Hard Drive Questions

[LesPaulGuy]

Hi guys,

I'm making a list of parts to build a computer to set up a home recording studio. I already picked out a 120GB SSD to put my applications and OS on, but I could use help picking out a secondary HDD.

I already have an external HDD that is 1 TB, so that's why I'm shopping for a 500GB HDD.

Can you please help me to determine the difference of these two hard drives?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E22-136-697-TS


If I understand this correctly, the one on the left is SATA III and the right is SATA II.

So which is better?
SATA III 6.0Gb/s with 32mb cache
SATA II 3.0Gb/s with 64mb cache

I think I read somewhere that SATA III will work better with SSD, I'm not sure though.

Since I am going to use this HDD for primarily storage anyways, does it really matter what specs it has?

Thanks!!

- LesPaulGuy

 

[LesPaulGuy]

Also, I'm looking for a quiet hard drive (so that there won't be fan noises during recording sessions ), that's why I veered off of 10,000+ rpm. It would make sense to me that they would make more noise or create more heat, which would outweigh the benefits.

 

[jsc]

WD Green perhaps?

 

[sminlal]

There's really no appreciable difference between a SATA II or a SATA III hard drive - the spin rate of even the fastest hard drives doesn't even come close to challenging the speed of SATA II, so SATA III doesn't add any extra performance.

Cache by itself isn't a differentiator either. All drives have enough cache to perform optimally - the ones with larger cache usually just require it because they have more data per track.

Instead of looking at those specs, check the model on the manufacturer's web site to find out what the access times and transfer rates are.

 

[LesPaulGuy]

There's really no appreciable difference between a SATA II or a SATA III hard drive - the spin rate of even the fastest hard drives doesn't even come close to challenging the speed of SATA II, so SATA III doesn't add any extra performance.

Cache by itself isn't a differentiator either. All drives have enough cache to perform optimally - the ones with larger cache usually just require it because they have more data per track.

Instead of looking at those specs, check the model on the manufacturer's web site to find out what the access times and transfer rates are.

Good idea, Thank you.