Question 1

Does it come with a SATA cable and mounting screews?

Accepted Answer

My came just the drive in an anti-static bag. Most motherboards come with cables and cases always have a bag of screws. It you build your own systems, they should just be parts lying around. If not, you can order the cables from Newegg and get the screws from a local hardware store.

Question 2

Does Win7 SP1 64-bit support this size (3TB) drive?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but if you want the entire disk as a single partition you will need to format it to GPT (do an online search for: 3TB HD Windows GPT).

Question 3

I heard it was loud while loading games. Is it only loud while loading or loud when playing as well?

Accepted Answer

I wish I had an audio record to let you judge yourself. I've been using this HDD for 2 years.

The HDD does make some noise. Most of the noise does happen during the loading screens and little blips here and there while playing. Most of the noise occurs during the initial loading of the game. It was a little disturbing at first, but everything about it works great.

Question 4

Which HDD should I buy?

Western Digital WD3003FZEX or Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001?

Accepted Answer

I have almost always used WD drives and had very few issues with them over the years. The black series cost a bit more but has the 5 year warranty. If needed, WD has excellent support. I guess over the years I've become more brand biased based on my experiences both building my own custom systems as well as others.

Question 5

Would you know what type of format these drive intentional come to the user? Are they Partitioned using MS-DOS (FAT)?

Accepted Answer

I don't think there of any type of format when you get them brand new. Just use windows for a GPT or Linux for an EXT (xx?) format. 
Being that size of drive, NTFS or FAT will not work for you, unless you partition it to several smaller sizes

Question 6

Does this ship together with a compatible sata cable?

Accepted Answer

I ordered 4 of them and NO they did not come with any cable.

Question 7

Is it quiet?

Accepted Answer

I don't believe it's super quiet. You can hear abit of noise at times rarely. (mostly occurs when loading up games). It's definitely quieter than older disk drives. Not as quit as a WD Green or WD Blue.

Question 8

How come this HD only has 2794.39gb of usable space? What about the other 278gb to make it 3072gb (3tb)

Accepted Answer

Marketing.  The lousy bums declare that a TB is 10^12 bytes, when we all  know it's 2^40 bytes.  When they get called on the lie, they reply that it's "formatting losses", which is, of course, complete nonsense.  Unfortunately, it's nothing new.  Hard drive manufacturers have been lying to us for decades.

Question 9

Planning to use this as a storage drive. Going be  doing a lot of 1080p60fps gameplay recording and also storage for other things. What types of things are you guys storing on your drive and how much space would you guys recommend? Also whats the difference to having the hard drive in the actual computer case and in an external bay enclosure?

Accepted Answer

In my experience external hard drive enclosures are only good for data transfer/backup, the speeds have always been too slow for anything live (like 12MB/s from an enclosure rated for 100, with a hard drive that benchmarks @ 130). Air flow might be something to consider, as a performance drive, these probably produce slightly more heat than a standard drive. I would recommend  in-case, personally, but if you find a fast, stable enclosure with airflow, go for it. You might have to play with your computer to launch programs from an external drive...
I bought this to store the games that don't fit on my SSD, but I think these are perfect for game recording as well. They're pretty much perfect for everything.

Question 10

can i use this HD or the 2.5'' version in a MacBook Pro 13'' Mid 2012?

Accepted Answer

THIS HD is not compatible. sorry about my last answer. You will need the 2.5" version. If you're not familiar with these drives I would leave the install to a professional.

Questions & Answers