Are these HDD specs any good?

[Rudyard]

Am looking at adding a 3rd HDD and around 500gb looks good in regards to price v capacity for me.
Was going to get an external Esata drive but I think I will shell out not much more and get an internatl 500gb and a multimedia external 500gb for my storage needs.

My plan is that the internal drive will store all my captures and working files whilst the external media drive will store my music/videos/things I wish to watch or listen to and move around from place to place.


This is the internal drive, are these good seek and buffer times? (i dont really know whats good and whats crap) or is there anything else I should be wary of?

Manufacturer No WD5000AAKS
Capacity 500GB
Average Seek Time 9ms
Buffer 16MB
Rotational Speed 7200 RPM
Interface SATA II
Warranty 1 Year Manufacturer Warranty

http://www.digitalstar.com.au/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=3245#WESTERN%20DIGITAL%20-%20SATA


This is the media player drive

Manufacturer No MDT-PM368HS+500Gb
500Gb SATA Hard Drive Included
Available OS USB Device Compatible:Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/VISTA,Mac OS 9.0 higher, linux 2.4 higher
Digital Display 32x40mm(Blue Color)(Optional)
USB Device Device Port x 1ea,480Mbps USB2.0(USB 1.1 compatible)
USB Host USB 1.1 Host Port x 1ea, Supporting to read USB devices like External USB HDD ,ODD ,Flash Drive ,Card Reader
Card Reader SD,XD,MS,MMC(Optional)
HDD Type SATA I,II HDD only,Up to 750G or more
HDD File System FAT32
TV Type NTSC/PAL,4:3/16:9
Video Format Format:AVI,MPG,VOB,mp4,ASF,DAT
Codec:MPEG1/2/4,AVI,XVID,DVIX3/4/5
Audio Format MP3,WAV,WMA,AC3,OGG
Photo Format JPG/JPEG
Subtitle Text Subtitle SMI,SUB,SRT,LRC,TXT
OSD Language English,French,Deutsch,German,Spanish,Italian,Swed ish,Portuguese
Vide Output HDMI(480p,720p,1080)
HD COMPONENT YPbPr(480p,720p,1080)
COMPOSITE
S_VIDEO
Audio Output Stereo L-R
Embrace 5.1CH
S/PDIF Digital Output(Coaxial/Optical)
FAN & Working Temperature 40mm Brushless FAN ; 0′C~60′C
Power 12V/3A 35W;110~240V Free Voltage
Dimension 65W x 156D x 195H mm(without wireless antenna)
Weight 945g(without HDD)1545g(with HDD)(without wireless antenna)
Warranty 1 Year Return to Base Warranty

http://www.digitalstar.com.au/detail.aspx?ID=40599

[redwudz]

Both devices look fine to me. The WD drive is about average for speed and cache for that type of drive, but both WD and Seagate make good drives. WD has a 3 year warranty, while Seagate has 5 years.

[Rudyard]

Thanks redwuz, when you say wverage speed and cache, what are good speed and caches so i can compare when im looking around?

[redwudz]

Hard drives are fairly competitive these days. A 16MB cache is good, access times around 10ms is good. 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s drives are what I prefer. There are faster drives, but these types will suit most uses.

Here's a representative search from NewEgg that shows about 37 drives that fall into those specifications. I know NE isn't available at your location, but they are easy to compare this way: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150014+1035915133+1035...&name=7200+RPM

I see both WD and Seagate have drives with 5 year warranties, so either brand would seem a good choice.