How to choose an internal HD

[mtallen88]

I'm looking to replace my HD in my computer, and am wondering what to look for as far as speed goes. is speed in the rpm, or cache, or what? How does drive size play in? Does having 1tera vs. 500g make a difference in speed?

 

[Jonmor68]

You won't notice much difference in speed between the avarage drive at 7200 rpm and cache sizes anything from 8meg to 64 unless you're copying/moving large amounts of data. More cache is better at the same speed.
If you want fast but more expensive, there's the WD Raptor 10,000 rpm or the even more expensive new SSD drives, but I don't know if these work on anything less then Windows 7.

 

[Misko195]

Western Digital 1.0 terabyte Black edition with 64Mb cache is a good choice... If you want space, speed, quiet, cold and good performance..

 

[Onus]

Look for drives with 500GB per platter; higher data density translates to higher speed. The Seagate 7200.12 and Samsung Spinpoint F3 are good choices.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I'll second jtt283's suggestions. Platter density has a much greater impact on drive speed than cache size. I highly recommend the Samsung F3 drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=samsung+f3&x=0&y=0

 

[geofelt]

I'm looking to replace my HD in my computer, and am wondering what to look for as far as speed goes. is speed in the rpm, or cache, or what? How does drive size play in? Does having 1tera vs. 500g make a difference in speed?

The rpm of a drive mostly determines the access time. Access time is composed of positioning the access arm(seek), and time waiting for the requested data to arrive under the read/write heads. A 7200rpm drive spins faster than a 5400 rpm drive, and so the time to wait for the data to arrive under the read/write heads(rotational delay) is less. A 10k drive spins faster, so the rotational delay is even less.

Data transfer rate is the product of the density of the platter times the rotation rate. Denser platters transfer data faster. A complicating issue is where the data is placed. The outer tracks have a larger circumference and can hold more data than the inner. Since the rpm is the same, outer track data transfers faster. Larger drives will have denser platters, and more data can be held in the outer tracks, giving them a bit of a performance edge.

Cache buffers data transfers and can hold frequently used data. Unfortunately cache is expensive and is not large enough to make much difference in performance. An exception might be the newly announced Seagate momentus XT hybrid drive. It includes a 4gb MLC flash cache that seems to be very effective.

You will not notice much difference in everyday performance among all the 7200 rpm drives. Even 10k and 15k drives will not be noticeably faster.

For the best speed, a SSD is best, but they are pricey. A decent solution is to use a SSD for the OS and frequently used data, and a larger, cheaper drive for storage.

 

[Quantu]

Contrary to a lot of opinions, the 10k raptor drives don't deliver the performance increase they promise, mostly all they do is make a lot of noise and heat. They run not much [if any] better than a Western Digital Black. If you want a fast and reliable drive, look no further than a WD Black.

 

[tedipost]

Things Must Be Remember In Buying A Hard Disk Drive- Internal Hard Disk and External Hard Disk
Modern Hard Disk Drives replaces traditional Tape Drives. We will discuss many Parameters for choosing best storage media on the basis of two categories - Internal HDD and External HDD

Parameters to be taken in buying an HDD

Physical Size
Capacity(Storage)
Raid
Data Security,Safety and Back up
Connector Technology
Physical Layer Protection
Data Transfer Speed
Cache/Buffer Size

Customer Service and Cost

Warranty
Source:-
http://www.tedipost.com/2016/01/things-must-be-remember-in-buying-hard.html