WD. SE drives still ok?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael
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M

Michael

In some newsgroup, perhaps it was this one a fellow mentioned that Western
Digital special edition drives have been recently changed to a lighter
(cheaper) construction, may be basically the same as their lower cost ones
only with 8 mb cache and he feels are less reliable.
I have always used WD with good luck. Since I build computers for
reliability at least as much as speed I want to know if I can stick with
those drives.

Any comments will be appreciated.
 
Michael said:
In some newsgroup, perhaps it was this one a fellow mentioned that Western
Digital special edition drives have been recently changed to a lighter
(cheaper) construction, may be basically the same as their lower cost ones
only with 8 mb cache and he feels are less reliable.
I have always used WD with good luck. Since I build computers for
reliability at least as much as speed I want to know if I can stick with
those drives.

Any comments will be appreciated.

--
Michael Hobbs
Minneapolis, Minnesota
(e-mail address removed)
remove X's to reply
Click to expand...

If anything I think the 'newer' models are better. Since they went to higher
density platters performance has picked up slightly and less moving parts ie
fewer platters for a given capacity equates to less that can possibly go
wrong in the long term. The bearings I've noticed are also less prone to
whining problems in the newer drives, as it was quite common to get drives
that had or developed annoying bearing whine in the older models.
You pays your money and take the risk, there's no guarantees with any model
or manufacturer.
 
JM said:
If anything I think the 'newer' models are better. Since they went
to less moving parts ie fewer platters for a given capacity equates to
less that can possibly go wrong in the long term.
Click to expand...

Yes, but that means that you are confining yourself to only use the low
capacity models in the range.
 
Like you, I have always had a good experience with WD drives. I purchased an
80GB 8MB cache WD drive about 6 months ago. It has the physical appearance
of a quality drive, and I've had no problems with it at all.

However, no matter what the product, there will always be naysayers as well
as promoters. As for me, as long as the WD products I buy keep performing
like the WD products I have purchased in the past, I'll remain a WD
customer.
 
Folkert Rienstra said:
Yes, but that means that you are confining yourself to only use the low
capacity models in the range.
Click to expand...

Capacity has increased so much in recent times that even common low budget
80GB drives are larger than most PC users can fill. Personally I prefer to
run several drives rather than one monstrous large one. Something about the
old adage of not putting all your eggs in the one basket is always in the
back of my mind as drives increase in size. I'm currently using 3x120GB 2
platter JB's and I don't think I'm giving up more than a Bee's Dick in
performance to what a single 250GB JB would yeild but I feel more
comfortable knowing what I value is spread over 3 drives rather than one. ;)
Also price wise the larger drives are not as cheap $ for GB.
 
Capacity has increased so much in recent times that even common low budget
80GB drives are larger than most PC users can fill. Personally I prefer to
run several drives rather than one monstrous large one. Something about the
old adage of not putting all your eggs in the one basket is always in the
back of my mind as drives increase in size. I'm currently using 3x120GB 2
platter JB's and I don't think I'm giving up more than a Bee's Dick in
performance to what a single 250GB JB would yeild but I feel more
comfortable knowing what I value is spread over 3 drives rather than one. ;)
Also price wise the larger drives are not as cheap $ for GB.
Click to expand...

Yea, but heat and noise output from three drives is a lot more than
one big drive. I'm looking to selling my three HDD's and getting o
 
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