Canon VIXIA HF G20 HD Camcorder with HD CMOS Pro and 32GB Internal Flash Memory

Canon VIXIA HF G20 HD Camcorder with HD CMOS Pro and 32GB Internal Flash Memory..

Special Price Canon VIXIA HF G20 HD Camcorder with HD CMOS Pro and 32GB Internal Flash Memory By Canon

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50 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
Well built, good camcorder
By M. Montana
I record a LOT of live performances, where its typically very dark, with fog and flashing lights/lasers. I think this is the most extreme that anyone could ever hope to record on a budget of under 20k. The G10/G20 are the ONLY non-pro camcorders that are usable for this. I have 4 camcorders total, so I will compare/contrast them in the context of how I use them.

1) Canon g20. G20 is essentially a g10 that has been fixed. Audio is MUCH better, Digital zoom has been removed (it was useless on the g10), Telemacro has been added. Powered IS has been moved to the touch screen and replaced with a 'Pre-Record' button (but this is changeable in manual mode), the low light seems a tiny bit better, side by side the g20 looks a tiny bit brighter than the g10, but where it REALLY makes a difference is the noise in the video. Shadows are cleaner/crisper.

2) Canon G10. This was the prime camcorder before I got the G20, I would try to hand record the entire concert on just this. With the other 2 camcorders as 'emergency backups' to clip to if I absolutely could not save a section of video (like someone walking in front of me, or a band member jumping off stage without me catching it). The Audio was beyond piss poor though, despite my best efforts it would always sound tinney, and lack on vocals.

3) Canon M30. I used this as the backup, Usually very dark and nearly unwatchable. Colors usually off. However, prior to the g20, this was the best source for audio, when connected to a shotgun mic. Audio is FAR better than the G10, but close to the G20.

4) JVC Everio 440US. Not even sure why I would bring this or set it up. Unless the lights were very bright, it just picked up noisy black, and the audio was tolerable, but far from good. It really was useless unless it was less than 2' from a person. During daylight its actually a GREAT camcorder, but has basically no low light ability.

I LOVE the new hood design, its nice having a cap built into the hood. Eye piece looks nicer.

Overall the g20 truly is a g10, specs are identical. I suspect there was a firmware update and very minor hardware changes to make the new model. I was actually trying to buy a second G10 when this hit the market. I was pleasantly surprised at the minor changes, but if you are buying this as an upgrade from a G10.... Maybe hold off till you can grab the g25 (pro model) or g30 (which supports 60p), otherwise you will likely be disappointed. It IS better than the g10, but not by enough to justify spending a grand to upgrade.

Some Misc info for people to consider buying with this:
58 mm uv filter (evena cheapo will be fine... just protects your lens from scratches/dirt/etc)
3000 mah wasabi extended battery pack, (works perfectly in this, shows time remaining, etc)
2x32 gig SDHC cards. Comes with 32gig built in, but its nice to know you have 3 separate places to record to. Plus the usb interface is slow for dumping video to a computer.

58 of 66 people found the following review helpful.
Fantastic camera! You won't be disappointed!
By Oscar Wilde
Right out of the box, it seemed very solid and high quality which one should expect for the price. The new lens hood not only works better, but also looks a lot cooler. The touch tracking focus works great and is extremely useful. In low light this camera really is just amazing. It's much better for that than any dslr I've used. The image stabilizer is very helpful. I have compared it to my dslr footage and it is MUCH more stable meaning you probably don't need a shoulder rig. I just wish that the focus ring was not so hard to turn because some times i mess up the video when trying to turn it really far. The only advantage for me when shooting with a dslr is that you get manual zoom. But it's still fine with this camera. Also, the battery that it comes with is very small, so I would recommend buying some extras. The off brand batteries will work great and it's super cheap. But other than those two things, this camera is just perfect. If you aren't super picky about audio than this is fine. But if your in a production business and need really good sound quality, you should look at the xa10.

I was a little hesitant to buy this because I thought it was going to have a deeper depth of field according to what I have read about camcorders in general. Someone also told me that camcorders don't have a shallow depth of field. When I first took it for the test, i was quite surprised. The performance was really pretty good, so don't be too worried about that if you like a shallow depth of field. Using manual focus is great and I can get a lot out of focus.

I don't think that it's weather proofed, but i have never had a problem and am never afraid to take it out in some snow which I do quite often. Like I said at the top, it is quite solid meaning it's pretty heavy compared to the other camcorders i was looking at below $1500. So if you want to go skiing with it and put it in your pocket, it will weigh down your jacket. So bringing a backpack if your going skiing or for a hike is a good idea.

I love using dslr's and were used to them. But now I can never come back to dslr's. Using this camera is just so easy and simple. You can start shooting so quick. The start up time is pretty good, especially compared to dslr's I've used. I know that some nikon's have auto focus for video, but there is no comparison. The auto focus on this camcorder is lightning, and i never worry about it in low light. Also, most dslr's that do auto focus during video is loud enough to ruin audio. And obviously, This is completely silent. And this makes the camera just that more simple and easy.

I am very happy with the camera so far. I have tried to upload some test video but it said that it wouldn't except the format. So if you already have a g10, than it probably isn't worth upgrading. But highly recommended and you will most likely be satisfied.

49 of 56 people found the following review helpful.
Great camcorder for the DSLR fan
By mkgraham
I thought I would never get a camcorder with all the high tech HD video modes of capture out there these days. I found using video on my Canon 5d mark II superb in quality but lacked real layman control. I missed being able to focus instantaneous in a shot and the form factor of a DSLR as a video camera definitely is not there for run and gun situations I am finding my self into chasing a 2 year old around. Sure you can spend money on an elaborate setup that can turn the DSLR into something like a camcorder but I like the compactness the likes of the G20 offered.

So enter the Canon Vixia HF G20. I was interested in a sub $1200 HD camcorder and I am always a first to want a new thing so in return, and you, get an early review having 2 weeks with it so far. From what I know the camcorder is exactly the same as the G10 predecessor except for the new HD Pro sensor that allows more light capture. So I preordered and at the same time ordered this great book (I know its for the G10 and XA10, but all the G20 has is the better sensor) - Professional Results with Canon Vixia Camcorders: A Field Guide to Canon G10 and XA10 Now with the camcorder, I am happy I have read the book and use little of the huge manual that came with the G20.

So far it has shocked me how well the camcorder takes video and although the controls do take a little time to master, the touch screen works well. Maybe they did improve on it from the complaints I read on the G10.

I did drop one star for two reasons. The battery that comes with it is terrible so you best splurge on the max capacity one Canon BP-827 Lithium Ion Battery Pack for Vixia HG, HF S & HF M Camcorders (Retail Packaging). Also I wish they included a shoulder strap to carry the camcorder around easily.

So I will promise to update in 6 months, but so far so good!

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HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III 32MB Cache Internal Hard Drive 0J22423

HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III 32MB Cache Internal Hard Drive 0J22423..

Special Price HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III 32MB Cache Internal Hard Drive 0J22423 By HGST

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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Works with PS4 upgrading is easy and fast - Less than 30 minutes.
By Chuck Bittner
If you're someone like me and wants to upgrade their PlayStation 4 from its 500GB hard drive to something more spacious this drive is a good choice. With PlayStation 4 games weighing in at near 30GB+ for a lot of games and hard drive the size will eventually be a must upgrade. And if you're interested in upgrading your PlayStation hard drive it's a pretty straightforward process.

At the time of this review this 7200rpm drive was $10 cheaper: This is 7200rpm 1TB drive: HGST Travelstar 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache Internal Hard Drive

UPGRADING YOUR PS4 TAKE LESS THAN 30 minutes - You need to download the firmware from Sony*. If you need better instructions just google "PS4 hard drive replacement"
Step 1: remove the gloss section of your PS4. It's the part above the Blu-Ray slot.
Step 2: Remove the 500gb drive (requires 1 screw to be removed) Unscrew the 4 screws holding the drive in the cage.
Step 3: Put the PS4 back together.
Step 4: Insert your usb flash drive into the PS4 usb slot.
Step 5: Press and hold the power button on the PS4 for 8-10 seconds.
Step 6: Choose the bottom selection (I believe it's number 10) Reinstall firmware.
Step 7: That's it you are done only about 30 minutes and done.

*One thing you need if you're replacing a hard drive on the PlayStation is the latest firmware update from Sony's website and you need a 1 GB plus thumb drive formatted in fat32. And you just set up your thumb drive with a folder called PS4 an inside that folder another one called UPDATE. Then inside the update folder you place the firmware.

If you have a questions just ask them and I'll try to help.

I'd get this external case for your old 500gb drive: Vantec NexStar TX 2.5-Inch SATA to USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure ATM it' only $7.00. Takes only 3 minutes to install.

Here is another drive to consider for your PS4:
This is a 1.5TB hard drive: HGST Travelstar 5K1500 1.5TB 2.5-Inch Mobile 5400 RPM 9.5mm Internal Bare Hard Disk Drive 0J28001

Thanks reading please like if this was useful so others can see it.

PS personally I went with a 1TB 72000rpm drive in my PS4 as I wanted faster load times for my ADD personality.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
HGST 7K1000 1TB 2.5 9MM Laptop Hard Drive.
By ToeKnee
In and out in less than 2 minutes. What a difference as second drive on HP DV7 I7!

Replaced 5400 WD Scopro Blue and HGST 7K1000 1TB is now the second drive to Intel SSD 180GB drive with 6 TB of Hitachi Touro USB 3.0 Externals.... 16GB RAM.

Using KeepAliveHD to stop all of the hard drives and partition from going to sleep all of the time. Nothing else worked as everytime an update came it would revert to sleepy sleep.

HGST are now the premiere drives with dual platters, 7200 rpms. MAKE SURE you are getting the 7K1000 as the other HGST 2.5 inch 1TB drive is single platter and no where near as fast and they are dumping them at $10 less.... still a good drive but nothing like the 7K1000.

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
Click Click Click
By Ben Holt
Attracted by the price, speed and capacity, I bought this hard drive (model # 0S03563) to replace the 500gb 5400rpm Seagate drive that came with my mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro. It fits perfectly, and installing a fresh copy of Mountain Lion was a breeze. My laptop boots up and launches applications faster than before. While the hard drive is seeking and working hard reading and writing, it's nearly silent. However, when the hard drive is idle, it emits a very annoying click once every 3-10 seconds that sounds like metal slapping against metal. The stock hard drive did not do this. This may not bother some people, but for me it's so irritating and frustrating that I have a hard time concentrating on what I'm doing. I have done some online research and found that many other owners of Travelstars experience this same problem. If I had known this before buying, I would have chosen a different brand.

Update January 17th 2014:

I found a small, free program called "hdpam" that made my hard drive stop clicking. I don't know who deserves more blame; Apple's Mac OS for asking the hard drive to park its heads every few seconds or Hitachi for building the hard drive in such a way that it makes a loud noise when it parks its heads.

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INTEL 120 GB 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive 2.5IN MLC 7MM RESELLER BOX / SSDSC2BW120A4K5 /

INTEL 120 GB 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive 2.5IN MLC 7MM RESELLER BOX / SSDSC2BW120A4K5 /..

Special Price INTEL 120 GB 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive 2.5IN MLC 7MM RESELLER BOX / SSDSC2BW120A4K5 / By Intel

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125 of 140 people found the following review helpful.
The drive is great, but what's interesting is that Intel is also a price leader.
By Al
UPDATE: Amazon no longer sells this drive at the introductory price. Although the drive has increased in price, it's still an excellent SSD, and it's still extremely competitive on a $ per GB basis.

Intel is now a price leader in the 5-year warranty consumer space. This drive was (at Amazon's introductory price) almost the same price as the Samsung 840 Pro 128GB (before provisioning). Intel was giving 50% more space than the Samsung 840 Pro for nearly the same price. Even with the higher price, it's still a better deal per GB than the Samsung 840 Pro.

I have 5 SSDs on my personal computers. 3 of my 5 SSDs are Intel, my other 2 are Samsung 840 (Pro and non-Pro) drives. I have an Intel 330 120GB and 2 of these new 530 180GB drives. Synthetic benchmarks can show the advantages and disadvantages of all my different drives, but for all practical purposes, I can't tell the difference in my daily use. My backups show a small difference, but since my backups are automated weekly, it doesn't make any difference.

Both Intel and Samsung have excellent software packages.

Reliability and price rule my choices. Since flash drives wear out through the process of programming and erasing cells, and use wear-leveling to make the drives last longer, I did a search for these statistics.

A simple search of the reviews of my various drives shows my SSD's different program/erase (p/e) cycles. This is what I found:

Samsung 840 ~ 1,000 p/e cycles;
Samsung 840 Pro ~ 3,000 - 5,000 p/e cycles;

Intel 330 ~ 3,000 p/e cycles;
Intel 335 ~ 3,000 p/e cycles (I don't own this drive, but included it for comparative purposes);
Intel 520/525 ~ 5,000 p/e cycles (I don't own either of these drives, but included them for comparative purposes);
Intel 530 ~ I couldn't find any numbers on p/e cycles, but I would expect the drive to have between 3,000 - 5,000 p/e cycles.

I wouldn't be surprised if Intel is having difficulty keeping up their 520/525's 5,000 p/e cycles benchmark on the 530; Intel's 520/525 uses 25nm NAND and the 530 uses 20nm NAND.

I haven't seen any reports of Samsung moving to sub-20nm NAND, but Micron (Intel's partner in flash memory) has reported that IMFT (Intel Micron Flash Technologies) is already moving to 16nm production as I write this. I doubt if Samsung can keep up with Intel's semiconductor process technology; the Samsung 840 (non-Pro) uses TLC (triple level cell) NAND, and is already at 1,000 p/e cycles.

Although my Samsung 840 and 840 Pro have class leading controllers in the consumer space, the 840's (non-Pro) durability remains hugely questionable given that it's rated at 1,000 p/e cycles; I use this drive on my 85 year old father's computer -- he only uses his computer to browse the internet, and Win8 only uses about 35GB of space.

Samsung has a notorious customer service record. Even now, recent reviews on the Samsung 840 Pro show that there are plenty of conflicting reports on whether the 840 Pro has a 3-year or a 5-year warranty -- Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware), especially on the Samsung 840 (non-Pro) drive.

While Samsung may find it difficult to scale it's NAND process technology lower, consumers are benefiting from Intel's lower prices.

51 of 62 people found the following review helpful.
Comes with adapter
By wrightwinger
Item COMES WITH 3.5" ADAPTER AND SATAIII cable (but with 180* angled head).
So no need to order an adapter for a desktop.
(No review of actual ssd yet)

31 of 40 people found the following review helpful.
This SSD is compatible with MacBook Pro 13" (Mid 2012) Non-Retina
By Tan Yao Zong
I noticed that not many people left reviews about this product and its compatibility with MacBook, so here's what i gathered so far based on my usage! =)

Laptop Model: MacBook Pro 13" (Mid 2012) Non-Retina
OS: Mac OSX 10.9 Mavericks AND Bootcamp Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

About the product:
Item came in a good sturdy box, and was easy to install. But there was no USB to SATA cable, so those of you who prefer installing the OS on the drive before physically mounting it into your MacBook, you may want to consider getting this cable first. For myself, I clean installed the OS 10.9 from a USB thumbdrive after fitting it into the MacBook.

Compatibility with MacBook Pro:
Boot time:6-8s
Shutdown time: 10-12s

I read on another forum that some other MacBook users experienced problems on a warm reboot (ie. the drive doesnt allow them to reboot after its been startup, and can only do a cold reboot), but so far I have not encountered any of such problems, even with both OSX and bootcamp installed.

Since installation (just a day ago), I'm liking every bit of it, especially the significantly faster bootup times, and that applications and processes are much snappier than before (I was previously using the stock Toshiba 500GB mechanical HDD that shipped with the MacBook).

So for those of you who have doubts over its compatibility with MacBook, i'd go as for to say that there certainly isnt any compatibility issues.. However, if optimisation for efficiency and power-saving features etc is your primary focus, I'm not so sure how well this performs just yet.. Certainly, the low price point (as compared to other brands of SSDs) is a heavy consideration that made me purchase this over the others..

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Crucial M500 480GB mSATA Internal Solid State Drive CT480M500SSD3

Crucial M500 480GB mSATA Internal Solid State Drive CT480M500SSD3..

Grab Now Crucial M500 480GB mSATA Internal Solid State Drive CT480M500SSD3 By Crucial

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27 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
Great Drive-Compares With Samsung and Intel
By Anthony J.
When I opened the packages to assemble my Intel Next Unit I thought "Where is the drive?". Well, there was no box and the little container might have held a stick of RAM. Now, I use two Intel 530's and a bunch of Samsung Pro's and they evidently have a lot of case, ..anyway. If you need installation help, YouTube has Crucial and other videos to guide you and Crucial's memory advisor includes compatible SSD's.

Let me tell you about what I found researching this drive and what I know from building computers for 25 years. This drive has an advantage over many because it has error checking and built in power backups to keep your data safe just like their Enterprise server drives, however it doesn't have any software, but that's not a problem if you optimize Windows by a guide like Sean's for Windows or The SSD Review's. Remember to make sure TRIM is enabled in your OS or your drive will slow down over time and you'll have to use a secure erase utility to regain your performance. Firmware can also be a cause and as of today the last firmware update was 9/13, so in Windows you can check your's under the drive's Properties in the Device Manager, but I haven't had a problem. I'm told it has over provision built in, which extends the life of the drive, because a 120GB is really 128 with 8GB over provision and a 240 is 256 and they use a Redundant Array of Independent NAND technology to achieve this. It also uses an adaptive thermal protection circuit to adjust its power to allow it to run cooler, which seems to work except at idle, where it draws above average power according to HardOCP which means more heat. Many claim the NUC's have problems with SSD's overheating but this drive hasn't and I've never noticed it throttling back or slowing down. All of my other SSD's are 240GB but I haven't had any issues using this 120GB. After formatting it was 111GB and Windows 7 Pro and programs used 21GB. My Samsungs format and then use software to over provision to about 200GB, so this 240GB version, like my Intels, will end up 10% larger.

My main reason for choosing the Samsung and Intel was that they were willing to put a 5 year warranty on their drives, which of course means I'm just hoping for the best reliability, but this has a 3 year which means it has a lower cycle life rating and will wear out sooner. It has been absolutely reliable in the months I've been using it and I will likely replace it or the whole computer before 3 years anyway. As for speed I've been using this in the 1.8GHz i3 NUC Intel Next Unit of Computing Kit with HDMI, Thunderbolt, Core i3-3217UDC3217BY running Win 7 and my slowest computer for comparison would be my 2.3GHz i7 laptop using a Samsung Pro and twice as much RAM, so I assume this drive to be the explanation for why my mini i3 feels so fast. I use nothing but SSD computers these days and thought the i3 NUC would feel slow, but it doesn't. So I like this drive as much as my more expensive drives, although this drive does test slower just using it I wouldn't know it.

So optimize your OS and remember the firmware because it optimizes the drive, don't use a defrag program and leave 25% unused on it like you should for all SSD's and this inexpensive, speedy little drive should satisfy most for 3 years or more.

It's been perfect in every way and I trust Crucial. Good brand name, fast and reliable, very competitive pricing, it's a good choice.

Update: After 6 months this drive is still making an i3 seem fast to an i7 user and it has been trouble free. This is how I feel about this drive...I've purchased two more because they are a great value, price is no longer a valid reason not to have a SSD. Don't worry if your mSATA is SATA 2, the performance jump is still enormous, just do your install research and buy one.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Fast, tiny drive (240GB version)
By J. Linford
I installed this msata in my Lenovo Ideapad Y580. Installation was easy (thank you, Crucial, for including screws with this drive!) and the machine recognized the drive immediately. After a little work, I was able to install Ubuntu on this drive and dual-boot between Linux and Windows 8.1. Booting into Linux is super fast, even compared to regular Linux boot times.

For anyone else looking to do the dual-boot trick, the key is to use the most recent version of Ubuntu (the older versions don't play well with the Windows UEFI boot loader) and make sure you disable the Secure Boot option in your BIOS. Also, turn off the Fast Startup in Windows 8 if you want to be able to access your Windows partition from Linux, otherwise Windows just hibernates instead of doing a complete shut down.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
POWER HUNGRY but RELIABLE: BEST for Desktops: UPDATED
By Stephanie Sullivan
I did research on mSATA drives before purchasing a drive for a Intel NUC home office desktop computer.

The M500 is a very good performer among the current competition; not the best but near the top. I think the difference is not likely to be noticeable in real-world use. The main reason for selecting the M500 was its reputation for reliability because of the kind of memory used.

This is a drive which has fairly high power consumption, over 1W at idle and approaching 4W when busy. This is comparable to a mechanical laptop drive and higher than many of those. It will run warm with use so cooling can be a consideration. This isn't a problem in my desktop application with a Intel NUC (4th Gen Core i5) which take mSATA format drives. A version that takes 2.5" drives is also available: Intel NUC Intel 4th Gen Core i5, 2.5 drive capable.

If you are a reliability "paranoid" like me you'll be happy to know the M500 drives work fine in RAID1 (mirroring) arrays.

Speaking of reliability: nothing is 100% failure free. I've worked with Crucial for decades for RAM and flash. Their warranty support has always been hassle free and I generally get replacement components cross-shipped saving on down time. Crucial stands-out in the marketplace for high quality service. A reliable drive is great, but a company that also stands solidly behind their products is priceless.

The M500 performs fully to my expectations, it's a bit power hungry but that's fine in my desktop, and it's a reliable drive with a dependable manufacturer. That adds up to 5 stars in my book.

Hope this is helpful to someone. POWER HUNGRY but RELIABLE: BEST for Desktops

UPDATED: April 29, 2014

The Crucial M550 SSD DriveCrucial M550 is out now and uses about 1/10th the power of the M500 at idle. It is about $90 more expensive than the M500, but that may be worth it for folks who want the best battery life from their mobile systems. The M550 specs are somewhat faster and the drive is about 5% (or 32GB) larger comparing the M550 512GB to the 480GB M500.

Except for battery life I expect the real world performance experience to be similar to the M500.

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Asus Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-Ray Drive (BC-12B1ST)

Asus Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-Ray Drive (BC-12B1ST)..

Grab Now Asus Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-Ray Drive (BC-12B1ST) By Asus

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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent Value
By Christopher S. Mooney
Outstanding data drive. Quiet. Fast. Solid. I am ordering my third drive for another machine.

Software? Licensing fees for Blu-Ray are not trivial, so don't expect any at this price.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
great product
By cju747
No software with DVD to play on the windows 7 machine.
Downloaded Cyberlink DVD 12 works great and the quality BD is amazing on my HP monitor!!
cheap and very nice!

34 of 43 people found the following review helpful.
Works well with my Mac
By Kyle
I have used this on my Mac mini with Vantec NexStar DX NST-530S2 5.25-Inch SATA to USB 2.0 Optical Drive External Enclosure (Black) for a month now. It worked under Lion (10.7) and now works with Mountain Lion (10.8).

Mac OS X by default will recognize BD media, but will not play it. Which is fine with me. I bought it for the purpose of ripping my BD movies for use with iTunes and my 1080p Apple TV. I use MakeMKV to copy the content of the blu-ray discs to my external HD, then I use HandBrake to convert the MKV to an M4V file for iTunes. It's time consuming, but it works well.

And no, I didn't need to install any drivers or any of that garbage for the drive to work. I just popped it into the enclosure, connected the enclosure via USB, and it worked.

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Seagate Barracuda 500 GB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 16MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST500DM002

Seagate Barracuda 500 GB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 16MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST500DM002..

GET Seagate Barracuda 500 GB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 16MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST500DM002 By Seagate

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1970 of 2186 people found the following review helpful.
POWER OF ONE or WEAKNESS OF 0.67 - how to avoid getting the bad drive version...
By niels
UPDATE January 2014:

Thanks to information from many useful comments, a short update:

1) The problem is still the same as it was. Both 2TB drives are still being sold with the same model number. Due to changes in serial nunbers, depth of the drive housing's indentation has now become the best way to distinquish the drives (see user images - bottom right of Amazon's product page)

2) When I wrote this, I didn't feel up to offering an alternate drive recommendation, as my own opinion is based on personal experience and hence anecdotal. Many people asked, but I only answered in email, without adding a recommendation to the review.

Since Backblaze's (an online data backup company) massive long term test, their blog and extremetech's article based on that (see comments, page 26 for a link), I'll just quote their blog: "If the price were right, we would be buying nothing but Hitachi drives. They have been rock solid, and have had a remarkably low failure rate."

So, is that data even relevant for the average home user? I would say yes, because continuous, heavy use of large numbers of drives is the only way to get any half-reliable comparison. Among consumers, usage patterns are simply spread too wide: if someone only turns on their computer 15 times a year (my aunt), any drive will be the same as any other drive, cause with so little use, they will all last till the lubricant in the spindle dries up, and she'll tell anyone who asks that her drive is great. This inability to compare reliability in the consumer space has bolstered sales of shoddy drives for a long time.

If you do use your computer frequently, installing drives exhibiting a <1% annual failure rate at Backblaze certainly beats installing drives with a 15% or even 120% annual failure rate.

**end update**

ok, so this drive is listed as the "Seagate ST2000DM001" and guess what; other than that it sports 2 Terabytes, it tells you nothing whatever about what drive you'll end up with, because Seagate has chosen to obscure and omit relevant Data between different builds with vastly different performance.

The short advice: Only purchase versions xxExxxxx [and possibly x24xxxxx - x24 is unverified info so far, see notes below] of the 2TB model. This uses 2 platters and 4 heads.
It performs 30% better than the version with 3 platters, which has an xxFxxxxx [or possibly x36xxxxx] designation. Avoid those!

You'll need to contact the seller and ask them to check the code on the drive. If they can't verify, don't buy it, better to get a drive from a different company, where its hopefully not a surprise game of what's in the box.

S - SU - Suzhou China
W - WU - Wuxi China
Z - TK - Korat Thailand

F = 3 platters with either 5 or 6 heads (bad 2TB drive or good 3TB drive)
E = 2 platters with 4 heads. (good 2TB drive)
D = 1 platter with 2 heads. (good 1TB drive)

Weight info received in a comment here, suggests that the 'good' 2-platter drive weighs 534 grams, while the 'bad' 3-platter drive weighs 624 grams.

Seagate used to embed the information about their drives in the model number, but now they obscured it, so they can pawn off whatever they want. Send a WxE model to Publications who test drives, and then ship the crappy WxF model to unsuspecting customers who may never realize they're not getting what they thought they were buying. This should really be illegal.

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NOTE 1: This was written for the 2TB drive. It turns out Amazon also shows this review for 3TB drives. This info does not apply to 3TB drives, the 3TB drives always have 3 1TB platters. (or not, there have been reports of 5 platter 3TB versions, if you know anything more, let us know)

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NOTE 2: comparison test results - since links get killed in reviews, I'll upload an image to the product page.

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NOTE 3: A relevant post on Seagate's forum stating that these Barracuda have been crippled through redesign [see the link in comment 143 below, page 15]
(Apparently, links are permitted in comments)

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NOTE 4: Someone commented that Seagate removed any reference to the 2 platter version of this drive in the manual (something which is usually only read after the purchase)

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NOTE 5: Someone explained that Seagate made this change due to the flooding of their plant in Thailand. This is not quite correct since chinese 2 platter 2TB drives are also in circulation.

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NOTE 6: While the channel still has drives with the numbering scheme as described above, there appear to be at least some drives with a new numbering scheme like "Z240PJB3". Would be great if it read out like x24xxxxx, where 2 stands for 2 platters and 4 stands for 4 heads, then this would be one of the good drives while something like x35xxxxx would be the bad drives. (this is just a guess so far, its not verified)

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NOTE 7: Someone added that 2 platter drives (based on other pictures) are 'thinner' with deeper indents on the bottom and top and have a dot matrix code on the bottom right third of the top next to the label. (note that labels are not safe indicators, as they could change an older factory to add barcodes or switch to their latest labeling system any time they wish)

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NOTE 8: Seagate has reacted and added more drive info on this product page, advertising "POWER OF ONE" meaning 1 platter per terabyte. This is good news, but that doesn't mean you can relax and just hit the 'buy' button:
a) channel inventory of drives manufactured prior to this "Power of One" initiative will be around for some time to come, so you still need to verify.
b) the specifications sheet Seagate still links on this very page (as of June 28, 2013) shows 6 heads, 3 disks for the 2TB version. With conflicting information, its still a little hard to tell for consumers if they're getting "POWER OF ONE" or "WEAKNESS OF 0.67"

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Once Seagate "fixes" their spec sheet info for the 2TB drive which directly conflicts with the "Power of One" advertising, I'd be happy to change my conclusion below. After all, it would mean they decided to be honest and transparent again, rather than hell bent on destroying the reputation of their 'Barracuda' brand.

But right now, what is the point of advertising "Power of One" while saying their 2TB drives have 3 platters with 0.67 TB at the same time.

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CONCLUSION:
Seagate's real reason to obscure drive information is being able to use lower bin or older tech platters that can only hold ~670 GB, so they use 3 platters. This is a fine business decision, but an honest company would give it a new Model number/name, as its a different product with lower speeds, lower reliability and higher weight.

But why be honest, if you can cheat and make a few dollars extra per drive, by selling it under the same name as the better drive, which has been reviewed extensively and lauded for its higher speeds?

Last Update: June 28, 2013 (in response to Seagate's new additions to this page and with thanks to Alex and J. Goodman)

460 of 514 people found the following review helpful.
3TB for Synology NAS
By Steve Eagle
This is one of the select few 3TB drives approved by Synology for use in a variety of their NAS devices, so I put 4 of these in a DS411 in SHR with one disk redundancy (basically RAID 5). While anyone will tell you enterprise hard drives are better in RAID 5 or 6 configurations - and they are right, for the most part - it's hard to deny the big price difference in going enterprise: 3TB enterprise drives are well over $550 right now due to the recent Thailand flood and it may be some time before that price drops significantly. While these drives weren't as cheap as the 3TB WD Caviar Green varieties, I will NEVER put Caviar Greens in a RAID 5 again, so the ST3000DM001 quickly rose to the top of my admittedly short list.

I think it's important to point out that IntelliPower (WD) and CoolSpin (Hitachi) technologies are not really ideal for any kind of RAID array using parity. WD Caviar Green drives, especially, are known to sometimes not power up when needed, ultimately resulting in them getting dropped from the RAID array. A good NAS like the DS411 will put the drives into hibernation after 10 minutes of no activity, so you don't really need the benefit of "eco-friendly" drives in this kind of RAID anyways. Plus, with 7200RPM you will get speed improvements, so it's a no brainer to pick a drive like this over those.

That said, of course these do not have TLER, RAFF and other advantages of enterprise-class drives. So you run the risk of more errors, RAID rebuilds and potential failures by choosing a consumer drive like this. But even though the risk is greater, it's not really worth the extra money to go to 3TB enterprise-class, so I feel this is a good compromise of risk vs. value.

UPDATE - 7/12/13

I felt I should come back and update this review (and my rating) due to 2 of these drives encountering bad sectors and getting dropped from my RAID volume within a 1 month period of time. It took over a year and a half for this to happen but it's still an unacceptable loss ratio in my opinion. I still did not encounter that dreaded second disk failure while rebuilding my RAID5 with a new drive - both times the rebuilds completed without a hitch. Once again, that situation has not happened in my 15 years of professional IT work. I ended up going with the WD Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD30EFRX to replace the Seagates. Although Synology and other NAS manufacturers ignore the TLER timings in enterprise drives and implement their own, I feel the Reds (and by extension the RE's) are better suited for NAS usage and will be more versatile should I choose to put them in different RAIDs or NAS's in the future.

So in summary, I can't really recommend these Seagates anymore after my personal experience and the drop in price in the WD Reds.

290 of 335 people found the following review helpful.
So far, so good.
By Skullywag
I've dealt almost exclusively with WD for the last 10 years....I had a string of bad luck with Seagate before that, and had sworn off of them. Well, times have changed, and I'm willing to see if Seagate has improved over the years. Post-flood WD seems to be sticking to the absurd prices after other makers are slowly going back down to reasonable prices. And I have to say price played a BIG part in these recent purchases...I REFUSE to pay more for a WD GREEN drive than I did for a Black drive twice the size a year ago...I just refuse.
In a non-raid environment, this 2TB drive seems to be snappy, worked out of the box, and has had no errors...so far so good. Just ordered 2 of the 3TB variety on the strength of this one.

I've been seeing A LOT of neg reviews lately for ALL manufactures in ALL price ranges, it's my belief that the many DOAs have more to do with how the drives are handled in transit, than quality control. I've SEEN the way carriers toss the packages around to get to others, and have even seen them STAND on packages....no bubble wrap is going to compensate for that kind of abuse. Still other complaints I've seen have more to do with ignorance than anything...who in their right mind expects to drop a 2TB-3TB drive in a 10 year old machine and expect it to work out of the box, without using the manufactureres tool? Or expects lightning speeds when a SATA 6GB drive is plugged into a SATA 1.5GB port? And if I read one more review where a clueless person can't understand why a 3 TB reports as less than 3TB in Windows...I'll scream!

I think it stinks that warrantys have been cut, and there is still the question in my mind if post-flood drives are being rushed out to meet demand before factorys are up-to-snuff, or if all that fresh new equipment means a better product....guess we'll see.
From a one week perspective, I have no complaints with this drive. In the weeks to come, if I DO....I'll let ya know.

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HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5-Inch 4TB 7200RPM SATA III 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive Kit (0S03664)

HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5-Inch 4TB 7200RPM SATA III 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive Kit (0S03664)..

GET HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5-Inch 4TB 7200RPM SATA III 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive Kit (0S03664) By HGST

Most helpful customer reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Works well enough
By Kyle Cronin
I bought four of these drives and put them into a Promise Pegasus2 R4 with RAID 5. With this setup I benchmark about 470 MB/s write and 360 MB/s read with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. These speeds are well in excess of the speeds you will be able to achieve with a NAS, the marketed purpose for the drives. Only time will tell whether these drives will be reliable, but with none DOA they're off to a good start.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Longest MBTF I could find
By Gadget Freak
Just what I was looking for, reliability. Obviously a 3-year warranty is a good indicator. The Deskstar NAS is a new product. It has the 1M MTBF vs. the regular Deskstar 7k4000 (HDS724040ALE640) which has a 0.8M MTBF. The NAS version also has a rotational stability sensor to help monitor the smart status better. I was looking for additional external storage for backups & videos. I installed 4 of these in an 4-bay external USB 3.0 enclosure (Dyconn Quartz 4). For around $1100 total installed cost, you can get nice 16Tb setup for all your "stuff". I've got mine connected to a MacMini. A good (non-SSD) 3.5" drive has about the same read/write speed as USB 3.0, thus in an external USB 3.0 setup, it will give you ~170-180 MB/s regardless of RAID setup.

Update #1
I was able to test drive speed vs various other drives. This drive performs as expected. I did not test in a RAID configuration. (sorry about the formatting, the last two nos. in each row are Read/Write in MB/s), all tests with BlackMagic

Mid--2011 Mac Mini
WD My Book Studio 4Tb, RAID 0 Firewire 800 800 megabit FW800 60 64
Apple 5400 rpm 750 Gb HD SATA III 6 gigabit SATA III 68 68
Toshiba/Apple 5400 500 Gb Laptop drive SATA III 3 gigabit Thunderbolt 63 63
Crucial M4 - 256 Gb SATA III 5 gigabit Thunderbolt 382 79
HGST 4 Tb NAS 3.5" Drive SATA III 6 gigabit Thunderbolt 163 160 (Seagate BackupPlus thunderbolt adapter)

2012 Mac Mini Server
Samsung 840 SSD - 500 Gb SATA III 6 gigabit SATA III 560 320
Samsung 840 SSD - 500 Gb x 2 - RAID 0 SATA III 6 gigabit SATA III 990 620
Patriot Magnum 64 Gb USB 3.0 Memory Stick USB 3.0 4.8 gigabit USB 3.0 242 120
Transcend 64 Gb USB 3.0 ?? Memory Stick USB 3.0 4.8 gigabit USB 3.0 15 15
HGST 4 Tb NAS 3.5" Drive SATA III 6 gigabit USB 3.0 131 126 (Dyconn Quartz 4, JOBD)
HGST 4 Tb NAS 3.5" Drive SATA III 6 gigabit USB 3.0 163 160 (Anker Uspeed adapter)

Update #2; I just tested four of these drives in RAID5 mode on the 4-bay USB 3.0 Dyconn.... way better than expected 250 Mb/s Read, 241 Write. Woo Hoo! So, double the single drive mode.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
This thing is FAST
By Jeff Welch
Other than using an SSD, this is by far the fastest drive I have ever had, that said I purchased it for its size and reliability. Size is great, speed is awesome. The jury is out on reliability for me, maybe I'll revise this in two years!.

I like to retire my drives after a couple of years to head off reliability problems before they happen. I am in the process of using this drive to replace two 2TB drives from another manufacturer. I lost a drive on a laptop a few years ago and ever since I have become very paranoid about loosing my data (basically everything that I have made for close to 20 years, plus many movies, songs and pictures, I delete NOTHING).

If you have read a lot of Hard Drive reviews, you are probably more worried about which drive to pick now then when you started. After several weeks of research and reading, HGST seemed to me to be the best choice. Time will tell.

Assuming this drive works well over the next few months, I will purchase a second one and mirror them for data backup.

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