Choice of HDD for new build

[fuzzwah7]

Quick question for everyone... I am in the process of building a new pc for gaming and have access to either 2 500gb Blue Caviar 3.5" HDD's or 2 500gb Black Scorpio 2.5" HDD for the same cost... I realize one is a laptop drive but comparing the 2 they both have 7200rpm and 16gb cache but from what I have read the Black models are made from better quality parts... so my question is which one is preferred in a gaming pc? I will be upgrading to ssd in the near future but for now I can either of the above very cheap. Thanks...

 

[alvine]

go with black as they usually mean more speed, green means more energy efficient when used in server enviroments for example

 

[fuzzwah7]

Am I going to see any difference between the 3.5" blue and the 2.5" black though in my gaming rig...

 

[geofelt]

Am I going to see any difference between the 3.5" blue and the 2.5" black though in my gaming rig...

I don't think so.

Gaming performance depends more on the graphics card and the cpu.

Level loads will depend on the sequential performance of the drive.
Since laptop drives are tuned to power savings, I might avoid them. They may spin down when not in use and take longer to start up.

Really, why not dispense with the hard drive completely at first?
A 120gb ssd will hold the os and a handful of games. A 240gb ssd may be all you ever need. You can always add a hard drive later if you need more storage space.
A SSD will be 2-3x faster than any hard drive in level loads.

 

[alvine]

yes 2.5 black will be faster...your windows os will load faster, faster load times in games...it will not improve your frames per second in games but make them load faster

 

[geofelt]

I did some checking.
The WD data sheet shows the
blue with a max sustained data rate of 150mb/s
black 160mb/s.

Compare that to a ssd @500mb/s.

 

[fuzzwah7]

I would love to get a 240 ssd but I used up all of my funds putting together my gaming pc sans storage... and when I say getting these drives cheap I mean my friend has both sets of drives new in the boxes and all I have to do is help him put wood flooring in one room of his house and I get either the blue caviars or black scorpios as payment...

 

[geofelt]

I would love to get a 240 ssd but I used up all of my funds putting together my gaming pc sans storage... and when I say getting these drives cheap I mean my friend has both sets of drives new in the boxes and all I have to do is help him put wood flooring in one room of his house and I get either the blue caviars or black scorpios as payment...

Can't beat that price.

I might pick the blue simply because I might be worried about any power savings tradeoffs with a laptop drive.

Or... how about one of each, and test them out?