What makes a good hard drive?

[pkhamidar2com]

Hey i cant really afford a SSD or a Hybrid SSD HDD so im thinking of upgrading when the prices drop but for now ill just get a HDD

But i really know nothing about them.

I can spend around 30 - 40 quid on a good HDD but whats the difference between

Sata i, ii, iii, 300, 600,. What difference does a high cache make? What should i look for appart from RPM (im getting 7200 as 10000 are way too expensive and stupid) to get a fast hard drive? I found this one so far.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167819

What do you think?

 

[GhislainG]

It's a good hard disk. A larger cache makes very little difference; the internal transfer rate is more important. If you can afford it, the WD Caviar Black should perform a bit better than the Caviar Green and it includes a 5 years warranty: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/246034

 

[pkhamidar2com]

how much faster is it? how much of a difference will i notice with this?

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hello,

That Western Digital WD5000AADS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Green is a very nice HDD. Nothing wrong with it.

When you choose a computer or computer system you pick the product to match your needs. Not the other way around. Same thing applies here, what your needs are and what you are going to do with it.

If for playing games, the faster Black HDD would be better, if for storing photos or music or just data, the Caviar Green is great. The 7200 RPM drive speed is appropriate, the 10,000 are just too pricey and the SSD's will out run them.

And if you are considering upgrading to a faster MB within the next year or two, might consider spending a little more now to get a SATA III, which would serve you well as more MBs have the faster SATA ports.

For computer enthusiasts, part of the fun of choosing components is picking the best available within our means.

 

[GhislainG]

It should be 10-15% faster, but you can't notice it unless you have both drives.

 

[clonazepam]

Green says 108MBps internal and Black said 126MBps. I wouldn't believe the numbers but from it conclude the black is probably a smidge better, but until you had both drives to run through the gauntlet, you won't know for sure.

 

[clonazepam]

Based on my past experience with HDDs, the warranty should be the deciding factor in this case. Through WD, you can get your refurb replacement which may not be exact but the closest model match and you also have the option to upgrade the replacement at a reduced cost.

I think it would be like watching two cars drive down the street and trying to guage which one was going 45mph and which was going 43mph.

Black - It's ideal for power computing applications such as multimedia, video and photo editing, and maxed out gaming computers.

Green - Ideal For - Environmentally friendly PCs and external storage requiring lower power consumption and cool, quiet operation.

Edit: I use both types. Greens are excellent for external storage like it says. I've had two NAS with green drives, they're asleep most of the time but when in use I swear I'll never hear them over other noises in the case like a fan.

Black - I've used them for both system drive and storage within the system that gets accessed more frequently than the NAS. I also run my games from a pair of blacks in raid 1 (it stores plenty more being a 1TB size). I'm extremely happy with both knowing either could perform the role of the other but each is slightly suited more for one task than the other.

 

[geofelt]

There is not enough difference in hard drive performance to be very worried about it.
Sata 1/2/3 refers to the buffer to sata transmission capability, but very little of that is done.
The platter to buffer speed is way slower than even sata 1. The rpm is a metric of the random access time, not the data transfer speed.
Larger drives, like 1tb will have denser platters, and their data transfer rates will be better.
The amount of cache is not a good decision metric since it really has not much to do with performance, but some drive makers feel they can command a higher price with larger than needed cache.

The caviar green is a good drive for storage, but it has a variable rotation speed to conserve energy.
Performance is a bit slower.
For performance, you want the black.

In the end, with your budget, get the largest 7200rpm drive you can find.

 

[gkorjax]

Is there any reason why people aren't suggesting the Samsung Spinpoint F3 ?

In either the 500 Gig or 1 Terabyte versions?

 

[John_VanKirk]

Is there any reason why people aren't suggesting the Samsung Spinpoint F3 ?

In either the 500 Gig or 1 Terabyte versions?

Hi again,

Only an observation. Check recent prior posts about HDDs and I think you will see a lot of complaints about problems, noise, and vibration regarding the Spinpoint F3.

 

[pkhamidar2com]

ok i decided to get a hybrid hdd, is that ok? 250 gb, i also have a 500gb external hard drive for backups

 

[geofelt]

ok i decided to get a hybrid hdd, is that ok? 250 gb, i also have a 500gb external hard drive for backups

I presume you are talking about the seagate momentus XT.

I think that is a reasonable choice given your budget.

I might look at the 500gb version for only $10 more.
The mechanical portion of a larger drive will usually be a bit faster.

Do let us know how it works out.

 

[John_VanKirk]

I think that's a very good drive. Agree with Geofelt, if you can afford the slight increase in price, go for the larger capacity.
Remember the old saying "You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too large a hard drive".

You will be glad you have the extra space down the road.

 

[pkhamidar2com]

lol ok
i realised i actually cannot afford the seagate momentus xt... so im going to just go for a HDD. Know any really good ones at around 35 quid or so? appart from the ones in the thread already

 

[GhislainG]

You could buy a Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue.

 

[pkhamidar2com]

hmm guys, since i cannot afford the SSD hybrid hdd thingy... will my computer still be fast with a normal hdd? Because i wnated a fast comptuer without all that annoying waiting thing.

Right now my pc is ok, takes about 5 - 7 minutes to load up and get firefox on. But it goes slow when running two programs e.g. word and firefox, firefox and chrome, etc...

im just worried i wont see a dramatic increase in performance

 

[GhislainG]

If you want everything to run dramatically faster, than a more powerful system might be required. What CPU and motherboard do you have?

 

[geofelt]

hmm guys, since i cannot afford the SSD hybrid hdd thingy... will my computer still be fast with a normal hdd? Because i wnated a fast comptuer without all that annoying waiting thing.

Right now my pc is ok, takes about 5 - 7 minutes to load up and get firefox on. But it goes slow when running two programs e.g. word and firefox, firefox and chrome, etc...

im just worried i wont see a dramatic increase in performance

768mb of ram is woefully inadequate. It should be at least 2gb, preferably 4gb. That is why it is slow when running two or more programs.
The pc is spending all of its time thrashing, getting things our of ram to make room for the other program, only to have to read the hard drive to get them back in again.
More ram is a more effective upgrade than ANYTHING else you can do.

 

[pkhamidar2com]

i dont have, im giong to buy a amd 955, and im buying a msi mobo am3+ g54.

That mobo has sata 6gbs, and has usb 3.0, crossfire ready stuff etc...

but righ now here is my pc i am using right now that i have been for the last 5 - 6 yeras.

My Crappy PC: Pentium 4 2.8, Some random motherboard, 756 MB DDR2 533MHZ, 160GB HDD, Intel Integrated graphics family chipset 128mb, 19" HP w1907s, 300W PSU OEM.

Everything is crap except for the hdd and the monitor.

 

[pkhamidar2com]

ok so even if i do upgrade to 2gb or 4 gb on this pc, will i still realise any performance increase in the new pc im getting?

i do want to use it for gaming, but not ALOT. I want to start video editing as its so interesting, and i also want to do photo editing with gimp, or more like graphics designing as i used to be an amature but i used to love it but it runs slow on my pc.

 

[geofelt]

ok so even if i do upgrade to 2gb or 4 gb on this pc, will i still realise any performance increase in the new pc im getting?

i do want to use it for gaming, but not ALOT. I want to start video editing as its so interesting, and i also want to do photo editing with gimp, or more like graphics designing as i used to be an amature but i used to love it but it runs slow on my pc.

I would not spend much on a temporary upgrade to your current pc. Adding 2gb of ram would improve performance dramatically. Ddr2 ram is more expensive than ddr3 which will be used on any modern upgrade, so it will have no carryover value.

 

[pkhamidar2com]

So what your saying is that i should buy a new pc or that there is no point? I feel like i should. I think ill stick with the HDD afterall, i mean its cheaper so yeah. But i need to choose one. Which HDD do i choose!?

My pc is old, and it doesnt accept anything higher than pentium 4, and doesnt accept more than 800 mhz of ddr2.

 

[GhislainG]

Everything is crap except for the hdd and the monitor.

Compared to a Caviar Blue, the 160 GB hard disk is crap. Replacing the hard disk will be an improvement, but nowadays a P4 2.8 is a poor performer. If you buy a 955 and keep the 160 GB hard disk, load times will definitely be longer than you'd like.

 

[geofelt]

So what your saying is that i should buy a new pc or that there is no point? I feel like i should. I think ill stick with the HDD afterall, i mean its cheaper so yeah. But i need to choose one. Which HDD do i choose!?

My pc is old, and it doesnt accept anything higher than pentium 4, and doesnt accept more than 800 mhz of ddr2.

If you have run out of hard drive space, then you must upgrade your hard drive.
But don't think a hard drive upgrade will give you any noticeable improvement in performance.

On the other hand, if you add 2gb of ddr2 ram to your current pc, it will transform it. The Pentium d is not such a bad processor that it should perform as badly as you have described.
The reason for poor performnance is inadequate ram.

 

[pkhamidar2com]

its pentium 4... not D.

i still have 110 gb of space left, only used up 50 gb of it.