# Seagate Pipeline HD Pro experience anyone?



## ggraves (Oct 2, 2006)

*Does anyone have experience with the Seagate Pipeline HD™ Pro drive?*

Seagate introduced this new CE hard drive earlier this year. At present they only have a 1TB model available, but the manufacturer's literature states that the drive series "starts" at one GB.

My S3 is having drive problems on HD channels and since it's only got the original drive in it, which has had problems from the beginning but we were unwilling to give it up for repair, I'm looking at the best upgrade options.

Does anyone in this forum have experience with this drive as compared to the WD green drive series?

Thanks,
George


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

ggraves said:


> At present they only have a 1GB model available, but the manufacturer's literature states that the drive series "starts" at one GB.


Oh, 1 *TB*! I had to go look it up ... a 1GB drive in an S3 wouldn't hold much.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Interesting write up about them here. AFAIK no one has tried it. If you're willing to be a TiVo Pioneer I'd be interested in the results.

I've been a Seagate man for many, many years. However I've had very good luck with the more recent WD 1TB (WD10EVCS) drives. But going forward I'd be happy to switch back to Seagate (providing these one's don't have the monumental problems they had with their 1.5TB drives of late). However based on the final statement from the article, I'd probably stick with the WD's for now:



> As a consumer drive, the Pipeline HD Pro is in an awkward position. For high performance, the Western Digital Black is a better option, as is the Green Power for quiet efficient operation. If you require high capacity, there's Seagate's 7200.11 1.5TB drive. All three of these models are less expensive and more widely available than the Pipeline HD Pro. The drive does not excel enough in any one area to distinguish itself enough from the rest of the pack. Combined with the high sticker-price, it's a tough sell for the average end-user. Still, for some, the Pipeline's high temperature tolerance and long continuous use design may make it worthwhile.


Everything you need to know about upgrading your Series3 (as well as TiVo HD's) is included in the upgrade link below my sig.

Happy upgrading!


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## stecho (Mar 10, 2009)

Just installed one in 1 month old HD using winmfs, no problems thus far, installed last friday, seems to be very quiet drive.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

stecho said:


> Just installed one in 1 month old HD using winmfs, no problems thus far, installed last friday, seems to be very quiet drive.


Good to know. If we can ask, where did you buy it and for how much? TIA!


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## stecho (Mar 10, 2009)

richsadams said:


> Good to know. If we can ask, where did you buy it and for how much? TIA!


Bought from Allstarshop.com for $135 shipped, a little expensive but this is good dealer with fast shipping. Best price I saw was for about $125 shipped. Mine was OEM drive only, but shipped in box packed at factory. One negative is that most places advertise 5 year warranty but these OEM have 3 year warranty.


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## ggraves (Oct 2, 2006)

PC Connection appears to have them "on order" for $117.74. Computech International claims to have them "in stock" for $125. Both offer the product tax free and with free shipping. 

I'm just torn between buying one of these, waiting for a 1.5TB from Seagate, or buying a Fantom unit and taking the drive out of that for about $90 after the rebates from (the dreaded) Mac Mall.

Seagate currently has a bad rep for failed product, but I assume they are either going to watch the quality of these or they will be going out of business.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
George


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## ggraves (Oct 2, 2006)

As a followup, Western Digital is now selling the WD10EVDS, a replacement for the WD10EVVS and WD10EVCS in most parts of the world except the US. US version is allegedly expected in 2 - 4 weeks. The EVDS is like the EVCS with a 32 MB buffer. I think I'll wait a couple of weeks before doing my upgrades.

Thanks all.

George


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## kent-r (May 7, 2009)

The best price for the Pipeline pro 1TB that I've seen is $109 thru Antares Digital who advertise on Pricewatch.com. I have no connection with them just a satisfied buyer from a number of companies that advertise on the pricewatch site. Once in a while I've seen a direct site price might be a few dollars lower than the Pricewatch directed price.

I upgraded my Series 2DT Tivo with the Seagate 500GB Pipeline HD drive. Bought it from Extreme PC about a year ago. 1TB pipelines were not affordable then. I used an IDE to SATA converter adapter inside the tivo. While the drive is 3GB speed I set it to 1.5 speed with the optional drive jumper when i connected and transfered with WinMFS n my home computer. The adapter I used is 3GB capable, or so it says on the box... not an issue with IDE input speed. Drive is an unusual 5900 rpm spindle speed. .... maybe they were getting around some harmonics issues, who knows..... The Pipeline Pro drives are back to 7200rpm speed for all models. 

How things have changed, about a hundred bucks for 1TB today and only 10 years ago you couldn't touch a 20 Megabyte drive that low a price. Yes the HD's used to be measured in Megabytes, for the younger crowd out there.

The 500GB has LOTS of room for Std Def pics even in Best mode. Very quiet and cool running ... can hear some head seeks when it is very quiet and tivo is doing what ever it does for housekeeping. I would expect the 1TB Pro model to be very similar. According to the specs the 1TB is only a tenth of a "bel" louder.


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## cmarti02 (Feb 6, 2004)

Hello,

You talked about ahving to put a jumper on to the adapter. Is there a standard way to install a jumper. My adapter came with a jumper, but no instructions.

Thanks,
Curtis


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