HTPC Recommended Hard Drive 2TB +

[burnedby89]

After going back and forth utilizing the internet and specialists at Microcenter and Fry's, I am still confused and trying to find the best hard drive for a HTPC build with a Ceton Infiniti 4 tuner.

I am going to use a SSD for the main drive and then use 1 or 2, 2TB hard drives for storing recorded tv (looking to spend about $115 max per drive). Some say go with WD green drives (two similar drives one ends in ears and the other ends in eads), others says go for a black 7200 rpm drive. I also saw cache at either 32mb or 64mb and some SATA 3 and some SATA6.

Also I was told a 60gb SSD would be sufficient. Again, any recommendations for a SSD would be greatly appreciated (spend about $100)!!

 

[rwpritchett]

If you look at my "Member Configuration" link on the left, you'll find my HTPC has:

1x 64GB SSD
1x WD Green 1TB HDD 5400rpm
1x WD Black 1TB HDD 7200rpm
1x Samsung F4 2TB HDD 5400rpm

So I think I can give you a fair assessment for your questions.

#1 I hate the black drive in my HTPC. The reads are noisier than the green drives of course (the clicking sounds), but what really bugs me is the constant drone of the spinning motor even when I'm not using that drive.

#2 The WD green drive likes to park it's heads after a pre-determined amount of time and I'm not aware of how to turn that feature off or extend the time. I have to wait for it to spin up again sometimes when the drive has not been accessed for a while and there is an annoying delay (about 2 secs.)

#3 The Samsung drive seems just as fast as the WD black drive, it is the quietest drive I have, I don't have any of the head-parking delays that the WD green drive experiences. It's perfect IMO. BTW, the 2TB Samsung F4 is $90, and you can take an additional 10% off with discount code EMCKHHF224 at newegg for the next 60 hours, at the time of my posting.

#4 My 64GB SSD is 50% used up with the OS, encoding apps, and the usual PC necessities like firefox, thunderbird, anti-virus, iTunes, Hulu, Media browser, XBMC, TMT5, pdf reader, etc. etc.

 

[burnedby89]

Have you had any problems with your SSD or would you recommend your current one? Also, with all of your drives, which do you like the best and what is the specific model # of that drive? Thanks!

1x 64GB SSD
1x WD Green 1TB HDD 5400rpm
1x WD Black 1TB HDD 7200rpm
1x Samsung F4 2TB HDD 5400rpm

 

[rwpritchett]

At the time, my SSD was the cheapest 64GB I could find that came with a 3.5" adapter: Kingston SSDNow V-Series. It's an older model by technology standards. I would recommend a SandForce based drive if buying today.

It's not a stellar performer on the SSD scale, though it is faster than traditional platter HDD's. I didn't buy it for speed, rather I bought it to quiet my HTPC down. The 1TB WD Black drive used to be my OS drive, now it only has media. I have not had any problems with the SSD. It does its job.

This is my favorite media drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245&cm_re=f4-_-22-152-245-_-Product

Free shipping right now and 10% off with discount code EMCKHHF224

 

[rwpritchett]

Oh, and since you are looking at large media drives, I had trouble with my 1TB WD green drive disappearing on me. The Microsoft Hotfix linked in this thread solved the problem:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/1567-63-windows-hard-drives-disappear-sleep-resume