When was the last time you bought a new 1tb or 2tb internal hard drive? It used to be a simple decision three years back, pick the cheapest Seagate or Western digital based on the drive capacity that you need and you are all set to use and enjoy it for many years.
Not so anymore, especially if you need a high capacity internal drive. There are so many newer models and sub versions that it becomes a major pain if you buy the wrong drive. I have gone through this pain in the last few months and hence did a quick write up on the various options based on my own experience in my blog and reproduce the same below:
Some factors to consider if you need a new internal hard drive:
1. Usage: Is this a drive that is going to go into your computer and be used once in a while for data access? Or is this going to go into a enclosure that will be on many hours in a day (say for media player, FTP server or a backup server). Or do you need it as a primary boot drive in your primary computer ?
2. Heat: How much heat will the enclosure create? Is it a nice computer cabinet with plenty of fans to circulate air or is it a small NAS/USB enclosure with hardly any fan movement ?
3. OS and Raid: What operating system (Windows 7, Windows XP and Linux) will be used to access the drive ? And will you have some form of Raid ? Yes, it seems like a idiotic question, but trust me, this has a bearing on the choice of drive.
Once you have answers to the three questions above, you can pick the right drive from below:
Popular Manufacturers: Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi
Most popular 2TB hard drives on Amazon.com:
Western Digital 2 TB RE4-GP SATA 64MB Cache Bulk/OEM Enterprise Hard Drive
(Price: $282.99 Price on Amazon.com: $242.99 Model: WD2002FYPS )
Western Digital 2 TB AV-GP SATA Intellipower 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive
(Price: $190.99 Price on Amazon.com: $129.99 Model: WD20EVDS )
Hitachi Deskstar 3.5-Inch 2TB 7200RPM SATA II 32MB Cache Internal Hard Drive
(Price: $182.77 Price on Amazon.com: $124.99 Model: 0S02861)
Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch Internal Bare Drive
(Price: $298.99 Price on Amazon.com: $169.99 Model: ST32000641AS)
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Black SATA 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive
(Price: $320.99 Price on Amazon.com: $186.22 Model: WD2001FASS)
Seagate Barracuda LP 2 TB 5900RPM SATA 3 GB/s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive ST32000542AS-Bare Drive
(Price: $202.99 Price on Amazon.com: $99.99 Model: ST32000542AS)
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive
(Price: $159.99 Price on Amazon.com: $99.99 Model: WD20EARS )
Hope this helps someone who is looking for the same information.