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I've done the firmware flash. It was very easy to do. It was a bad decision on Samsung's part for not changing the version number.
I haven't had a problem with these drives. I recently set up this build (a week ago).
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I have also heard mixed thoughts regarding the advanced format green drives.
The Samsung F4s are still solid drives (minus the firmware issue). I feel like all of the 2TB drives currently on the market have some sort of quirk.
For example, I am hesitant to use the WD20EARS advanced format drives due to the sleep settings. The things go to sleep after like 6 seconds of inactivity.
The F4s have good performance and should work fine in ZFS. I have done a decent amount of reading and have consulted FreeBSD forums and Hard Forums regarding F4 performance in ZFS.
It is best to ensure the drive is formatted properly, aligned, and using the correct 4K sector. Especially with ZFS, if they are not configured properly before added to zpool then the drives will be IDed with 512b (emulated by drive) sector.
Also, studies have shown that using them in sets of 3 or 5 are best when running in RAIDZ1 (RAID5).
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Poofyhairguy, welcome back. Always enjoy reading you're posts.
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2011-02-17, 16:38
(This post was last modified: 2011-02-17, 16:46 by Superorb.)
My F4 is much faster than my 7200rpm drives, albeit due to the higher density. Same results with write caching on/off.
According to HD Tune:
Transfer rate (F4 2TB 95% full)
Min: 62MB/s
Max: 142MB/s
Avg: 108MB/s
Burst: 202MB/s
Transfer rate (Seagate 400gb 7200rpm 60% full)
Min: 38MB/s
Max: 79MB/s
Avg: 64MB/s
Burst: 206MB/s
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Hardware I Love:
1. Nvidia GPUs -especially for Linux
2. WD Green HDs -more info below
3. SSDs
4. Antec, Lian Li or Silverstone cases- very well built
5. Zotac ION systems- I have run through a few, all have been rock solid
6. Asrock Vision 3D- best all-in-one HTPC on earth
7. Hitachi 7200 RPM HDs - more info below
8. Nvidia 430 GT - best HTPC GPU on earth. I don't care what that damn review says, they don't test different encodes like I do
9. Gigabyte mobos - ROCK SOLID, what Asus once was
10. Antec Neo PSUs- secret of Newegg, these beautiful Seasonic PSUs are the best <$100 mediaserver PSUs on the market
Hardware I Hate
1. ASRock ION 3D - Its a lie. It doesn't have the power for 3D by my testing.
2. Intel GPUs- on every platform their drivers suck (especially Linux) Intel Rant 1 Rant 2
3. The AGP slot- completely worthless in 2011. Get a 8400GS 512mb PCI card instead.
4. Samsung HDs and Seagate 5900RPM HDs- I would love to take them off the list...
5. Via - RUN from their stuff