Why is this HDD 60$ more than one that looks the same to me besides...

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

So here's a WD Black 2tb for 120$

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822236624

Here's a Seagate 2tb for 60$

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822178993

Both are from reputable companies, both are 2TB, both are 7200RPM...The ONLY difference that I can personally see is that the WD one comes with a 5 year warranty vs a 2 year warranty on the Seagate.

Am I paying 60$ for a 3 year extended warranty? Or am I missing something here?

zoltan.boese · Feb 8, 2018

I can not say much about the price building strategy, but if you read the product pages there are some differences:
The WD black operates with Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR), has a longer warranty, and claims to feature "... a dual-core processor that offers twice the processing capability as a standard single-core processor to maximize drive performance."
If it is any good, you will learn from reviews:
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/western-digital/western-digital-black
https://hddmag.com/western-digital-black-review-35-inch/
vs
https://hddmag.com/seagate-barracuda-review/

It depends on your use case and budget, but the best is having your games on an ssd.

Rdslw · Feb 8, 2018

'WD Black is quite fast too, with an average read/write speed of 282 MB per second.' and its meant to be used in high load environment, but still 8/5 use type.

so you pay for longer endurance you see here:
https://techreport.com/r.x/2016_5_17_Backblaze_releases_quarter_one_2016_storage_report/drive-stats-2016-q1-failure-by-mfg.png
and for ~50% higher transfer rates (still weaker than most ssd's but almost x3 than 2.5 HDD!)

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

So, I have an 8tb External HDD and a 256gb 960 Evo that I use as my boot drive with 2 games on it and 90gb extra space.

I'm going to buy another 960 Evo in either 512gb or 1tb for mass storage of my games, and I want to buy 2 HDDs for mass storage of movies, music, pictures etc where I don't really care if it's super fast.

If you were in my shoes, would you personally go with 2 of the Seagates or 2 of the WDs?

Sounds to me like you're saying - in my situation - go for Seagate.

zoltan.boese · Feb 8, 2018

testtube5 :

As you just wrote, speed is not a selling point. Go for the cheaper one or if you have money to spend look for a NAS HDD such as the WD red or the Seagate IronWolf .

Phillip Corcoran · Feb 8, 2018

Between WD & Seagate it's no-brainer.

WD are better quality (which is why they cost more have longer warranty).

In my experience Seagate HDDs have given me nothing but grief, I only buy WD ones now (and I haven't had to replace one of them for years).

I've moved this thread to the appropriate forum >> Storage

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

So man, now I'm confused lol, people suggesting WD and people suggesting Seagate...could I get a few more people replying with their suggestion on what I should do / their experience with both WD and Seagate?

zoltan.boese · Feb 8, 2018

testtube5 :

Contra argument for Seagate: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q1-2017/
... high failure rates

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

I was told by more than 1 person that those results were somehow invalid / slightly inaccurate.

I have to go to work but I'll research why those people were claiming that when I get home.

In the meantime, if anyone else feels like chiming in on the WD vs Seagate debate, please feel free. And thanks for all the help so far guys.

seagate_surfer · Feb 8, 2018

testtube5 :

Backblaze is definitely a leader in the industry and if you'd like to see what they've got in the works, here is another interesting article to read: Backblaze Blog - 400 Petabytes Cloud Storage

We always advocate 2 big rules:

1. Always use any hard drive for the purpose it was engineered for
2. Always back up your data.

As far as performance 7200 RPM, 3.5" hard drives go, if you'd like something with a little more speed and 5 year warranty, you could also check out our FireCuda, which has an SSD cache on which the drive intuitively places your most frequently accessed data for faster load times, along with a larger traditional spinning storage capacity.

Regardless of which route you decide is right for you in the end, thank you for considering Seagate!

mjslakeridge · Feb 8, 2018

I personally have not had any hard drive fail in the 20 or so years I have been using PC's at home. I have used Seagate, WD, Toshiba. But I operate under the assumption that every day when I turn on any of my computers that the OS drive and storage drives will have failed. This is particularly true with my ProTools Audio recording rig. I have my audio session files backed up in 2 separate places. My OS drives on all computers get backed up (imaged) from time to time using Acronis True Image.

madmatt30 · Feb 8, 2018

As renowned a drive as the wd black is it's overpriced imo plain & simple.

Especially for your intended use.

You're dismissing the Toshiba dt01 & p300 drives & also the wd blue 5400rpm drives.

They're all similar priced to the seagate.

On a personal level I solely stick to Toshiba drives now , currently been running 7 DT01 drives for between 2 & 4 years without a single issue.
In the uk they're easily the best priced.

I dont have any massive issue with seagate , they had production issues years back with a certain range of 2tb drives which crippled their reputation.
I don't think that issue exists nowadays , Wd always decent - I don't agree with the blue range in capacities of more than 1tb being 5400rpm whem they are essentially wd greens with less aggressive head parking & power saving.

Ive had both seagate & wd drives fail in the past - that said my 2 oldest working drives (some 8 years old) are both seagate models

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

Thanks for all the responses guys.

The reason I decided to post this is because some seller on Newegg.com sent me a WD 2TB Green when I ordered a WD 2TB Black, and I'm having a TON of trouble trying to get the seller to even respond to me to get a replacement or refund (has been a week, no response).

I'm kind've conflicted on what I should do with that situation. On one side I almost want to just keep the Green and not even go through the hassle of trying to deal with these guys, on another side I want a replacement and use the Black version just for slightly faster load times in games until I can afford the 1TB 960 Evo, and on yet another side I just want a flat out full refund cause of all the hassle this has been and so that I can maybe get 2 of those Seagate drives in place of my original choice...ORRR I may just sell this Green one on Ebay and give that seller the most horrible review ever if they don't make this right.

Although, after thinking about it...a single (or double in RAID 1) WD Blue 4TB also looks appealing for the price considering I don't really need the speed.

Everything I have is already backed up at least in 1 (sometimes 2) forms so, not really worried about that at the moment.

Oh well, I have a while to consider my options...choices, choices, choices=P.

mjslakeridge · Feb 8, 2018

Does Newegg have a process to deal with problems with seller's on their site, or do they make you deal directly with the seller? I have bought stuff from Newegg but never had a problem, so I don't know their procedures.

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

mjslakeridge :

I've never had a problem with Newegg or any of the sellers either, but that also makes me nervous about how this may turn out.

From what I've read, Newegg will help me out if the seller does not. However, I'm not sure to what extent. Their guarantee says something along the lines of: I must contact the seller within 10 days, the item must be defective or has never arrived, you must have returned the item to the seller, etc.

I'm checked off this entire list *except* that I didn't receive a defective item, I received the wrong item. I don't think this will be a problem but like I said, I've never had this happen to me before so I'll be nervous until everything is resolved.

I swear to god if these idiots mail me back a week later saying something along the lines of "We're not replacing your item just because you don't like the color green" =P

mjslakeridge · Feb 8, 2018

I would make the argument that you never received the item you ordered, instead you received an item you did not order. It could just be a mistake in their shipping department where they boxed the wrong item, or they may be doing it intentionally to overcharge buyers who don't know the difference in specs.

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

I'm not sure that I can turn around and tell Newegg that I didn't receive the item after contacting them about receiving the wrong item. Plus I'd rather be honest about it. They have the tracking and can tell that it at least got to my house. We'll see what happens. I'm not going down without a fight.

But you're certainly right and I thought that as well. They could easily be trying to screw over uneducated customers.

mjslakeridge · Feb 8, 2018

No, I still think my argument is valid. I am not saying you should tell them you received nothing, just not the product you paid for. As an example, lets say you ordered an expensive leather jacket, and when it arrived it was vinyl. You have not received what you paid for. Same in your situation.

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

Ah, I see what you're saying. Honestly I would see it that way if I were customer service too. The "wrong" product certainly should be considered a "defective" product or at the very least the item I paid for "didn't arrive".

I can see the seller giving me some issue over this, since them purposely shipping a WD Green vs Black to screw me over is just as easy as me getting the Black in the mail and swapping out my own Green to screw them over. It really kinda sucks as it's their word vs mine. But I'm rather confident that Newegg will understand that argument. From what I've heard they're pretty good with this kind of stuff.

If the seller ends up giving me problems and Newegg makes it right I think I'm just going to order straight through Newegg from now on.

mjslakeridge · Feb 8, 2018

Does the seller have a good rating? If so, it was probably just a shipping mistake. If they have a bad rating because they are ripping off buyers, I don't think they would be on Newegg for long, but I really don't know how Newegg monitors it's sellers.

testtube5 · Feb 8, 2018

The seller has an okay rating? I guess? 85% ish but Newegg users are notorious for giving lower ratings than on other sites from what I've seen. I mean, take a look at any tech item you can think of on Newegg and then on Amazon and you'll see what I mean. So who knows. Most of the people that have given these guys bad ratings have only complained about super slow (30 day+) shipping (and unfortunately, bad customer service), but I couldn't find very many wrong or defective item posts.

mjslakeridge · Feb 8, 2018

Well if it has been a week and others have complained about poor customer service, I would keep pestering them. "the squeaky wheel gets the grease".

failboat · Feb 9, 2018

It's all supply and demand. Old drives aren't being made anymore so if there is a large supply their prices stay low. They go up very high as they get run out because people who put them in raid configurations typically replace drives with the same model. So they are more willing to overpay.

Why is this HDD 60$ more than one that looks the same to me besides...

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