I sent my drives directly back to Samsung, and several dead video cards back to the manufacturer and got brand new replacements each time.

Also regarding RPM and performance, check out this benchmark:

http://www.tomshardware.c...0dm000-4tb,3494-3.html

Samsung ssd 128 gb for os here  and 2 WD caviar black 640 gb 
with 64 mb cache or so. Using samsung and seagate  hd ´s I had
some outages.Still use my first WD hd, must be about 10 years,but not
in the main box.Solid like a rock.
 
Have fun
Pragi
 

I agree,,..WD Black...Are good Drives for the money, and the company stands by their customer base with their warranty, and upgrade policies...I sent in a few drives over the years, and got back same, or better in returns.
So In that regard, I hold them in highest regard, and only use WD Black at the moment.( I am trying ssd )..Although I do not like the usb 3 my books or passports drives, and am thinking Lacie for that, or better thunderbolt next time around.
 
Seagate have had a lot of issues in past years..I know they tried to solve them kind of late in the game of technical returns in R&D failing to test or fix or read the comments of why those drives were being returned by many customers. 
 
I have seen my brother pulling out his hair, and sending back, and sending back, what they recent him over, and over and over again as replacements of the same crap...till enough people complained that the drive was defective in build quality or controller rev being buggy with ide and then sata...etc
 
Now I believe, they are playing the cheaper costing drive game, to regain lost customers.
 
Not saying their drives are unreliable now...But do I want to switch over, and take that chance?...Nope!...I found my huckleberry!
 
Yes, the WD RED Drives would be prudently suggested to get, if you are into Video or audio work, as a more reliable go to for that extra peace of mind, in build quality for a few dollars more!...Maxtor was a big R&D Drive company that was bought out by WD...So they have the plant, the R&D, and the technicians who care about the products they build and sell...
 
I see Seagate is also trying to get in on that server market, with those constellation drives?....Well Good luck Seagate!...I have no Idea about their return policies, or how they conduct that sort of thing, and or customer service...But my Brother does!...He now is a WD user....wonder why?

Be a little careful with Blackblaze's stuff. Their environment is a little different from what most people have and their data does not match with mine. Now while they use more drives than we do, I still work at a pretty large enterprise and see a lot of drives. One thing Blackblaze claims is that enterprise class drives don't see any lower failure rates. I see the opposite, I see much lower failure rates with them. They are probably the only origination that claims that consumer grade drives have the same failure rates as enterprise grade.
 
And besides, we all know that SSDs = bettar than :D.

I have several Western Digital drives that are still going strong after nearly 8 years of use. The only 2 cases of drive failure that I have ever experienced were both with Maxtor drives.
 

I use Seagate HD exclusively and never had a HD failure to date, probably the best HD and highest rated HD there is. I also had Failed HD with Maxtor

I believe it's simply a matter of they all make good stuff sometimes, and they all make bad stuff sometimes. Like Chevys and Fords, you never know what day yours was made on, how happy or crappy the guy assembling it felt, how many times it was bumped, dropped or test driven before you bought it, and so on. If you could oversee the assembly of everything you ever bought from start to finish you'd probably never buy a defective item.
 
Now with 3D printing you CAN!

From a practical perspective, desktop HDDs do not see the same environment as a server HDDs. Desktop drives are intended to run cooler (especially at the head), and doing a defrag with full optimization after loading major programs and data sets is probably the easiest method to prolong life. This consolidates data (especially static data that may never change in the life of the drive) into contiguous files which not only minimizes "wear and tear" from excessive seeking, but also improves performance for the same reasoning.
 
That said, do not defrag an SSD, they are not the same beasts in any way.
 
 

For platter drives the WD Black and Red are where it's at.
 
For solid state the Samsung Pro's and EVO's are great as well. I love my 840 EVO 250GB.