SATAII 2000GB Samsung EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 32MB 5400 U/MIN

I know the F3's are supposed to be super fast but is that true for F4's too? Also Isn't 5400 U/Min pretty slow?

5400 is pretty slow for your OS hard drive, but for a storage drive it's fine, to the best of my knowledge. Other than that, I don't know much about that particular hard drive.

So throughput is important for system drives? I would've expected throughput matters most when dealing with large data, like in games. And for system it's just important to hav low access times. Have I been misinformed?

Ex probably knows more about it than me, but I would say you use your system drive to store games and your OS, and anything that needs to work quickly (photoshop, gimp, blender, max, maya etc.), and use the storage drive for, well, storing files. So I personally would have my system drive as fast as possible for both access times AND throughput, and not worry too much about either for my storage drive.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 28 2010, 10:01 pm by Jack. Reason: spelling eror

The 5400 minimum is the minimum revolutions/sec. You'll notice this is a 'green' hard drive - the primary way in which they save power is to slow the spindle speed down. Now presumably they can spin up to 7,200 RPM when required under high data rates, but then again they may not. I also don't know if they can gradually speed up or slow down, or operate at speeds in between, like 6k, or if it's just a binary 5,400/7,200 RPM that they can do. You should do further research, but this is basically the crux of it.

If you really want to know if it'll affect your system performance if you used it as an OS drive, read some HDD reviews and benchmarks.

Personally, unless you are buying like 10 HDs, I wouldn't bother with the green drives. The amount of power they save is really quite minimal, and on a computer that was turned on 24/7 for a whole year it might amount to $5 worth of power. Again, googling around for other people's more informed opinions on the matter would be useful.

Uh Lanthanide, I appreciate the effort, but that was like not at all useful.
HDDs have fixed speeds. This is no CD drive.

The fact that it is green isn't at all relevant. I don't need my hdd to save power.

All I want to know is if I will be happy with its performance and if it has reliability issues. Reason is that I can get it dirt cheap and I'm wondering if I should buy it or if there's a REASON those are that cheap.

http://www.myce.com/review/samsung-spinpoint-f4eg-2tb-review-37108/
I haven't found anyone with any problems with it, although it hasn't been around since about August 2010 from what I can see. Looks pretty reliable and solid, and the speed isn't a problem http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30548206&postcount=15 that shows it beating out (slightly old) 7200 RPMs. I'd say go for it.

Its an okay drive for storage, not for OS.

For OS: You want either a Samsung F3 500GB or an F4 320GB. The F4 640GB isn't out yet and probably won't be for awhile.

For storage: Samsung is fast, but WD is reliable. Storage is about reliability. Get a WD Caviar Blue 1TB or 2TB drive. Note most drives over 1TB aren't reliable just yet.

Why is it bad for OS?

It's slow.

Well, relatively slow. Compared to a blazingly fast 7200RPM or a SSD drive, it's slow.

Its lower than 7200RPM. You don't use drives slower than that for OS.

Nude, I have the time to tell you whats best, I don't have the time to teach you. I don't mean that in a hostile manner, but I'm just here to say 'This is what you need' and move on.

I think I've heard of some that vary between 5400 and 7200, though I don't remember any specific model names.

Except, you know, when they're green drives and designed to have variable speeds, which is exactly the sort of drive you're talking about here:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1077/1/

That is why the specs list "minimum 5,400", because the speed is variable. If it wasn't variable it would just say "5,400".

No, but the fact that it is green means that it is not going to be constantly running at 7,200 RPM, which directly affects how well it is going to perform. I was giving you the background behind what makes a green drive different from a non-green drive, so you would have same basic information under your belt with which you could find out more from.

So google for it. There are many many sites out there specifically dedicated to hardware, even sites dedicated solely to hard drives. You'll get much better information from seeking elsewhere.