Tech. Details to know when choosing a HDD

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s4ntt0mas

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Hi everyone, I would like to know what technical details are the most important when trying to choose between similar HDD.

Say I want to buy specifically a 500GB HDD for a notebook.

First of all I suppose I should try to get the fastest one, say one with 7200 rpm.

Next I suppose would be cache. Bigger is better for this one too I suppose, yet I don't know how the buffer rate factors into it. If the rate is the same between two disks does the cache size play any distinguishable difference?

And finally and the one giving the biggest headache would be the number of heads and disks in a HDD. I thought yet again that more would be better but when I looked up about it, it said that only one head can work at a time. Now you have two sides on a disk so two heads wouldn't hurt I suppose, but why does some HDD have four? Does having more help or is less better in this case?

Does the size of the HDD has any factor when looking up the former? I mean is it the same for a 500GB than for a 1TB one? What about the Rotation speed?

Thank you to anybody who answers this in advance.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Actually, if you want to get the most speed and performance out of it, you want an SSD. The speed difference between a hard drive and an SSD is tremendous, and without question the single biggest thing most people can do to increase the performance of any HDD equipped device without upgrading the whole platform.

If you cannot afford an SSD in the capacity you need to have, then rotational speed and cache size are generally the two biggest factors. They TYPE of drive is important as well. You do not want a drive intended for an NAS (Network attached storage) or Enterprise machine, where reliability is more important than speed or performance. Since you'll be needing a 2.5" drive due to it being a laptop, you will want to consider the fact that 7200rpm drives might not tend to have as long of a life in a laptop as they would in a desktop, because comparatively there is very little cooling in a very cramped space, in a laptop.

In most cases, there is almost, practically zero cooling for the hard drive in a laptop aside from a very small amount of residual airflow, maybe. This is why most of them tend to use 5400rpm drives that create a lot less heat. I've used 7200rpm drives in laptops before however and it's ok if the laptop design is such that there are cooling vents or holes in the cover over the section of the laptop that holds the HDD. Or, it would at least be better than one with a solid cover. Still, it's possible that early failure COULD be a factor.

An SSD would really be the way to go since there is little heat, no moving parts and magnitudes faster performance.

What is your budget for this storage device and what is the model of the laptop in question?
 
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phaelax

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At 500GB, SSDs have become very affordable. And in a laptop, it's definitely the way to go. Not just for speed, but because a laptop gets moved around a lot and an SSD has no moving parts.

On mechanical drives, size will impact the speed. Internally, there are platters. Think of them as metal records. They spin and an arm reads data from the surface. The outer edge of the platter can contain more sectors of data and move faster than the inner part of the platter. Therefore, data speed varies depending on where the data is written to the drive.

To answer your confusion the number of heads in a drive, it's going to have two for each platter. The platters are stacked on top of each other and cannot change order. So to read them, each platter will need two heads; one to read the top and one to read the bottom.

With an SSD, speeds are much more consistent.

As darkbreeze said, knowing your budget would help determine which you should consider. A 1TB ssd is about $150, 500GB is roughly half of that. Long story short, SSD is superior in every way but price. If you need 1TB or more but only a few bucks to spend, then go oldschool.

Depending on your laptop model, you may be able to put in a 2nd harddrive.
 
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s4ntt0mas

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I actually have a SSD, I am looking to add a HDD to have some extra storage. The heat issue is good thing to know, thanks. If the SSD is your main storage unit tough, does the HDD suffer regardless? Can the HDD heat affect the SSD in anyway?

Is there a general ruleset to avoid the former issues? Like installing the OS and any heavy duty programs or apps in the SSD and leaving the rest (I'm thinking videos, images and music) to the HDD?

What about games? I've been told that they're the most arduous ones, so I'm guessing the SSD would be the obvious choice, but I've heard that if you install or uninstall games in these they get worse.

I may be taking nonsense but somebody told me that when you install and run a game it uses several parts, services, programs, etc of your PC at the same time and configures them for their taste; so when you uninstall the game it may also delete those configurations previously made, leaving those parts, programs, services, etc worse that they were before. Is this true does it affect the SSD in anyway?

Thanks for the answer.
 
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s4ntt0mas

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A few more details to share: apparently my notebook can have a 2nd hardrive. I have a 160GB SSD and was looking for a HDD, is there any restrictions while combining these two? As in size or speed? I check my notebook official documentation (it's an HP dv7 by the way, I use it for general use) and ithe only dual configuration it shows with an SSD is with a 500GB 7200rpm HDD.
 
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s4ntt0mas

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I'm not from the US so I cannot specificy money but looking at the offers from where I am, I'm willing to pay for a 1TB HDD. Since I already have a SSD I'm looking for size now.

Thing is I don't know if combining a 1TB HDD with my SSD is possible since the official page pictures in possible dual configurations only a 500GB with a SSD.

 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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What is the EXACT model number of your laptop. DV7 is only PART of the model number. There will be a series of numbers and letters that come after that, and should be listed on a label on the bottom of your laptop or under the battery on the laptop in the battery compartment.
 
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s4ntt0mas

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The model N° is XB096UAR#ABC

It's a HP Pavilion dv7-4054ca

Here's the link: https://support.hp.com/ar-es/product/hp-pavilion-dv7-4000-entertainment-notebook-pc-series/4149935/model/4221666/how-to?sku=XB096UAR

The guide I checked is called: HP Pavilion dv7 Entertainment PC - Maintenance and Service Guide
 
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s4ntt0mas

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So a 1TB HDD with a a SSD wouldn't be an issue? Great to know thanks! Picked as best solution then.
 
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phaelax

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There's no reason why a larger harddrive wouldn't be supported. Often, manufacturers will state the the largest supported is whatever happens to be the biggest on the market at the time. I can't foresee any hardware limitation preventing you from going beyond 1TB. It'd be more likely limited by Windows than anything and I'd guess you have at least Windows 7.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Yes, there is. If the firmware isn't written to support it, it simply will not work. There are absolutely limitations, especially on older devices. Even in the HP forums for the dv7, alone, there are many of threads from people who have been unable to use larger drives. The firmware MUST be written to address the size of the drive, otherwise, no dice.
 
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