2TB HDD (Storage ONLY!!!)

[Gilly]

I want a 2TB Drive, with a look to purchasing more as time goes on. Back in England I have 4 Maxtor 80GB drives, that still work, a 74GB and a 150GB Raptor, a 500GB AAKS WD drive and the Mrs has a 320GB Samsung SATA disk.

I only want this for storage so a few things are important for me: Quiet, Reliable and Cool running (might end up getting thrown in an external box and I don't want to active cool it if I can help it).

I am particularly interested in:

Samsung HD203WI

WD WD20EARS

Both are 5400 RPM, 4 platters. I was mainly looking for advice based on these:

The WD and Samsung both cost the same, both come with the same warranty. I have heard nothing bad of the Samsung, whereas I have heard a lot of bad about dying EARS drives, and they have high head parking count, whilst this doesn't lead to problems yet, it might in the future.

I am therefore asking, what do you recommend, or have experience with? I really am torn 50/50 as to what to do :P Although I heard the Samsung RMA for Europe is a little dodgy.

Thanks

[Abram]

I cunt speak of any 2tb models, but i use a 1tb version of that WD and it's great for backing up data, even at 5400. Bu then, most of my backups are larger files. I've been using it to move hundereds of GB at a time and it's great. Good price, too.

I only have Seagate and WD. I've had little luck with the rest.

I remember my 286 blowing me head off with its' massive 100mb drive...

[Gilly]

The only reason I am not looking at a Seagate (despite them being the "new" Maxtor (who I have had good luck with)) is because of the 7200.11 ticking/ firmware issues.

Thanks for the heads up, I might be slightly leaning towards a EARS 2TB drive, just for the 4k sectors, as that is the only thing that sets it apart from the Samsung apparently.