Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB review

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Verdict:

Although it's not flawless, the 1TB SpinPoint F3's generally fast performance and low price make it a great value hard disk.

Review Date: 28 Aug 2010

Price when reviewed: £47

Buy it now for: £71
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.scan.co.uk

Reviewed By: Alan Lu

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

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We've been very impressed with previous Samsung internal hard disks, so we had high hopes for the 1TB SpinPoint F3. Unlike Samsung's EcoGreen range of disks which are designed to use as little power as possible by making do with a slower spindle speed of 5,400pm, the F3 has a faster 7,200rpm spindle speed. It should therefore be quite quick.

The F3's results in our file transfer tests didn't disappoint. It was very fast at copying large files, writing them at 113.6MB/s and reading them at 103.6MB/s – these are the among the fastest speeds you can get from a mechanical hard disk. It was also very quick at writing small files, with a very quick 87.6MB/s transfer speed. Its only weakness was reading small files, where it managed just 43.1MB/s – a very sluggish score that we'd only expect to see from a 5,400pm disk.

Despite this disappointing score at reading small files, the F3 still excelled in our Crysis level loading tests. It loaded the large game level in just 33 seconds, which isn't far off the speed achieved by many SSDs.

The F3's generally excellent performance is all the more remarkable given its low price of just £47 or 5p per gigabyte. Even the warranty is reasonably lengthy at three years. The F3 is such great value that it puts to shame many other slower, more expensive internal hard disks. Unless you need even more storage capacity, the Samsung 1TB SpinPoint F3 is an excellent buy.

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