Storage Solutions Is Samsung quitting the HDD market in India?

Gryph0n

Gryph0n

Adept
I was browsing Samsung's India site today

SAMSUNG India

One very strange thing that I noticed is that the site has dropped the section for Hard Disks.

Also while building my rig in Dec 07, I had asked around for the higher capacity F1/Trackpoint Samsung drives (500GB or above) that were available elsewhere in the world. No one had the new product series in stock.

Just makes me wonder if Samsung is quitting the HDD market in India

PS, there was a section on the Indian Samsung site for HDD when I had last checked in Dec 07.
 
blr_p said:
Not exactly the best HDs to get going by what ppl have told me.
Click to expand...

But they hit a landmark with their new Spinpoint F1 1 teraByte drive. the most advanced Aerial density designed for a platter till now...
 
Maybe, but i was talking reliability, which won't be apparent for at least a cpl of yrs.

Fair point, my assessment was based on drives prior.
 
I have an IDE 80GB Samsung HDD. And while I cannot comment on the quality of their products, the one i have is pretty good

I also have 2 Seagate HDD : a 200GB SATA1 & a 400 GB SATA2. Compared to these 2, I find the Samsung to be better
  • Temperatures: The Samsung has so far always run cooler than the 2 Seagates
  • Acoustics: The Samsung is pretty silent on most loads, but my Seagates are loud. Especially when seeking and performing long transfers, they are very audible
 
check if your samsung hdd model number starts wth an "SP" then it is a "spinpoint" model like mine which is why its quiet...
 
I've a 40GB SP model in my old PC. Really quiet and fast. But I noticed that it gets quite warm vs my WD or Hitachi HDDs...and it's only 40GB.

I don't know if heat is good or bad for a HDD. I guess there are other build parameters affecting reliability. But since it's samsung, the concern is always there.
 
so going a bit off topic here: if im buying a new HDD, say SATA2 320gb... which brand/model should i get for best reliability record?
 
W.r.t availability in India, I think the seagates 7200.11s offer the maximum performance. the WDs are a generation behind.

Not sure about the 320GB capacity point though. Personally, I've had no trouble with WD but I wouldn't discount the Seagates either. Both offer a 5 year warranty now.

If you're going to externalize the HDD via USB, it shouldn't matter which one you get as the USB will limit performance of any drive. If you are considering an internal HDD, the seagate might offer an edge.
 
hmmm, its funny, different discussions seem to indicate different preferences... some threads (not on this forum) say avoid samsung, some seagate...

i was thinking of getting a samsung spinpoint 320gb just for the quietness factor, if the performance is within 10% thats fine with me...
 
I would think that the warranty might be a problem with samsung drives. i.e. I don't know where to go for warranty. Maybe you can clarify this with the dealer.

W.r.t quietude, I have a 500GB WD drive with model no. WD5000AAKB. It's very quiet though it's temps are around 2-3C higher than my 320GB Hitachi PATA HDDs.

If you are going to buy samsung, check the motor manufacturer on the bottom of the samsung drive(the shiny 50 paisa size disc at the bottom center) if you can. The JVC motors are noisy. Nidec motors are comparatively quiet. I don't know if samsung is sourcing motors from these companies but you can just check this up.
 
vishalrao said:
which brand/model should i get for best reliability record?
Click to expand...

It's hard to definitively answer this as that info is most prolly tied up with NDA and varies depending on the family & model#.

I'm going by what i hear form ppl, WD, seagate, hitachi are known HD companies.

How long as Samsung been in the HD business ?

Their LCDs are quite good but HDs to me sounds like a new (< 5 yrs) venture for them. How does samsung compare in price, GB/rupee. My guess is they are the cheapest of the lot. That does not necessarily mean they are the worst but it's a perception that they have to overcome.

If its one thing i know, Koreans are very hungry so with time they will be as good as the rest, which isn't all that much for consumer level drives.
 
vishalrao said:
check if your samsung hdd model number starts wth an "SP" then it is a "spinpoint" model like mine which is why its quiet...
Click to expand...

Yep, I've got a 80GB SpinPoint model. Around the time I had purchased the drive (Dec 2003), it was the best series in the Samsung stable

vishalrao said:
so going a bit off topic here: if im buying a new HDD, say SATA2 320gb... which brand/model should i get for best reliability record?
Click to expand...

If I were buying a new HDD today, I'd be getting a WD 750GB AAKS model.

Search the net for reviews/shootouts of 750GB drives. What I've noticed is that while Seagate in the absolute leader in raw performance, it totally loses out in acoustics. WD seems to offer performance not very far off from Seagate, but with significantly better acoustics.

As for reliability, you will have nothing more than anecdotes to go on, since no reviewer can keep going at a drive till its broke.

I use the length of the warranty as a sign of the confidence that the manufacturer has in their products. Everyone seems to offer a 5 yr warranty, so from my perspective everyone is equally good/bad in this respect
 
Gryph0n said:
Yep, I've got a 80GB SpinPoint model. Around the time I had purchased the drive (Dec 2003), it was the best series in the Samsung stable

If I were buying a new HDD today, I'd be getting a WD 750GB AAKS model.

Search the net for reviews/shootouts of 750GB drives. What I've noticed is that while Seagate in the absolute leader in raw performance, it totally loses out in acoustics. WD seems to offer performance not very far off from Seagate, but with significantly better acoustics.

As for reliability, you will have nothing more than anecdotes to go on, since no reviewer can keep going at a drive till its broke.

I use the length of the warranty as a sign of the confidence that the manufacturer has in their products. Everyone seems to offer a 5 yr warranty, so from my perspective everyone is equally good/bad in this respect
Click to expand...
Samsung's new F1 drive is the one with largest areal density and has 334 Gb per platter. There have been relatively good reviews but they offer only 3 years warranty compared to 5 years for all other brands.
 
blr_p said:
companies.
How long as Samsung been in the HD business ?
HDs to me sounds like a new (< 5 yrs) venture for them.
Click to expand...

I bought a Samsung SV series 5400rpm 40GB HDD (jumper set to 32GB for compatibility with my old board) in 1999 for around 5K-5.5K. I think they had ventured into this segment around the time as quantum, seagate, maxtor, WD were known names around then.

W.r.t. india availability, seagate and quantum were available back then but were notorious for failing after around 13-17 months of usage. Hence samsung gained popularity.

They don't seem committed to their HDD business in India. I don't understand why.
 
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