Is it really worth it

[compacted]

Hi guys,

I'm battling with the following decision,

I have recently purchased a new 990Fx motherboard and 8gb of DDR 1333Mhz RAM.

This is in an attempt to upgrade my current machine.

I currently run my OS off a 5400rpm drive and so i figured that if i upgrade my Mobo and my Ram then my HDD will have to be upgraded as well.

So here is the question, I have two options and im not sure what to do.

option 1: buy a new HDD, im looking at the Western Digital Caviar Black (WD5002AALX)

option 2: My friend has offered me a Free 500gb 16mb Cache 7200rpm Seagate drive

Now my PC is essentially ONLY for gaming and internet browsing. So is it worth spending the money on the Western Digital or is the difference in speed between the Seagate and the WD not even noticeable ?? (Lets talk real life scenarios here, a second or two will make NO difference)

Id rather save money if I can.

Thank you so much for your help.

 

[legendkiller]

Option 2 is your best bet but if you want better/faster one, go with this WD!!!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136794
Sata 3(6Gb/s)
64MB Cache
7200 RPM
5 Year Warranty
^ These are the maximum speed/performance for a 7200 RPM Drive which is great...

 

[leandrodafontoura]

Get the free drive, and use to money to get a small SSD for the OS. No point in having a latest tech computer without SSD.

 

[Ubrales]

Never walk away from a free deal!

 

[RetiredChief]

Concur with - Get the Freebee.

That said.
(1) Sata 6 HDDs is a marketing tool, The ONLY beneifit of placing a mechanical HDD on a SATA III port is Burst mode - Biggy, NOT. And Yes I have a WD Black Sata 6 HDD, a Waste of a good sata III port.
(2) No Not a big Day-to-day performance diff
(3) Currently the most recommended drive is the Samsung F3. Only drive I use to buy was the WD Blacks, now it's the Samsung F3.

 

[tobensg]

Accecpt the free HDD from your friend, and spend another £35 and get a 60Gb SSD. Somthing like a Corsair Nova 60Gb, these can be got for about £68 in the UK. Use the SSD as the System drive and the HDD from your friend for your Pics and stuff. I have a Windows 7 setup like this and its quick.

 

[g00ey]

Just a little word of caution with the Seagate drive. A hard drive that has been in use for a couple of years is more prone to failure than a new one. I have three failed 500GB hard drives from WD myself (bought 2007-8) and they failed at about the same time(december2009-march2010) ...

 

[leandrodafontoura]

I Ive been running WD drives for 5 years now, never a problem. I do backup everyday tough, just to be safe. Feel free getting the used drive, just make sure you have a nice backup plan.

 

[RetiredChief]

There is one version of the Seagate drives that I'd not trust my data on and that is the -11 Series.

Excluding my OLD 20/40 MB MFM/RLL HDDs, all My failures have been My fault. This covers a wide range of drives as they periodically rotate which is better and whichto stay away from. I have absolutely no brand loyalty, They Have all produced a Dud, or poor performance drive.

 

[Ubrales]

There is one version of the Seagate drives that I'd not trust my data on and that is the -11 Series.

Yes the .11 series had its share of problems which Seagate corrected in the .12 series. I have two .12 series Seagate 1 TB drives in RAID 1 running 10 hours a day for the past 21 months. Great drives!