Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[FinnMick5]

Hi guys, I am trying to decide on a 500GB hard drive for my sisters custom computer which is currently using a 120GB Sata hard drive. I was considering one of these:

Seagate ST3500820AS - 500GB 7.2K RPM 8MB Cache SATA Barracuda 3.5" Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Seagate ST3500630NS - 500GB 7.2K SATA 3.5" Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

 Both seem reasonably priced, but why is there a $10 difference between the two? What are the differences?  I am not too computer savvy and need some guidance. Obviously I would like to buy the cheaper item if they are the same. I am on a budget and think these are not a bad idea. Any ideas? Please let me know. Thanks guys.

[fzabkar]

The ST3500820AS has 2 platters whereas the ST3500630NS has 3, so this means that the former will have the faster data transfer rate. However, the NS drives are enterprise class whereas the AS are regular desktop drives. Furthermore, the ST3500820AS is a member of the 7200.11 family which were plagued with reliability problems, including firmware issues.

If your choice is limited to the above drives, I would choose the ST3500630NS even though it is about 20% slower.

Barracuda 7200.11 Serial ATA Product Manual:
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/desktop/Barracuda%25207200.11/100452348g.pdf

Barracuda ES Serial ATA Product Manual:
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/enterprise/Barracuda%2520ES/SATA/100424667b....