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    7200.4 vs Scorpio Blue vs Black

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by wyemarn, Oct 9, 2009.

  1. wyemarn

    wyemarn Notebook Consultant

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    I'm currently thinking of these 3 drives.

    1) Seagate 7200.4 250GB 1 platter ~$60
    2) WD Scorpio Black 320GB 2 platter ~$70
    3) WD Blue 500GB 2 platter ~$80

    I'm planning to use them and replace my current Samsung M7 HM400JI. Storage is not really my main priority because i will use that Samsung as external portable drive. Looking for the best balance between battery life, storage and speed for normal usage. My laptop is Acer Aspire Timeline 4810TZ. Thanks!
     
    wyemarn, Oct 9, 2009
    #1
  2. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Go with the Seagate since space doesn't matter. Single platter drives will consume less power and be faster than the less dense, slower RPM drives.
     
    sgogeta4, Oct 9, 2009
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  3. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Both the WDs beat the 7200.4 in most real life situations. See the reviews on Techreport and Xbitlabs. Disregard synthetic benchmarks.

    The best balanced drive is the WD5000BEVT.
     
    Phil, Oct 9, 2009
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  4. MaxGeek

    MaxGeek Notebook Evangelist

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    If noise is an issue the WD5000BEVT will also be quieter then the Black. The black makes my laptop sound like the fan is always running at medium-high.
     
    MaxGeek, Oct 9, 2009
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  5. Gotei 13

    Gotei 13 Notebook Evangelist

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    I would go with the WD scorpio black
     
    Gotei 13, Oct 10, 2009
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  6. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    Agree the price difference is minimal and it comes with 2 years more warranty.
    The extended warranty, higher RPM and buffer cache is worth the 10 dollars difference for 320GB models if you are comparing only the 320GB models.
     
    weinter, Oct 10, 2009
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  7. wyemarn

    wyemarn Notebook Consultant

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    I have narrow down my choice now to scorpio black or blue. From benchmarks, the file transfer speed for the both is almost the same but Black is a bit faster on benchmarks and loading. 7200.4 beats both for file read/write but losses on real word testing. Is Scorpio black worth getting or safer to go for blue?
     
    wyemarn, Oct 10, 2009
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  8. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    If you do medium/heavy multi tasking with lots of file acces the Black will be the clear winner. In opening applications the Black will be slightly faster.

    In all other areas there'll hardly be a difference. Blue is quieter and has better power consumption.
     
    Phil, Oct 10, 2009
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  9. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    I went for Scorpio Black mainly for the 5 year warranty you only get 3 year for Scorpio Blue.
     
    weinter, Oct 10, 2009
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  10. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Wouldn't single platter have more benefit than the dual platters? Or is that dependent on comparisons within the same model?
     
    sgogeta4, Oct 10, 2009
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  11. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    I don't know. I haven't seen any real world benchmarks comparing one platter with two platter models.

    I do know one platter models have slightly better acces times in synthetic benchmarks.
     
    Phil, Oct 10, 2009
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  12. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Single platter drives also tend to have lower power consumption/heat/noise than similar double platter drives.
     
    sgogeta4, Oct 10, 2009
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  13. wyemarn

    wyemarn Notebook Consultant

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    I'm thinking of 500GB drives now. Besides WD, Hitachi 5K500.B, Toshiba, Fujitsu is available. Which is the best among all the manufacturers. I still have Scorpio Black on mind but I can't really decide at the moment.
     
    wyemarn, Oct 11, 2009
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  14. sean473

    sean473 Notebook Prophet

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    If i were you i'd go with the scorpio black... not only is is more energy efficient and quiter... its more reliable.. i just saw a post in which a member said his momentus failed... so go for scorpio black...
     
    sean473, Oct 11, 2009
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  15. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    That is a pretty meaningless statement. Just like me saying "I know of a WD scorpio that failed, therefore it's also unreliable"... so now what is he going to do? You can't base reliability of a company on a single drive. On average, all companies are the same otherwise they'd go under.
     
    sgogeta4, Oct 11, 2009
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  16. wyemarn

    wyemarn Notebook Consultant

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    After some findings, I found some saying Hitachi 5K500.B is better than WD Scorpio Blue. Is it true? Both the 500GB drives are almost equal in price. Which should I go for?
     
    wyemarn, Oct 12, 2009
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  17. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The difference won't be noticeable, get the cheaper one.
     
    sgogeta4, Oct 12, 2009
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  18. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    No I would put my money on the 5 year warranty Scorpio Black since the price difference are minimal at best.
    Blue only offers 3 years think of the extra performance as additional benefits.
    a)5yr + 16MB Buffer cache + 7200 RPM
    b)3yr + 8MB Buffer cache + 5400 RPM
    You only pay 15 dollars more for a) Think about it.
     
    weinter, Oct 12, 2009
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  19. wyemarn

    wyemarn Notebook Consultant

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    In Japan, Scorpio Black is only 320GB and around $10 cheaper than Scorpio Blue 500GB. The price difference between 500GB 5K500.B and Scorpio Blue is only $1. I will be using the hard disk on Acer Timeline laptop so I hope getting the right hard disk will extend battery life and in the same time without sacrificing performance. Currently I'm using Samsung M7 400GB which does 53MB/s average and 17.1ms on HD Tune benchmark. I feel it's a little sluggish. I'm will be making purchase soon so please help me to make up my mind.
     
    wyemarn, Oct 12, 2009
    #19
  20. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Didn't realize they had 5 yr warranty. Thought since Seagate dropped to 3 yrs, it was the same with every other company. It also depends on cost difference. Some places those two models might have more than $15 difference.
     
    sgogeta4, Oct 12, 2009
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  21. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    No they still have 5 year warranty for the black version.
    That was the reason I bought it.
    If you are using it for Aspire Timeline Series note the Connectors are slightly different.
     
    weinter, Oct 12, 2009
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  22. wyemarn

    wyemarn Notebook Consultant

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    I just made my purchase on WD5000BEVT. Hopefully I made the correct choice by not going for Black 320GB or Hitachi 5K500.B.
     
    wyemarn, Oct 13, 2009
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  23. TwiztidKidd

    TwiztidKidd Notebook Evangelist

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    The Scorpio Blue is a good choice, look at the size of the others. You could get like two-three decent sized partitions on this HDD and still have some space left.
     
    TwiztidKidd, Oct 13, 2009
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  24. chevy05

    chevy05 Notebook Consultant

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    I purchased a new Scorpio Black and was trying to carry too much at one time in my hands like I sometimes foolishly do. The drive was out of the package as I just got it new from NewEgg, and it fell 4 ft. onto my concrete floor. I called myself some names that I can not repeat here and picked up the drive off of the floor. Saw one scrape mark but nothing seems to have been broken on the outside of the drive. I installed it in my Dell D820 Lattitude, restored my drive using True Image, and it has not missed a beat the past month since I purchased it. No unusual noises and seems fast. I am chomping at the bit to go SSD when I install Windows 7 in a few weeks and make the Scorpio a second drive. The heads must have been parked very securely when it came from the company.
     
    chevy05, Oct 13, 2009
    #24