Seagate hard drive issues

I'm looking at picking up a 4TB 3.5-inch Western Digital drive just to store some data—basically, I'll be popping it into an external enclosure I already have that supports USB 3.0.

My original thought was to grab a WD Blue, but they seem to be impossible to find anywhere lately... so I'm stuck choosing between Green or Black. The Black series is way overpriced if you ask me, and the Green feels too sluggish—just not enough muscle for what I need. I'm not really looking for Purple or Red drives either; those aren't quite my speed.
Someone actually suggested this Seagate drive to me—a buddy of mine picked one up from a local retailer and he's been pretty happy with it so far.

What’s the consensus here? What do you guys think about this specific drive? It isn't breaking the bank, obviously—it's nearly half the price of a WD Black. Does anyone have any major gripes with Seagate, or does it actually hold its own against the WD lineup? I just want something reliable... I don't need a drive that decides to kick the bucket after a few months. I'm not saying Seagate is bad, but the price seems almost suspiciously low for 4TB when you look at what everyone else is charging.

To the point: it’ll definitely do the job you need. It might not be the fastest thing on the planet, but looking at the specs, it’s actually decent—it packs a 128 MB buffer, spins at 7200 RPM, and supports NCQ. You won't find much better than this. Besides, you’re just tossing it into an external enclosure anyway, so you aren't going to tap into its full potential regardless.

I've been using a 2TB Western Digital Green for three years now. It works perfectly fine as a storage drive, and honestly, I don't even notice the speed difference for what I do.

Alexander Moore67 said:I've been running a 2TB Western Digital Green for three years now—mostly just using it for storage—and honestly, I haven't really felt a difference in speed...

I've got a 1TB Western Digital Green myself, though I'm running macOS on it, so I can't really give you a real-world comparison... but looking at the specs, a Green is basically just a power-saving version of a hard drive, so there's no way it's going to outpace something from BlackRock or any other brand that isn't focused on efficiency 😁 but it's hard to say for sure without actually testing them against each other 😁 which is why I usually just stick to what the spec sheet tells me.

rowdybadger18 said:To put it simply, yeah, it’ll do exactly what you need it to do. It might not be the fastest thing on the planet, but based on the specs, it’s actually decent—it has a 128 MB buffer, spins at 7200 RPM, supports NCQ... you really can't ask for much more than that. Besides, you're just tossing it into an external enclosure, so you wouldn't even be tapping into its full potential anyway.

Thanks, that's the one I'm ordering. 🙂

Can anyone explain what NCQ actually is?

And if you're the type who knows this stuff... most Western Digital drives and the rest of the competition usually push about 64MB of buffer, so is having 128MB actually a real advantage, or is it just some marketing gimmick to get people to spend more?

NCQ. If you aren't in the mood to read, the illustration pretty much sums it up. Your main concern is performance, and having this enabled is definitely better than leaving it off. It can't hurt, and it can only help. The amount of buffer (the cache memory) isn't just some marketing gimmick. Every drive manufacturer includes enough memory to hit peak performance, which is why those high-end Western Digital drives often outperform Seagate models with higher capacity. Still, more memory won't kill anything, and this is clearly a solid discussion.

You just can't feel it

Walmart seems like a better deal to me (looking at the price per gigabyte), getting 3TB for $240