HDD - Question

Seagate Constellation ES ST3500514NS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148609

Thinking of buying one of these and have two quick questions please.

1. No reason that this drive cannot be used on a desktop/home user pc?

2. A user review contains a HD Tune benchmark test. Don't know enough about this type of test but do the results, etc look fine from a speed point of view as compared with a normal drive, if you see what I mean.

Many thanks for any info provided.

Cheers

 

A single bare drive sold with the listing of "enterprise" or "RAID" will work in a standard PC (Seagate uses the term enterprise, Samsung uses RAID. When applied to describing a single bare drive, both mean the same thing).

An enterprise grade drive is built to a higher standard than most regular drives. It is specifically designed to withstand 24/7 use and the higher heat environment found in servers.

These attributes make it good for personal use as well. Although not a substitute for regular backups, enterprise grade drives are less likely to fail as a result of heat buildup or hours of constant spinning when recording or playing back media files. Although enterprise/RAID class drives cost about $30-$40 more than basic models, this is cheap compared to the time and headaches involved when a drive fails.

This model you've selected is a good one. If you want more storage, Samsung sells a "RAID" 1TB bare drive for about the same price. It's equally as good as the Seagate.

As for the benchmark tests, it's doubtful you will have a noticeable difference (good or bad) in most apps versus other 7200RPM SATA drives.

Hope this helps

 

Agreed

Agreed

I was going to use this Seagate as a boot drive [and on which I would also have a data partition] and just wanted to make sure this was not a slow potato.

Many thanks for the help. I am just getting fed up with the run of the mill drive whose life expectancy, seems at times nowadays, to measured in days and hence was looking at something more reliable.

Cheers

 

I feel the same way.

I used to work as a PC parts sales consultant. There were days customers made it feel more like it was a scene in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds:

Cheap! Cheap! Cheap, cheap!

Example: A customer states they want an external hard drive for movies. On a bargain basement model without a built-in fan, it's not a question of "if" but "how quickly" the unit will fail. If I suggested an enterprise grade drive paired with a separate fan-cooled enclosure (about $40 more), some customers actually got offended to the point they thought I was trying to pad my commissions (In reality, I made only fifty cents more if they took my advice).

The only time people seemed to listen is after they ignored my advice the first time and came back in after a few months looking for a replacement.

Now that I do freelance PC service, I research parts reviews carefully. Building or repairing something right beats the hell out of having to do it over.

 

Words of wisdom.

I am building up the courage to order that Seagate drive (am in the U.K and here it costs £75 delivered vs £35 for same capacity 30 day wonder drive). But will do so tomorrow.

Hope it arrives well packaged........and please not DOA.

Thanks again for the info gman863

 

Before you order it from The States, check around.

If there are UK equals of NewEgg or Amazon, you might find the same model and possibly save on customs/import fees - or, if there is a decent PC parts retailer nearby, call them with the drive model # and ask how much they can order it for (from a UK or EU wholesaler).

If this works the drive will travel less and possibly cost less as well.