After reading a few more reviews, I’ve decided not to take a chance with the Samsung Spinpoint F1.
While the performance is definitely there, the reliability isn’t. Samsung is a monster and makes all sorts of electronic components and devices, but they’re relatively new to the hard drive manufacturing field.
I’ve read reviews where users have had up to return up to four or five drives, all of them being dead-on-arrival. And there are others which had Spinpoints fail not long after purchase and the failure occurs anywhere from within two weeks to five months.
It’s a shame because the Spinpoint F1 outperformed every competing drive in its field in most of the performance benchmarks. It’s also not the most expensive terabyte drive out there, delivering a great price/performance ratio.
However, performance means nothing if the drive fails to work at all. 
Although they could not match the Spinpoint’s performance, according to reviews, it seems that either the Western Digital W10EACS or the Seagate 7200.11 would be a better choice. Their performance is respectable and, unlike Samsung, they offer 5-year manufacturer’s warranty and WD and Seagate are dedicated and proven hard drive manufacturers.
I’m leaning towards the Seagate 7200.11 because it showed better “real world” performance figures.
Tags: 7200.11, failure, hard drive, HD103UJ, samsung, Seagate, storage, terabyte, W10EACS, western digital
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