to the main warehouses so quickly. For whatever reason, Canadians seem to love Western Digital drives, and they really push them through the channel because of that...

That said, there are still old revisions up here as well - but a lot more people are getting the newest fastest revision.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrilmak;14919044
Besides the fact the F3R's have the RAID firmware, I've found them to be faster in RAID 1 with less issues than the Blacks.

Yes, they have proper TLER/CCTL values. Blacks are technically desktop drives, just like regular F3's. If your drive ever encounters a bad sector, your F3 or Black will lock up for at least 30 seconds. F3R's should lock up at max for 7 seconds. They're also binned/tested a bit better than regular F3's. (part of the reason regular F3's are cheaper)
Quote:

Originally Posted by wot;14919273
1 Tb Black cost 74.90€
1 Tb F3 - 53.90€ right now.

tapajabatalk

Seems like that's how it is in most countries.

But in Canada:

F3 1TB - $74.99 + $10.74 shipping = $85.73
WD Black 1TB - $73.99 + FS

Often shipping is free on the F3 and the price drops to as little as $60, but I've seen WD Blacks at $69.99 + FS...

It's weird, but they must be favoured enough and have high enough volume that they've dropped the prices on their stuff in their Canadian channels.

 

[Drojdier]

I have some questions that you guys might clarify for me: the F3 HDD has 32Mb buffer and uses SATA II, correct?
With such close performances, it seems to me that the 64Mb of the WD and SATA III don't to much. Are these "improvements" sort of overkill at the moment?

I ask because I need to make a decission between the 2, and here the price difference is of about 30 US $ in favor of F3. In a few months I plan to buy an SSD for the OS and 1-2 games "in playing".

Thanks!

 

[parityboy]

@Drojdier

With that difference in price, I'd say get the F3.