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Honestly, I started out with Samsung Spinpoint F1 (HD103UJ) drives and, for power consumption reductions, I’ve slowly started swapping them out for Western Digital Green drives (WD10EVCS). The WD model I chose is supposedly geared towards DVR usage and technically “okay” to run 24/7. Now that I’m primarily using these, I wonder if I made the right choice. The Samsung was just as quiet, once I cushioned it with some felt to get rid of the loud whine it had, yet it benchmarks significantly better than the WD, due to the 7200 rpm and the reduction in the number of platters from 4 (WD) to 3 (SS).
Samsung is close to releasing the next generation Spinpoint, so I may head back in that direction as I decide to replace drives. I have had issues with performance in my drive pool when I/O intensive operations were running (FlexRAID, for instance).
I guess the point of this whole message is: If you want speed, bypass the WD Green drives. If you want low power consumption, these slower drives are definitely the way to go. However, don’t think that a 7200 rpm drive can’t be quiet. The Samsung definitely is.
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