Why does my WEI not increase after almost doubling my hard drive size?

[mkculpe]

My Dell XPS 630i came with a 7200 RPM 750 GB hard drive. I added an additional 7200 RPM 650 GB hard drive. Prior to adding this hard drive my WEI was 5.9. Under My Computer, my PC recognizes the new 650 GB. However, my WEI is still at a 5.9. I can't believe that almost doubling the size would not increase the WEI. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Dereck47]

5.9 is the highest WEI score any hard drive can get.
To get higher than 5.9 you have to get a SSD.

 

[mkculpe]

So, lets say that I went and purchased this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227935&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Internal+SSD-_-N82E16820227935&gclid=CN7i1Jyay7YCFYFo4AodUygAkw

Or even a 90 GB SSD?

Could I install it into bay 1, then put my 7200 RPM 750 GB in bay 2? And my WEI would increase? Or would I have to put a 750 GB or higher SSD in bay 1 for the WEI to go beyond 5.9?

 

[voyager1]

What affects the WEI score as far as HDDs are concerned is the Primary Drive.
The primary drive is the Active drive your OS is installed on.
What bay you put it in has no effect on the score.
After installing my OS on a newly installed SSD the drive score jumped to 7.6.
My total score is now limited by the graphics scores which are now 7.4 after upgrading my video card.

 

[mkculpe]

What affects the WEI score as far as HDDs are concerned is the Primary Drive.
The primary drive is the Active drive your OS is installed on.
What bay you put it in has no effect on the score.
After installing my OS on a newly installed SSD the drive score jumped to 7.6.
My total score is now limited by the graphics scores which are now 7.4 after upgrading my video card.

So if I put a small SSD, say 40 GB, and then put my 750 GB or more regular sata hard drives in, my WEI would increase just because of the SSD? Or would I have to go with a SSD bigger than 40 GB?

 

[Dereck47]

WEI drive scores are based upon your O/S drive. So if your are buying an SSD to use as a secondary data/storage/backup drive then your WEI score will remain 5.9. You will have to install your O/S on the SSD for your WEI score to increase.

Also FYI, the Agility 2 is a SATA II (3Gb/s) drive. SATA II SSDs are "old tech".
My advice is wait and save your money until you can afford a current generation SATA III (6Gb/s) SSD.

 

[mkculpe]

WEI drive scores are based upon your O/S drive. So if your are buying an SSD to use as a secondary data/storage/backup drive then your WEI score will remain 5.9. You will have to install your O/S on the SSD for your WEI score to increase.

Also FYI, the Agility 2 is a SATA II (3Gb/s) drive. SATA II SSDs are "old tech".
My advice is wait and save your money until you can afford a current generation SATA III (6Gb/s) SSD.

I am able to purchase a SATA III (6Gb/s) SSD now. And would put the OS on it. Obviously the GB size of it will increase the WEI, but would a lower end SATA III increase my WEI higher than 5.9? Thanks for this information.

 

[Dereck47]

Yes, a low end SATA III SSD will increase your WEI score higher than 5.9.

 

[mkculpe]

Yes, a low end SATA III SSD will increase your WEI score higher than 5.9.

Thank you. That is what I wanted to hear. I have 7.2 on both Processor and Ram. And 7.5 on both graphics and gaming graphics. So this 5.9 is getting under my skin. Why can't they just take an average?

 

[voyager1]

So if I put a small SSD, say 40 GB, and then put my 750 GB or more regular sata hard drives in, my WEI would increase just because of the SSD? Or would I have to go with a SSD bigger than 40 GB?

This may answer your question:
I have 5 HDDs.
1 is a 120GB SSD. 3 are 1TB and 1 is 320GB Seagate 7200.xx Baracudas.
The only one that affecte the WEI is the SSD because it has the OS on it.
The other drives have no effect on the WEI.
Their size , location or anything else have no effect on the WEI.
Derik47 is correct: go with a SATA III SSD.

Make it large enough to hold your OS and the apps you want installed on it.
i PUT A 60GB SSD into my gal friend's PC.
It is adequate for her needs..
I am using a 120GB SSD right now, and wish it was a 240.
To save some of the space on the SSD, you can install the app to another drive [say, D:], but will probably lose some of the speed you bought the SSD for.
But, It probably will fool the WEI score into being higher than it actually is due to apps running slower on the non SSD drive.

EDIT:
I keep forgetting to add this observation.
Worrying about the WEI score is a waste of time.
Look at the numbers for all the categories and make your own judgement as to what is important.
Averaging them yourself would probably give you a more effective answer to your needs than their pulling the low score and rating the whole system from that.

 

[mkculpe]

So if I put a small SSD, say 40 GB, and then put my 750 GB or more regular sata hard drives in, my WEI would increase just because of the SSD? Or would I have to go with a SSD bigger than 40 GB?

This may answer your question:
I have 5 HDDs.
1 is a 120GB SSD. 3 are 1TB and 1 is 320GB Seagate 7200.xx Baracudas.
The only one that affecte the WEI is the SSD because it has the OS on it.
The other drives have no effect on the WEI.
Their size , location or anything else have no effect on the WEI.
Derik47 is correct: go with a SATA III SSD.

Make it large enough to hold your OS and the apps you want installed on it.
i PUT A 60GB SSD into my gal friend's PC.
It is adequate for her needs..
I am using a 120GB SSD right now, and wish it was a 240.
To save some of the space on the SSD, you can install the app to another drive [say, D:], but will probably lose some of the speed you bought the SSD for.
But, It probably will fool the WEI score into being higher than it actually is due to apps running slower on the non SSD drive.

EDIT:
I keep forgetting to add this observation.
Worrying about the WEI score is a waste of time.
Look at the numbers for all the categories and make your own judgement as to what is important.
Averaging them yourself would probably give you a more effective answer to your needs than their pulling the low score and rating the whole system from that.

Ok, I am going to put the WEI in the back of my mind and hope it leaves. Final question.

Which is better?

1.) 7200 RPM 750 GB & 7200 RPM 650 GB Hard Drives

2.) 120 GB SSD SATA III & 7200 RPM 750 GB Hard Drive

Also, if anyone reading this could try and answer another post I have about why my monitor is acting up.

 

[voyager1]

... Final question.

Which is better?

1.) 7200 RPM 750 GB & 7200 RPM 650 GB Hard Drives

2.) 120 GB SSD SATA III & 7200 RPM 750 GB Hard Drive

The answer to your questions is very subjective.
1. What do you have?
Does your MoBo support SATA III?
... USB 3.0?
2. What do you want?
Faster loading and running of apps?
Faster booting?
More storage?
...???

 

[mkculpe]

... Final question.

Which is better?

1.) 7200 RPM 750 GB & 7200 RPM 650 GB Hard Drives

2.) 120 GB SSD SATA III & 7200 RPM 750 GB Hard Drive

The answer to your questions is very subjective.
1. What do you have?
Does your MoBo support SATA III?
... USB 3.0?
2. What do you want?
Faster loading and running of apps?
Faster booting?
More storage?
...???

SATA/PATA drives 4/2
SATA speed 3Gb/s

That means it is capable right? If I go with option 1 above, will I notice it being faster? I am not so worried about have a massive amount of storage space. I am only using 123 GB of my Hard Drive as I type this.

 

[voyager1]

SATA/PATA drives 4/2
SATA speed 3Gb/s

That means it is capable right? If I go with option 1 above, will I notice it being faster? I am not so worried about have a massive amount of storage space. I am only using 123 GB of my Hard Drive as I type this.

If I'm interpreting "4/2 SATA/PATA drives" correctly you have the capability of running 4 SATA drives and 2 IDE drives.

SATA speed of 3GB/s is SATA II
SATA III is 6GB/s.
Your MoBo does NOT support SATA III.
I have the same situation.
I'm running a SATA III SSD on a SATA II MoBo.

But, I will be building myself a new PC in the near future.
And, the SSD does run faster on the SATA II than the standard HDDs.
It will run even faster when I upgrade my PC to SATA III.

Storage requirements can change as your needs change.
They rarely stay constant for long periods of time.
If the HDD that was supplied with your Dell is adequate for your needs right now.
Why add more?
If you want to speed things up, adding a SSD of an adequate size to meet your OS needs should be enough.
I'd wait until I began to run low on storage space on my HDDs before adding more just to add more.

 

[mkculpe]

SATA/PATA drives 4/2
SATA speed 3Gb/s

That means it is capable right? If I go with option 1 above, will I notice it being faster? I am not so worried about have a massive amount of storage space. I am only using 123 GB of my Hard Drive as I type this.

If I'm interpreting "4/2 SATA/PATA drives" correctly you have the capability of running 4 SATA drives and 2 IDE drives.

SATA speed of 3GB/s is SATA II
SATA III is 6GB/s.
Your MoBo does NOT support SATA III.
I have the same situation.
I'm running a SATA III SSD on a SATA II MoBo.

But, I will be building myself a new PC in the near future.
And, the SSD does run faster on the SATA II than the standard HDDs.
It will run even faster when I upgrade my PC to SATA III.

Storage requirements can change as your needs change.
They rarely stay constant for long periods of time.
If the HDD that was supplied with your Dell is adequate for your needs right now.
Why add more?
If you want to speed things up, adding a SSD of an adequate size to meet your OS needs should be enough.
I'd wait until I began to run low on storage space on my HDDs before adding more just to add more.

I think I am going to just stick with what I have. Maybe in a year or so, sell it and build my own.

Would you mind looking at my thread titled "Why is my screen moving up and down slowly?" and see if you can help on that one? Thanks.