Upgrade WD10EACS to WD10EVCS?

Many folks with TivoHDs are using the WD10EACS drive without any issue (I have two of them in my HDs). I think it is really up to you. If you feel some piece of mind moving over to the WD10EVCS and were already planning to upgrade your home PC to 1TB, it isn't a bad plan.

BTW, there currently is a ~1.2TB cap on partition size for tivos. Drives above 1TB really aren't supported, so it might well have just saved you a bit of cash that 2TB aren't available now.

Jason

 

Just so you know, you'll see virtually no difference between WD10EACS compared to WD10EVCS. Both drives are virtually the same when it comes to Tivo HD.

-- Andrey

 

Stick with the WD10EACS. IMO, that's the second best drive to use and the difference between the WD10EACS (set to AAM of 128) and the WD10EVCS is minimal.

If the WD10EACS does fail a few years down the road, you can use the original TiVo drive (or the backup file you made) to install the latest and greatest drive available at that time. There's no point throwing away a perfectly good drive that also happens to be one of the best 1TB drives for TiVo upgrades.

 

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What drive do you consider to be the best drive for an internal upgrade (original S3 and TiVo HD)?

Thanks!

 

I would tend to agree. I'm not convinced it would be worth the trouble, even minimal as it is.

Well, he's not talking about throwing it away. He's going to use one or the other in his PC.

 

I was in a similar situation as you.

Upgraded THD to a 1TB Samsung EcoGreen, which had some loud seek sounds.

Needed another drive for NAS.

Bought the EVCS to replace the EcoGreen in the THD.

EVCS has been great. Super quiet and no problems at all!

EVCS is $111 at buy.com

 

I think one consideration when making such a determination has to be price, and as such the winner can change from day to day. Another consideration may be the vendor warranty which varies from vendor to vendor. I personally like both WD drives, but there's nothing wrong with the Seagate models. The Hitachis use considerably more power, but I've had a couple spinning both inside and outside one of my S3s for almost 2 years now. 'No complaints.

By the way, the Tuning Adapter is out and functional, now, either delivered or soon to be delivered in every market. You might consider changing your tag. Without SDV I would not be getting over 20 of the HD channels I now get on my TiVos.

 

I also have one of the "Green" Western Digital drive installed internally on an S3, and it's working great. I was lucky enough to buy one before they came out with the 00ZJB0 revision. As long as the drive works properly, noise (or lack of it) is what influences my decision.

Until Cablevision can provide me with one, I still don't have an SDV solution.

Another issue (for me) is that even if Cablevision actually delivers a tuning adapter, I will need three of them. As far as I am concerned, even one more CE box in my setup is a problem. The added nuisance of three additional boxes, may push me to drop TiVo, and go with Cablevision's DVR.

I may not be statistically relevant to TiVo, but any lost revenue is bad for TiVo - hence my tag. I'm not trying to antagonize you, or anyone else, I'm just stating what the reality of my situation is.

I'm considering FiOS when it's finally available to me, but my current feeling is that I am going to see what they bring to the table to get me to switch.

If TiVo introduces a one box solution for SDV, I would probably* opt for that.

*Depending on how intrusive the ads are when/if the box makes it to market.

 

I consider the WD10EVCS to be the best, but for a TivoHD, I don't think the WD10EACS is far behind. Noise should be comparable if you've set your WD10EACS to use an AAM of 128 with Hitachi Feature Tool.

As you know, the current versions of the WD10EACS won't work right (soft reboot problem) inside a Series3. I'm hesitant to recommend the WD10EACS when posting, simply because so many members and lurkers don't understand the difference between the TivoHD and Series3. Before the WD10EVCS came out, I used to recommend the WD10EACS for the TivoHD, and I got more than a few PMs from Series3 owners asking why it didn't work right in their box.

 

Actually, I forgot to set the acoustic management to a specific value when I installed the drive It's been very good with noise, so I can't complain. Any idea what the WD10EACS is set to out of the box?

Your cautious approach makes sense.

The specs seem to be very close for the WD10EACS and WD10EVCS. Besides the cache option, what is the major difference between the models? Am I missing something obvious?

 

Assuming they are from the same generation (number of platters), they are for all practical considerations on the TiVo identical. If anything, the older 4 platter 10EACS is more rugged compared to the reduced parts newer generation in that the disk shaft is supported on both ends (Stable-Trac) instead of just one side. The lighter weight of the newer drives is supposed to not need the extra support but this is really just a cost cutting measure not a technical improvement since any bearing failure will be catastrophic.

 

The cache is the same. The major difference is that the WD10EVCS supports the ATA-7 Streaming Command set (which the TiVo does not understand and cannot use) . And, of course, the head seek acoustics are already detuned at the factory so you don't have to do it yourself. The best deal you can get on a particular drive at a certain time is probably the main consideration for most people.

 

I thought the ATA-7 Streaming Command set was only applied to the parallel interface (40 pin - 80 wires), and not the SATA interface. Am I incorrect?

Are the WD10EVCS drives available in retail kits? I haven't seen them anywhere.

Also, do you know what the default AAC was set to on the "ols school" WD10EACS drives?

Thanks!

 

That is incorrect. The current version of WD10EACS (B1 revision) works perfectly fine with Series3.

 

Will there be a B1 in the model number to allow us to distinguish it?

 

Yes, incorrect. It is not interface related at all.

You will never find them in retail kits because they are not intended for the retail end user. They will always be in OEM-style packaging (mylar bags) intended for device manufacturers such as TiVo. But you can readly get them via online vendors.

Default AAC is usually 256 I think but I have seen some external drives that had the 10EACS inside that were set lower than that but not all the way down to the TiVo desired 128.

 

Revision is written on the drive right next to the model number. The one you want is WD10EACS-00D6B1. Most of the WD10ECS drives that you buy today either from Newegg, Amazon or Buy.com will be newest revision. Not sure if you can determine revision before actually looking at the drive in person.

 

I find that odd.

I was PM'd by a member two months ago who still had the same soft reboot issue with the 00D6B1 on the Series3. Another member -- or maybe it was the same one, I can't recall ---reported the same thing on the forum. There are also a bunch of members over on Mfslive.org who bought the WD10EACS -- revision unspecified -- last month and reported the same soft reboot problem on the Series3.

 

Take a look here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=410831

I currently have WD10EACS-00D6B1 in my Series 3 and do not have a soft reboot issue. So that's a pretty good test on my end. Essentially (and I don't think original poster cares too much about this), older WD10EACS do not work, while newer ones do work.