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Hard Drive and SSD Advice

Tags:
  • Hard Drives
  • Storage
  • Kingston
  • Western Digital
  • SSD
Last response: in Storage
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May 15, 2014 10:34:58 AM

I need some general advice concerning hard drives and SSD's. I've decided to upgrade from my 640gb WD black to a HDD and SSD combo. My current black drive will go to my brother.

I'm between the Crucial M500 and Kingston SSDNow V300. A concern for the kingston is upon reading reviews, it seems kingston performed a bait a switch because there are multiple cases of people saying newer models perform appreciable worse.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

For the hard drive, I'm looking at 2tb drives and would prefer to keep it under $90. I'm basically in between a WD green and some Toshiba models. Concerns for the Green drive is that there seems to be problems with its intellipark feature causing additional wear and tear. The toshiba I simply don't know much about. It is 7200rpm vs the slower 5000 range of the green drive. Also, it seems to share design aspects with hitachi which is more favorably reviewed than Western Digital on some websites for reliability.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Desktop-3-5-Inch-Internal...

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-3-5-Inch-SATA3-Drive-DT01...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Another option is to get a single WD blue 1tb and add a second on a later date. This is an option I can afford now versus waiting a month or so to get the 2tb drive. And a 1tb should be enough storage for at least the next 1-2 years.

I would like to get your opinions on these drives. Thank you for any help in advance!

More about : hard drive ssd advice

a b G Storage
May 15, 2014 11:21:32 AM

For SSD's
From kingston I only recommend HyperX 3K
From crucial M550
From Samsung 840 Evo
From OCZ Vertex 4
basically if you are going from hdd to ssd, any ssd will improve perfromance by a very very big margin.
Just choose the brand that you trust and go with that brands ssd.
Heres ssd's chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/ssd-charts-2013/benc...
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a b G Storage
May 15, 2014 1:13:16 PM

I want a profile of your PC usage before I make a wild suggestion. SSD's are so varied that I want to recommend the best for your case, not just something I pulled off the price/performance generic list.

So, tell me what kind of user you are, or if you fit into the demographics I describe below, tell me
1) Computer liker. want quick PC. Casual overclock. casual game
2) Hard boiled gamer. Serious OC, fps pushing. Plays games all the time
3) Graphics pro. Adobe stuff. 10+ programs open at any given time
4) Normal Joe. Has other stuff in life besides PCs. Just wants a quick machine.
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May 15, 2014 7:04:58 PM

I would be more in line with one. I game everyday but that generally does not exceed 1 or 2 hours. It's generally used for media consumption.
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Best solution

a b G Storage
May 15, 2014 8:09:47 PM

Alright, do you have a backup solution? That is the most important thing actually.

Anyway, you are the person who would like entry level ssds, which are no slouches in their own right. You will not appreciated the benefits of a faster drive, especially when looking at the cost. I suggest that you look into pny drives. They are currently massively cheap, and have a decent reputation. And 256 gigabytes for less than 100 dollars is a steal. Or 128 gigabytes for under60 if you prefer that.

As for your hard drive, it will probably be a data drive only right? Don't worry about the green problems then. The drive was engineered for that purpose. As for which is better, you will not notice the difference besides cost. Buy whichever one you can get for cheaper. Hard drive quality is moreoof a luck match than brand differences.

Which brings me back to my first point. Even the most reliable wd hard drives and Plextor ssds can and will fail. Always keep a backup though and you'll have no problem. The initial cost in effort and money is definitely worth the pain and suffering you will dodge when a drive dies.
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May 15, 2014 9:06:40 PM

Yeah, I have a decent backup. Every month I copy all of the pictures, documents, and videos and paste them to a external hard drive.

Yeah, the hard drive will mostly be used for storage and games. I may go ahead and get the toshiba drive because it is the same price as the WD green drive but is 7200 rpm.

Thanks for the recommendation on the pny ssd's! I mostly plan on only putting windows and programs on it so I'll probably snag a 128gb.
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a b G Storage
May 16, 2014 8:03:54 PM

Good. good.

Just a few things about HDDs. Yes, price is the only difference that you will notice with the drive setup. Hell, I doubt that you will notice a difference between the RPM performance. But anyway. HDDs tend to fail in the first few months of service, or after 5 or so years with mostly bulletproof reliability in between. Abuse it with lots of writes and stuff, but keep your data well backed up for the first 4 months, and it a drive fails, don't get angry at the company and request a replacement.

Enjoy your new setup!
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