Storage Solutions WD Caviar Black (WD5001AALS) reliability and alternatives.

A

andreophile

Apprentice
I am in the market for a high performance 500GB HDD. My first choice was Samsung SpinPoint F3 or F4, but none of the reputed Lamington Rd dealers (Prime ABGB, Elounge) , Ebay India or any online shops stock it, so I have given up on it.

Of late, I have been hearing about a lot of failures with WD Green HDDs. Is this problem apparent in the Black series as well? I ask because I have read reports of a lot of yanks complaining about WD Blacks dying on them; although, it may be restricted to Newegg purchases due to their sloppy packaging.

Which brings me to my final concern. These are the rates that have been quoted to me by different sources for the 500GB WD Black:
Vashi Plaza (Sunrise Comp): Rs 4300.
Lamington (Prime ABGB): Rs 3200.
Ebay.in (DvDStoreDelhi): Rs 2875 + 90 shipping.

Now, with the 25% discount coupon the HDD costs me Rs. 2224 shipped. All my ebay purchases have been restricted to dealers based out of Hong Kong, so this will be the first time that I'll be dealing with an Indian seller. I'm worried the seller may skimp on packaging, which will entail dealing with the nightmarish WD RMA. So is this worth the risk? I'm a bit confused here.
 
i'll suggest you to get Seagate 500GB 7200.12 Single Platter Drive.

it's almost 1k cheaper & the performance difference between WD Black & 7200.12 isn't that much if you compare the prices.

in fact 7200.12 beats WD Black series in some beches.
 
NAV33N said:
i'll suggest you to get Seagate 500GB 7200.12 Single Platter Drive.
it's almost 1k cheaper & the performance difference between WD Black & 7200.12 isn't that much if you compare the prices.
in fact 7200.12 beats WD Black series in some beches.
Click to expand...

I agree, and I'd have got the Seagate if it weren't for the 25% discount, which pretty much brings the Caviar Black very close to the price of the Seagate. I have seen a lot of Seagates fail, and the WD with its 32MB cache, no-touch head parking ramp and overall better build quality seems worth the price. The way I see it, even though they may have similar performance, the WD scores in the component quality department. Data integrity is more important than price for me, so spending 300 extra (after discount) still seems plausible.
 
Revolution said:
What is the difference between Single Platter and multiple Platter ?

Is Single Platter cooler and reliable ?
Click to expand...
The less platters a drive has, the more densely the data is stored.

so, sequential data transfer rates will be significantly higher.
 
Revolution said:
Keep away from Seagate.

My 3 months old 500GB Seagate going to die anytime,got "failed" status on helth at HD Tune...:(
Click to expand...
just because YOUR seagate drive is failing isnt enough justification to tell everyone to stay away from it

would be more helpful if you gave your hdd model number so we can search if that model failing is a common incident like what happened with one of the recent wd drives(aaks?) or the seagate 1tb external
 
I have bought two HDDs from dvdstoredelhi (WD Black 500GB and Seagate 7200.12 500GB) Both were packed very well. The performance difference between the two is negligible and the only advantage with WD Black is the 5yr warranty.

andreophile said:
I am in the market for a high performance 500GB HDD. My first choice was Samsung SpinPoint F3 or F4, but none of the reputed Lamington Rd dealers (Prime ABGB, Elounge) , Ebay India or any online shops stock it, so I have given up on it.

Of late, I have been hearing about a lot of failures with WD Green HDDs. Is this problem apparent in the Black series as well? I ask because I have read reports of a lot of yanks complaining about WD Blacks dying on them; although, it may be restricted to Newegg purchases due to their sloppy packaging.

Which brings me to my final concern. These are the rates that have been quoted to me by different sources for the 500GB WD Black:

Vashi Plaza (Sunrise Comp): Rs 4300.

Lamington (Prime ABGB): Rs 3200.

Ebay.in (DvDStoreDelhi): Rs 2875 + 90 shipping.

Now, with the 25% discount coupon the HDD costs me Rs. 2224 shipped. All my ebay purchases have been restricted to dealers based out of Hong Kong, so this will be the first time that I'll be dealing with an Indian seller. I'm worried the seller may skimp on packaging, which will entail dealing with the nightmarish WD RMA. So is this worth the risk? I'm a bit confused here.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you for the responses.

The price after discount for the WD Black is just a few hundred bucks more than the Seagate. The WD has more cache, no-touch head assembly, dual processor, and ergo must have better build quality. I think it's equalled on the benchmarks because the Seagate has better (twice) data density as Naveen pointed out. Still the extra two year warranty on the WD for a few hundred extra seals the deal for me.

Just ordered the WD Caviar Black for Rs 2197 shipped. Thanks to Aditya for the feedback on the ebay dealer. He didn't respond to any of my messages so I was worried, but your post makes me feel much better about my decision.
 
adityamunshi said:
I have bought two HDDs from dvdstoredelhi (WD Black 500GB and Seagate 7200.12 500GB) Both were packed very well. The performance difference between the two is negligible and the only advantage with WD Black is the 5yr warranty.
Click to expand...
may be that's because of old stocks of HDD's.

@ Revolution - to be honest i haven't bought any desktop WD HDD till date,all my previous HDD's were also Seagate may be one or two were Samsung in the Old Pentium era. & till now only one Seagate HDD was DOA.

nothing else has ever happened to any other HDD. :)
 
Yeah WD is indeed better. Not a single drive failed yet and i have three of them..I have had seagates in the past and one of the drive went dead and couldnt be RMAed and the second have that i have currently has already been RMA'ed twice whcih isnt even a year old. I guess most of the barracuda owners are facing the issue of their drives failing...Thats a good decision you made of WD and IMHO you got a steal price..Congos
 
andreophile said:
Just ordered the WD Caviar Black for Rs 2197 shipped. Thanks to Aditya for the feedback on the ebay dealer. He didn't respond to any of my messages so I was worried, but your post makes me feel much better about my decision.
Click to expand...
If you contact dvdstoredelhi on its theitbazaar id , you will definitely get a reply if the product is available or can be arranged.
I too bought 500gb wd black from him 8 months back & the packaging was satisfactory.
 
After my seagate 500Gb health started to deteriorate, i immediately bought a WD blue 500GB Drive and Transferred all the data from the failing seagate to the WD.After a month the WD drive "Vaished" taking all the data with it :(.My next drive is gonna be a seagate no more WD for me.
 
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