seagate or western digital?

Question

Level 1

26 points

seagate or western digital?

bout to pull the trigger on a 750gb 7200 rpm drive for my new 13" i7. Not concerned about the price difference, just want to hear from people who have had experiences with these two drives. Looking for reliable, quiet, cool, efficient, etc and there are good / bad reviews for both, and instances where either have had defects / failures.

I've narrowed it down to these options (unless there's another brand offering the same that I haven't yet found);

Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148599

or

Western Digital Scorpio Black WD7500BPKT 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136835

Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Mar 31, 2011 4:08 PM

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Answer 1

telefonique Author

Level 1

26 points

Mar 31, 2011 4:56 PM in response to telefonique

a little more digging and I've found a couple other options so maybe it's not such a narrowed down list afterall.

There's also a Hitachi;
http://www.hitachigst.com/internal-drives/mobile/travelstar/travelstar-7k750

and a Toshiba that's close enough for me. The 750GB isn't as much of a concern, as the 7200 RPM, and I figured I'd just get the largest capacity, most reliable / quiet / cool 7200 RPM I could find..

http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=StorageSolutions/PCNotebookHardDrives/MKxx 61GSY/MKxx61GSYNSpecifications

Thoughts on these drives would be appreciated as well.

Thanks!

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Answer 2

telefonique Author

Level 1

26 points

Apr 2, 2011 11:23 PM in response to telefonique

anyone? opinions on any of these drives?

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Answer 3

stan

Level 3

598 points

Apr 2, 2011 11:53 PM in response to telefonique

Hi telefonique,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.

Personally, I've had good and bad experiences with many different types and brands of hardware.

I have a list of manufacturers whose logos and names will never cross my threshold again during my lifetime due to lost time and/or money on more than one occasion.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. (GWB take note. That's the real quote.)

Western Digital was one of those who, years ago, had their customers do some of their product testing after sale! I haven't forgotten that although it's more than 25 years ago.

Iomega earned a top spot after their Jaz drives digested many GBs of my data helping me miss deadlines and lose credibility.

Power supplies are the biggest problem with hard drives as far as I can see.

No doubt, manufacturers that I like are disliked intensely by others.

In closing, let me say, "Never underestimate luck, good or bad."

I hope this helps. I feel better, now.

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Answer 4

iVmichael

Level 6

13,740 points

Apr 3, 2011 12:23 AM in response to telefonique

+Looking for reliable, quiet, cool, efficient, etc+

My 2¢ is to go with the Seagate.

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Answer 5

pkh540

Level 1

8 points

Apr 3, 2011 5:30 AM in response to telefonique

I'm curious as well... Plan on adding a 750 to my new MBP using an optibay or Newmodeus caddy. I've had great experience with the WD Black series for desktops (currently using a 1TB and a 750) so I'm leaning in that direction unless others have advice to the contrary. It's a fairly new drive but their 500 seems to perform very well and has high marks in reviews on Newegg.

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Answer 6

Summer66

Level 1

55 points

Apr 3, 2011 6:04 AM in response to telefonique

I have the Seagate Momentus 750g/7200 rpm and am very happy with its performance. Very quite except when I dual boot to windows and/or back to mac os - slight and I mean very slight noise increase (otherwise I don't hear it at all). I've had no overheating issues as some have reported and in fact the drive seems to be a little bit cooler than the stock drive on the 2011 13" i5.

Purchased drive and enclosure kit from OWC; I don't think I will use any other vendor for my needs with mac products. I did have to format the new drive using DU and CCC from existing drive with the new drive in the enclosure. Once done, swapped drives and it's been smooth sailing ever since. Now I keep the smaller (original drive) as a backup bootable disk in the enclosure and use CCC for incremental backups in case anything goes wrong with the Seagate. OWC has a lifetime guarantee with their RAM and a 3 year warrantee with their HDDs.

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Answer 7

cjvdhx

Level 1

55 points

Apr 3, 2011 7:31 AM in response to telefonique

I would get the WD or the Seagate

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Answer 8

Bessem

Level 1

1 points

Apr 3, 2011 7:42 AM in response to telefonique

I not recommend the Black Scopio WD. This hard drive is noisy, these plates will not stop scratching (I have a 320 GB) and they heat. I do not know if some had the same experience as me.

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Answer 9

NikIvan

Level 1

4 points

Apr 11, 2011 8:01 PM in response to telefonique

Don't get the seagate st9750420AS. I had two go bad immediately

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Answer 10

May 7, 2011 2:20 PM in response to NikIvan

I have the Seagate ST9500420AS, which is just also starting to chirp and die after about 1 year as well.

I am leaning towards the WD 750...

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Answer 11

Jul 23, 2011 5:14 AM in response to IndustrialEcho

I had the seagate ST9500420AS and it just died on me after about a year (thats the 500gb 7200 rpm)

I just installed the WD scorpion black 750 gb 7200 rpm drive in my 08 mbp, all is well so far but you better believe I am backing up often.

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Answer 12

Aug 4, 2011 7:43 PM in response to fluxmc302

I just ordered two Western Digital WDGWD7500BPKT drives, one for me and one for my son (plus 8 GB RAM) from OWC.

This was based on an IT person's suggestion. He said they had had better success with the WD than the Seagate in their pretty much all-Mac shop. I also decided to go for the 7200 drive, rather than the larger 5400. Hope I made the right decision.

Just my two cents...

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Answer 13

S.U.

Level 6

9,595 points

Aug 4, 2011 7:56 PM in response to telefonique

I've been running the 500 GB 7200 RPM Scorpio Black for nearly a year now--been very happy with it.

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Answer 14

Aug 13, 2011 7:13 PM in response to telefonique

I was faced with the same question with my last MBP and decided to go with the 750GB WD Scorpio Black after reading about how the Seagate hybrid drives were causing problems with some MBP. That HD upgrade coupled with a RAM upgrade made noticeable difference. I just picked up a new i7 2.3GHz MBP and plan on doing the same upgrades to this guy. I was originally thinking SSD but they're just way too expensive right now.

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Answer 15

tjk

Level 9

51,116 points

Aug 13, 2011 7:34 PM in response to telefonique

Hi t,

More and more, I suspect it's got as much to do with shipping and handling as it does with brand (within reason). One of the largest shippers in the world (might start with U or something like that; let's just call them U for the heck of it) is known for trying to play basketball with packages they deliver. OK, slight exaggeration, but if I don't hear the truck pull up in front of the house, if I'm home, I always hear the package hit the cement porch. No exaggeration whatsoever. Windows and doors closed, AC on. I've taken to avoiding the free shipping offered by many places if it is this U shipper; I'd rather pay a few bucks for a safe delivery, not an airdrop of the ground shipped package. Someone commented that this U company allows (encourages???) a 6 foot drop of their packages. I do not know if that's a fact, but I wouldn't doubt it. Someone on newegg did a rather informal test and bought a number of the same brand/model HD; had half shipped by this U company, and the other by a company that might start with an F. Don't remember the exact numbers, but the ones shipped by the U company had like 2 out of 4 fail in a very short time frame (one DOA), and no problems with the 4 (or whatever number it was, 100%) shipped by the F company. I've seen several stories like that, and combined with the numerous airdrops on my porch, I'm convinced.

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