Western Digital "AV" Drives

Zilch · **22nd July 2008, 11:50 PM**

Does anyone know the deal on these? Is it worth spending the $16 extra to get these over the WD Green Power models? They seem to be designed with HTPCs in mind. They claim to be quiet above all else. I couldn't see a review on Silent PC Review, and my form login seems to be stuffed...

Anyone running the 1TB model?

WD press release here

kieran45 · **23rd July 2008, 09:51 AM**

I have just bought one for my new WHS. WD say they are "optimised for 24/7 use" and that has to be a good thing. Admittedly I have been running my other original 1TB green power 24/7 for six months or so.

It may be just marketing hype, but I don't imagine that WD would waste money on another model for nothing. It only cost me $10 more than a GP, so I thought why not?

Runs quiet, stays cool. No different from my other GP really. Time will tell.

Zilch · **25th July 2008, 01:05 AM**

Hmm...picked up a 1TB "AV" drive today.

I hate it when you pay extra for something and you aren't 100% sure you are getting the correct model. It just says "WD10EVCS" on the drive itself...no mention of "AV" or any such comforting words. Does seem right though as the product page seems to match.

I'll install it in my WHS MediaSmart server over the weekend...hopefully it is as quiet as advertised (the GP one in my HTPC is pretty quiet running, but seeks are pretty loud)

ExtremePC · **25th July 2008, 08:37 AM**

WD's AV drives are offered in comp. to Seagates SV or NS series. I've used hundreds of the Seagates and trialed 16 of the WD's. For my money get the Seagate NS series. The Seagates are rated for 24/7 opperation with a 5 year warranty, they're specially designed for the surveilence industry where we regularly have up to 16 or 32 of the buggers set up in RAID running with continous read/writes 24/7 for years. Am I stressing that point enough? Continuous, unending, never sleeps, never stops reading and writing medium and large files 24/7 for years!! Gotta love the Seagates.

Zilch · **25th July 2008, 01:58 PM**

Changed to WDs because I am sick of having Seagates die, and their RMA procedure sucks bigtime. (Don't know how the WD one compares because I haven't had one die on me yet.)

Also the WDs seem to come out as quieter and lower power consumption in the tests.

Gish · **26th July 2008, 11:03 AM**

Have been given the WAF/GAF approval (this morning) to purchase a 1TB drive, and found this thread.
I am currently waiting for Scorptec or MSY to open and get one of the following:

Western Digital "AV" drive (as mentioned above)
or
Samsung HD103UJ 1TB HDD - 32MB Cache - 1,000GB SATA II 7200rpm
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/25549

Decisions decisions...
Need it quiet (Currently its almost inaudible in an antec fusion case) and need it fast (its having 'issues' where the recording is jerky.) Currently running 4 HD tuners under Vista and the problem arose when i put the extra tuners in (however it could be crappy signal)

Will see how I go...

Gish · **26th July 2008, 11:18 AM**

Have been given the WAF/GAF approval (this morning) to purchase a 1TB drive, and found this thread.
I am currently waiting for Scorptec or MSY to open and get one of the following:

Western Digital "AV" drive (as mentioned above)
or
Samsung HD103UJ 1TB HDD - 32MB Cache - 1,000GB SATA II 7200rpm
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/25549

Decisions decisions...
Need it quiet (Currently its almost inaudible in an antec fusion case) and need it fast (its having 'issues' where the recording is jerky.) Currently running 4 HD tuners under Vista and the problem arose when i put the extra tuners in (however it could be crappy signal)

Will see how I go...

*update* Scorptec dont have any of the samsung drives in stock... gah!

ExtremePC · **26th July 2008, 12:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zilch

Changed to WDs because I am sick of having Seagates die, and their RMA procedure sucks bigtime. (Don't know how the WD one compares because I haven't had one die on me yet.)

Also the WDs seem to come out as quieter and lower power consumption in the tests.

Really? Whenever I've had to RMA a drive I jut fill out the online form, send the drive off to Alexandria and Seagate send me a new one within a working week.

Zilch · **26th July 2008, 01:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gish

Have been given the WAF/GAF approval (this morning) to purchase a 1TB drive, and found this thread.
I am currently waiting for Scorptec or MSY to open and get one of the following:

Western Digital "AV" drive (as mentioned above)
or
Samsung HD103UJ 1TB HDD - 32MB Cache - 1,000GB SATA II 7200rpm
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/25549

Decisions decisions...
Need it quiet (Currently its almost inaudible in an antec fusion case) and need it fast (its having 'issues' where the recording is jerky.) Currently running 4 HD tuners under Vista and the problem arose when i put the extra tuners in (however it could be crappy signal)

Will see how I go...

*update* Scorptec dont have any of the samsung drives in stock... gah!

I got min WD AV from MSY. They had stock Wednesday. I don't think the Green Power drive top the performance benchmarks, but they are way fast enough for my MediaSmart box, and noise was my main concern (power saving is good too)

Zilch · **26th July 2008, 01:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExtremePC

Really? Whenever I've had to RMA a drive I jut fill out the online form, send the drive off to Alexandria and Seagate send me a new one within a working week.

...Not that you have ever had one fail, because Seagates are so great huh?

Last time I couldn't use an online for for some reason, they had to fax through something...and RMA number or some such. Fax never arrived. I would have had to pay freight both ways (which annoyed me as it wasn't my fault a two month old drive failed). In the end they told me to take it back to the retailer...which worked, and saved me freight, but took weeks.

Had about 3 of the 7 I was running fail, so I've changed to WD. Will see how they work out (and if one fails if there RMA process is better or worse - so far so good).

Edit: At least all the failures have been SMART errors, so I have never actually lost data - still annoying though. Roll on solid state!

ExtremePC · **26th July 2008, 01:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zilch

Roll on solid state!

Amen to that. Here's hoping memrister technology get here soonish.

"They can also be fashioned into non-volatile solid-state memory, which would allow greater data density than hard drives with access times potentially similar to DRAM, replacing both components"

tronic72 · **28th July 2008, 02:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zilch

Does anyone know the deal on these? Is it worth spending the $16 extra to get these over the WD Green Power models? They seem to be designed with HTPCs in mind. They claim to be quiet above all else. I couldn't see a review on Silent PC Review, and my form login seems to be stuffed...

Anyone running the 1TB model?

WD press release here

These could be the same as the "server" models they have which are also designed to run 24/7. The server models also have a 5 year warranty as oppoosed to the standard 3 year.

Personally, I figure in 3 years time, 1 tb will be the same as 80 GB was 3 years ago so I'm not bothered. None of the reseller information WD has supplied us says anything about them being more quiet though but these are server models so their may be differences.

Hope this helps.

T

Gish · **28th July 2008, 02:58 PM**

If its any consolation to you guys, I have installed the Seagate one (see earlier post) and had to press my head up against the case to be able to barely hear the drive going full pelt recording four HD streams (at roughly 4GB per hour each) watching another and doing video conversion for DVD.

It is the quietest HDD I have heard (or not heard...)

This is enclosed in an antec fusion case with silicon rubber grommets to prevent case vibration with huge slow moving fans.

Zilch · **29th July 2008, 12:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gish

If its any consolation to you guys, I have installed the Seagate one (see earlier post) and had to press my head up against the case to be able to barely hear the drive going full pelt recording four HD streams (at roughly 4GB per hour each) watching another and doing video conversion for DVD.

It is the quietest HDD I have heard (or not heard...)

This is enclosed in an antec fusion case with silicon rubber grommets to prevent case vibration with huge slow moving fans.

Hmm...my WD (non-AV) Green Power 1TB spins very quietly in my Antec Fusion, but I can hear it quiet clearly seeking from the other side of the room when there is no real background noise.

Not sure if the AV is much quieter, as it's in my MediaSmart WHS box with the noisy default Segate and a couple of spinning fans.