Looking for 2TB HDD for Antec MX-1 enclosure

[silvery]

I have an eSata port on my PC so I would like to take advantage of this and buy a new drive for my Antec MX-1 (3.5") enclosure since I was impressed with the transfer rate when backing up to an older 500GB Seagate Barracuda Drive that was pulled out of my old PC. The Antec site says "Dual output interface - USB 2.0 and eSATA (external Serial ATA) allows you to transfer data up to 480Mbps or 3Gbps respectively ". So I guess it does not matter if the drive is 6Gbps. And I cannot find info for the eSata port that came on my Dell XPS 8300 desktop.

Even though Costco has a good price on a Seagate GoFlex 3TB external HDD currently at $119, I am unsure about reliability of 3TB drives and enclosed ones at that. I know many people rip out drives from the factory enclosures and use their own, but that voids the warranty.

I am therefore looking for suggestions for a 2 TB drive, I am more concerned with reliabilty, this drive will be used to maintain the most recent backup for my pc; I plan to update it every week with FBackup's mirror backup. So it will be a storage drive for anywhere from 1 to 1.3 TB of data.

I am confused by the recent merging of HDD manufacturers (which drives were manufactured by what company pre-merge, which drives' product lines were affected by the floods, etc.) and what brand is considered decent these days. I know the warranties have dropped recently, from what I can tell retail kits have longer warranties than bare drives. Prices have finally started to drop though nothing stands out. I'm trying to stay below $120 if I can.

I've looked at these so far, any other suggestions and/or comments on these choices are what I seek. I live near a Fry's and have been watching the prices for a month or so but nothing spectacular yet. I'm can hold off for a few months but I still don't know which one to buy.

Seagate Barracuda STBD2000101 $109 one confusing aspect is the website says 5 year warranty however the boxes at my local store for this model number only say 1 year and I can't find the warranty at the Seagate site.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate+-+Barracuda+2TB+Internal+Serial+ATA+Hard+Drive+for+Desktops/4919412.p?id=1218577515991&skuId=4919412

Western Digital WDBAAY0020HNC-NRSN has 3 year warranty according to WD site.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+Digital+-+Caviar+Green+2TB+Internal+Serial+ATA+Hard+Drive/9234465.p?id=1218064150518&skuId=923446
I'm wondering if that WD retail kit has the Caviar Green WD20EARX inside which has a 2 year warranty for the bare drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136891

HSGT (formerly Hitachi now part of WD) 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 has 3 year warranty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145473

What would you guys choose for such an enclosure for storage purposes from what is currently available on the market? THANKS!

 

[nhasian]

I would stick with whatever the box says in regards to the warranty. different models carry different warranties. I love Western Digital but I'd avoid the Green series. I had bad luck with those when they first came out with some firmware problems... probably fixed by now but personally i'd stay away from them anyway.

 

[silvery]

Thanks for the input about the WD Green's I've been wondering about those, have not had any experience with green drives before. So in terms of getting a WD 2 TB drive then that only leaves the Black line which are at least double the cost, I'd consider them for boot/system drives, but for a storage drive which will be accessed once a week, I think it's kind of expensive. So your input narrows the field somewhat. Thanks very much!

Though... I wonder if the 2 TB WD Blacks will drop to near the 120/130 level anytime soon...