I think it's overpriced considering the S3 was going for $400 a couple weeks ago and you can add an external eSATA 1TB drive for about $350.busyba said:
Anybody have the S3 Terabyte Tivo from Weeknees?
http://www.weaknees.com/tivo/series-3-hd-tivo-1350-hours.php
Wondering if anyone has bought one of these and what they think of it.
Wondering if anyone has bought one of these and what they think of it.
1 - 20 of 22 Posts
everything at weaknees is overpriced, IMO
My S3 is essentially the same as the Weaknees one. I have have the same 1TB Hitachi drive with its acoustic management engaged.busyba said:http://www.weaknees.com/tivo/series-3-hd-tivo-1350-hours.php
Wondering if anyone has bought one of these and what they think of it.
Works great.... The drive was $399 at newegg.com. Looks like its dropped 20 bucks since I got mine...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145141
Bumwine method works great....
Way overpriced... I took advantage of the fathers day rebate for a $400 S3, picked up the Seagate 750GB external eSATA drive from Costco, a $10 eSATA cable and poof - a one terabyte Tivo...
How did you enable "acoustic management?" If you do so, does this turn the drive into a Hitachi Cinemastar, rather than a "Deskstar," as the Newegg specs say?SCSIRAID said:My S3 is essentially the same as the Weaknees one. I have have the same 1TB Hitachi drive with its acoustic management engaged.
Works great.... The drive was $399 at newegg.com. Looks like its dropped 20 bucks since I got mine...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145141
Bumwine method works great....
You use the 'Feature Tool' and set the 'Automatic Acoustic Management' value to 'Enabled' with the recommended value of 128. The tool has a test mode that lets you hear the difference as you vary the value of the parameter. Going to 128 definitely made a difference. As to whether this makes the Deskstar a Cinemastar.. I dont know but I would expect that it is more likely than not the only difference. Manufacturers dont like to make too many 'unique' things when the can vary features with software.drew00001 said:How did you enable "acoustic management?" If you do so, does this turn the drive into a Hitachi Cinemastar, rather than a "Deskstar," as the Newegg specs say?
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
The feature tool can be a bit of a pain since it didnt like any ATA controllers in the PC along with the SATA controller. I had to create a diskette and remove all PATA devices to get it to work.
There is a CD which came with the drive that might have a different version of the tool but I didnt try it.
It's fine. Bought it for my in-laws rather than saving about $200 and doing it myself simply so they'll take advantage of Weaknees 3-year warranty rather than call me every time it hiccups... Real benefit of upgrading the internal drive with 1TB over just adding the external SATA drive to a stock S3? You can STILL add the external drive afterwards, just not quite so easy, resulting in 2 TB Tivo!!!busyba said:http://www.weaknees.com/tivo/series-3-hd-tivo-1350-hours.php
Wondering if anyone has bought one of these and what they think of it.
So much TV, so little time....
Isn't it more like a $600 difference?Gil said:It's fine. Bought it for my in-laws rather than saving about $200 and doing it myself ....
The upcoming Cinemastar is an OEM type drive with some specialized features designed to be used as part of a DVR that has been designed around it. The S3 will not use any of its specialized features and will simply see it as an overpriced Deskstar. For all practical purposes a detuned Deskstar is the equivalent.drew00001 said:How did you enable "acoustic management?" If you do so, does this turn the drive into a Hitachi Cinemastar, rather than a "Deskstar," as the Newegg specs say?
Is it certified for 24/7 operation? Does it run hotter than the current drive? Is it louder than the current drive? These are my biggest concerns.jlib said:The upcoming Cinemastar is an OEM type drive with some specialized features designed to be used as part of a DVR that has been designed around it. The S3 will not use any of its specialized features and will simply see it as an overpriced Deskstar. For all practical purposes a detuned Deskstar is the equivalent.
Note that manufacturers don't certify drives for 24/7 operation per se. They are all capable of that. In fact from the standpoint of a silicon-based life form, 24/7 operation is much less stressful to the electronics than regular startup and shut down. When a manufacturer uses the term enterprise that does not mean that their other drives cannot be run constantly, only that the higher end drives usually have a more robust interface such as SCSI or have performance characteristics that allow dozens of people to access the drive simultaneously 24 hours a day such as on a server. The MTBF of current hardrives is now measured in the millions of hours so all drives are capable of running 24/7 for the life of most products if not the owners.drew00001 said:Is it certified for 24/7 operation? Does it run hotter than the current drive? Is it louder than the current drive? These are my biggest concerns.
The TiVo at full tilt is a very non-challenging task for a modern hard drive. So put away any notion that you need a high performance drive or "24/7 certification". Basically, just look for the quietest drive you can find with the capacity you want at a price you can afford. All non-Seagate drives can be quieted and the DB35 Seagates are inherently quiet.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=350510jlib said:Note that manufacturers don't certify drives for 24/7 operation per se. They are all capable of that. In fact from the standpoint of a silicon-based life form, 24/7 operation is much less stressful to the electronics than regular startup and shut down. When a manufacturer uses the term enterprise that does not mean that their other drives cannot be run constantly, only that the higher end drives usually have a more robust interface such as SCSI or have performance characteristics that allow dozens of people to access the drive simultaneously 24 hours a day such as on a server. The MTBF of current hardrives is now measured in the millions of hours so all drives are capable of running 24/7 for the life of most products if not the owners.
The TiVo at full tilt is a very non-challenging task for a modern hard drive. So put away any notion that you need a high performance drive or "24/7 certification". Basically, just look for the quietest drive drive you can find with the capacity you want at a price you can afford. All non-Seagate drives can be quieted and the DB35 Seagates are inherently quiet.
Why does this post make such a big deal about 24/7 certification? See #29 for example.
Just because some people believe that's important. For me, that's probably the least important factor when I choose a drive. If the price difference is only 1%, yes, I would get a 24/7 certified drive. If it's 5%, most likely not.drew00001 said:Why does this post make such a big deal about 24/7 certification?
MTBF, copied from wiki:
MTBF is not to be confused with life expectancy. MTBF is an indication of reliability. A device (e.g. hard drive) with a MTBF of 100,000 hours is more reliable than one with a MTBF of 50,000. However this does not mean the 100,000 hours MTBF HD will last twice as long as the 50,000 MTBF HD. How long the HD will last is entirely dependent on its life expectancy. An 100,000 MTBF HD can have a life expectancy of 2 years while a 50,000 MTBF HD can have a life expectancy of 5 years yet the HD that's expected to break down after 2 years is still considered more reliable then the 5 years one. Using the 100,000 MTBF HD as an example and putting MTBF together with life expectancy, it means the HD system should on average fail once every 100,000 hours provided it is replaced every 2 years. Another way to look at this is, if there are 100,000 units of this drive and all of them are in use at the same time and any failed drive is put back in working order immediatly after the failure, then 1 unit is expected to fail every hour (due to MTBF factor).
MTBF is not to be confused with life expectancy. MTBF is an indication of reliability. A device (e.g. hard drive) with a MTBF of 100,000 hours is more reliable than one with a MTBF of 50,000. However this does not mean the 100,000 hours MTBF HD will last twice as long as the 50,000 MTBF HD. How long the HD will last is entirely dependent on its life expectancy. An 100,000 MTBF HD can have a life expectancy of 2 years while a 50,000 MTBF HD can have a life expectancy of 5 years yet the HD that's expected to break down after 2 years is still considered more reliable then the 5 years one. Using the 100,000 MTBF HD as an example and putting MTBF together with life expectancy, it means the HD system should on average fail once every 100,000 hours provided it is replaced every 2 years. Another way to look at this is, if there are 100,000 units of this drive and all of them are in use at the same time and any failed drive is put back in working order immediatly after the failure, then 1 unit is expected to fail every hour (due to MTBF factor).
Granted your more refined definition. Thanks for the clarificaction. At least MTBF is a statistical figure one can compare to previous figures. Life expectancy is more obscure, perhaps revealed only by some multiplier to the the manufacturer's warranty term. And it would take access to a large universe of drives such as in an operation like Google or the manufacturer's non-public failure rates to determine life expectancy and then only after the fact. So we don't really have access to life expectancy data when making a buying decision save our own anecdotal experience which may not be statistically valid.c3 said:MTBF is not to be confused with life expectancy.
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/...tion/data_sheets/diamondmax_10_data_sheet.pdf
On this datasheet, the "component design life" is specified as 5 years, which sounds about right for a typical hard drive.
On this datasheet, the "component design life" is specified as 5 years, which sounds about right for a typical hard drive.
Hmm, I guess it is a bigger gap now that the S3 price has come down and the drives are a little cheaper too. Didn't pay too much attention because ma-in-law paid the bill, LOL.gweempose said:Isn't it more like a $600 difference?
Good find! I was looking for such info but could not find it for any current drives from any manufacturer. Looks like they don't publish that anymore.c3 said:http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/...tion/data_sheets/diamondmax_10_data_sheet.pdf
On this datasheet, the "component design life" is specified as 5 years, which sounds about right for a typical hard drive.
There are about 4.3 million TiVo subscribers. Assuming 1 drive per unit and MTBF of 1 million hours, every single day there are 103 unhappy TiVo customers just due to hard drive problems.
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