Suggest 1TB HDD for media player

[raksrules]

I am soon planning to buy a media player and it has an internal SATA interface to connect a 3.5" HDD. So i have decided to go with a 1TB HDD.

1. Which brand would be good - Seagate or WD ??
2. WD Green and Black 1TB have too much price difference..why ??
3. Internationally Warranty - I plan to buy HDD from here itself so it is very important that i get International warranty. This is very very important
4. Usage is for media player so i will be playing 1080p videos also off it.
5. Also Bittorrent downloads would happen on the HDD.

Please suggest.

[Krow]

1). The choice is yours to make. I assume you are buying a 1TB Internal HDD. Seagate has personally given me some troubles in recent times, but their service is good. They replace the drive in 4-6 days, but if you lose your data due to HDD failure, then they don't help you. WD on the other hand has a lesser failure rate. The newer 7200.12 Seagate drives have lesser failure issues too. If you are going to use this drive for only storing/backup, then WD Green is best for you.

2). WD Green is a power saving drive. It consumes very less power and is clocked at 5400 RPM. Hence it is best for storage/backup. WD Black is a premium drive with a clock of 7200 RPM AFAIK. It has lots of other features like Data LifeGuard, etc, so it is a performance drive from WD. This is ideal for gamers or those who move files in and out often. Hence, we can see that the WD Black is expensive due to better performance, although Green is the best option for backup.

3). I have no clue about international warranty, but both provide 3-5year warranties.

4). WD Green or Seagate 7200.12 both are similarly priced and both can do the job of playing 1080p very well as long as you have a decent processor and graphics.

5). These will in no way be affected by the HDD.

I personally would recommend the WD Green as it is an excellent buy for your needs, but if you can get it cheaper, then go for the Seagate 7200.12 1TB. Remember to scan the HDD for bad sectors using their disk checking utilities provided on their respective websites. Do this before you store anything on the HDD. That shall save you a lot of headaches later.

OFFTOPIC: Are you really from China?

[raksrules]

^^ I will possibly never be using the HDD in a PC but in a media player. AC Ryan PlayON type media player.

[Krow]

That does not affect the reply much. Internal SATA interface right? That means all HDD's will be compatible.

[raksrules]

Yes but what about International warranty and what to choose between Seagate 7200.12 and WD Caviar green ?

[Krow]

I vote for Green. I have no clue about International Warranty.

[raksrules]

^^ I am also now inclined towards the Green. I have shot mails to WD and Seagate APAC regions asking them about International warranty.

[Krow]

Please let us know if you get a reply. We all would like to know a thing or two about warranty.

[raksrules]

Ok so it will be WD Green 1TB finally.

What is its approximate cost and is it ok if the HDD runs for 8-10hrs daily on a regular (not daily but) basis ?

[Krow]

No it should not be a problem at all. My friend has the HDD and he runs it for weeks at once sometimes (huge downloads). The cost here is Rupees 4000 approx.

[raksrules]

Ok i got reply from WD and they confirmed that it will have International warranty.
But i had seen on their website that warranty is specific to regions like Asia-Pacific, Middle East, North America etc

So incase i buy from here and use in India then it is ok but suppose someone intends to use it in say USA then for RMA purpose he has to ship to an APAC region RMA center.
Not completely sure though.

[Anorion]

I'd say go for the WD Green, as the Seagate one is too common, and slightly larger. Slower than the Black though.

[Krow]

^+1. WD Green is best for backup too.

[raksrules]

Yup going for WD green now..Will be buying over the weekend

[thewisecrab]

@Krow

He isn't from Chinkiland. Just there for some project afaik. Check out his threads on TE and you'll know

[desiibond]

Western Digital Caviar Black 1Tb is now available for 5.5k-6k. this is a terrific price for this HDD. go for it.

[kalpik]

One does not need the WD Black for just storing songs/videos etc!

WD Green has a 5 year warranty.

[Krow]

Originally Posted by thewisecrab

@Krow

He isn't from Chinkiland. Just there for some project afaik. Check out his threads on TE and you'll know

Hmmm... I asked him and he didn't reply. Bad Bad...

Originally Posted by desiibond

Western Digital Caviar Black 1Tb is now available for 5.5k-6k. this is a terrific price for this HDD. go for it.

WTH! Super duper hyper amazing price. If it is 5.5k, then its a must buy, trash the Green and buy this.

Originally Posted by kalpik

One does not need the WD Black for just storing songs/videos etc!

WD Green has a 5 year warranty.

Yes, but it does give superior performance. The point is that for that price, its extreme VFM. Considering especially that the WD Green was available for 5k three months ago. Thanks for informing about the warranty.

[raksrules]

Originally Posted by Krow

Hmmm... I asked him and he didn't reply. Bad Bad...

Sorry Sorry

I did not see that question. And no i am not from Chinki Land but from Aamchi Mumbai, just here for a project. Will be back soon.
Still not ordered the HDD as it is not available currently in Shanghai warehouse of that website. Will be ordering when available and yes it is green only that i am ordering as primary usage is media player for playing videos etc off it.

[Krow]

Hmmm... Nice! When you find the time, let us know more about your project too. Btw, why don't you use your TE avatar here too? Its cool. And yup, as said a hundred times before, the WD Green is a cool choice.

[raksrules]

^^ I put the avatar...see now..But that GIF does not work

[Krow]

^Strange... Which format is it in? You can try grabbing the avatar's screenie at the point when he says WTF, but that will take a lot of patience.

[raksrules]

^^^haha...wait i will try to do something..But the essence of the pic goes if it is just a picture rather than that GIF.
Oh yes it is a GIF image.

[Krow]

Strange, Other people do have GIF avatar's in TDF, I really am confused as to what is wrong here.

[raksrules]

Ok so as i have fixed to WD Green. But here is something i want to ask.

I really don't know much about what all to check before i put the HDD to its use. Please suggest what are the first things / checks etc i should do after i get the HDD ?

Please note that i do not have a computer to test (only a laptop) this HDD and it will mounted in a media player which will be accessed with either through a LAN cable or Wifi Connection (from the lappy)

[Krow]

Errr.... LAN cable should do the trick IMO. Get whatever disk checking utility from WD's website. Then scan it for bad sectors and use any good HDD health monitoring utility from www.google.com (which has some decent reviews) and keep scanning once every month.

[raksrules]

^^ I forgot. USB cable connection is also an option. My Bad.
That should be ok as i will connect the media player to computer as normal USB HDD (offcourse with external power).

@Krow
I will do that for sure

[thewisecrab]

http://www.hdtune.com/

Maybe that?

[raksrules]

SO finally i have got my WD Caviar green 1TB for around 4100 Rupees. But no media player yet so it is just lying in my drawer. I have registered the drive on WD website and it shows warranty till August 2012 possibly because the date of Manufacture on drive is 20 July 2009. I did not know and so expected the warranty to b 5 years but is only 3.

But one thing i noticed is that there is no jumper fixed in the drive. Is this expected. There are those 8 pins there. I am not sure so asking. The last drive i had bought was 5 years back and it was IDE and it had a small jumper to make the HDD in master or slave mode. I hope this is not a problem.