Mainstream, Business or Eco? Samsung Terabyte Drives Compared
It is getting increasingly difficult to pick the right hard drive for your PC. While users used to check for hard drives within their appropriate market segment—desktop, server, or mobile—the hard drive makers continue to introduce more and more products to target specific markets, which may cross between traditional segments. We got three Samsung terabyte hard drives for review, which appear to be similar, but our investigation revealed substantial differences.
Why One Hard Drive Product Isn’t Enough Anymore
We obtained three of Samsung’s latest drives, but we could also have looked into the product portfolios of Hitachi and Western Digital, since almost all drive makers are following the trend of providing drives that are adjusted for specific purposes. This started when the drive makers tweaked their mainstream desktop hard drives for higher reliability, so they could sneak a slice of the entry-level enterprise market. Hitachi turned its Deskstar 7K1000 into a 24/7-capable Ultrastar 7K1000, Seagate has had the Barracuda ES family, which is based on the Barracuda 7200 series. And Western Digital has been doing the same, but going after enthusiasts and business users with its RAID Edition models, descending from the Caviar Series for desktops.
Standard, Business, Eco
Western Digital was the first to release a high-capacity hard drive that actually focused on power efficiency. The Green Power series, now called Caviar Green, spins at only 5,400 RPM rather than the common 7,200 RPM, to achieve power savings. Hitachi followed with its power-optimized Deskstar P7K500 and Samsung also joined the low-power band with its EcoGreen F. All of them also have high-performance drives for business or enthusiast users, and we decided to look at the differences among the model variations by investigating the Samsung F family.
