Consensus is that modern HDD's from reputable manufacturers have approximately equal low failure rates, especially after the first year.
I am sorry, the link shows hard data which disproves that statement and not in a gentle way, either.
So, it's not really surprising they had a much higher failure rate
Didn't your first sentence state that all failure rates are "approximately equal"? Make up your mind.
my HDD's going to be in a well-cooled, non-vibrating environment
Assumption not in evidence. I've seen a LOT of computers totally taken over by dust bunnies :-) The reason you go look at that grey disk where the fan vent used to be is that your bios starts screaming at you that the machine is overheating :-D
SSD's are the right choice for most people
Yes, but that's irrelevant to the original post which looks at reliability of rotating-platter hard drives. If you think you don't care about the issue, well, what are you doing in this subthread?
My above comment was poorly written. Sorry. Hem.
Consumer-grade HDD's, used properly, all have about same, low failure rate. If you treat your desktop like a NAS or server, they will drop like flies (as evidenced). If you treat your desktop like a desktop, then a lot of the price-raising enterprise-grade features (vibration resistance, 24/7 operation) count for zilch. They're still higher-end drives, and will last longer, but assuming you give your desktop a fraction of the maintenance you give your car (like, take 5 minutes to blow it out every other year)...
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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