High capacity HDD

Takaharu · Jan 13, 2011, 08:12 AM

I've got a friend who's after a high capacity hard drive (2TB or thereabouts) but I'm not 100% sure on what I should advise him on.

It's probably easiest if I show you the options with prices.
I also found this one, which is a Green at 7200RPM.

He'll be using it as a general "stick files on here for the space" drive - videos, music and so forth and using them on regular occasion; the OS is on another drive. He does photography, filming and editing for his daughter's school and likes to have his own personal files too so space does tend to be used up quickly, even though it gets cleared down of old files quite regularly. He's already got an external drive for extra storage space. WD Black would be overkill IMO.
Anyway, WD Green I wouldn't recommend for him, judging by the general gist I get (too low a performance, better used for storage space only).
5400RPM I don't know - would that perform noticeably slower than a 7200RPM drive?
His budget will get to £80 tops, give or take a pound or two so 7200RPM is out of reach. Do you think the 5.2k/5.9k will suffice or should I suggest a 1.5TB?
I'm not sure if he has enough available connectors for two 1TB drives, I'd have to check.

blibbax · Jan 13, 2011, 09:22 AM

If he's not running any programs from it, I'd have thought that the £70 Green on Ebuyer, which after all does have 64MB of cache, would be fine.

A pair of 1TB drives does sound like a better way to go to me, though, if it's possible.

Takaharu · Jan 13, 2011, 10:47 AM

What if you're rendering a film in After Effects that uses files stored on a Green, would that slow down the process?

Judas · Jan 13, 2011, 03:30 PM

Stay away from the green drives if they are going to be used anything OTHER then drag and drop backup/storage files...

If the drives are going to be used as scratch disks..... or where data will be rendered to.... they aren't going to be very nice at all to work with.

If anything at least go with a blue WD for that.. but performance is a bit of a necessity for something like that usually and black would be preferred.

BUT if all he's doing is copying files or saving work to that big drive...... then by all means go green if you wish.

Takaharu · Jan 13, 2011, 05:13 PM

I found out that we went cheap & cheerful when I chose his motherboard and got one with 2 SATA ports, one of which is currently used for the hard drive, the other for one of the optical drives.
I'll need to discuss with him what the options are (new m/b, PCI card for more slots, change the disk drive or remove the current hard drive) and establish exactly what the hard drive is going to be used for. In all likelihood, the drive will be used for more than just storage, which is why I asked about the lower-speed drives (other than Green).

Thanks for the clarification

blibbax · Jan 13, 2011, 05:36 PM

You could look at an IDE DVD-RW drive on ebay, shouldn't be too steep.

mkk · Jan 13, 2011, 06:58 PM

The very latest "green" drives aren't that horribly slow really, like the WD20EARS or HD204UI from Samsung. I'm using one of the later for games and while they start up a little slower (like 15-20%) than with the latest 7200rpm drives, it's perfectly usable as such.

I'd like to note that there are no 7200rpm "green" drives but that all are 5400rpm, or very close to that. Western Digital has contributed to uncertainty by not specifying rotational speeds for several drives and at least once indicating that a "green" drive may vary its speed. WD's drives have all been 5400rpm when tested, for instance by putting a microphone to the motor noise.

Jan 13, 2011, 08:12 AM	#1
Takaharu I can fart in 7 languages Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: England, UK Posts: 1,847 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	High capacity HDD I've got a friend who's after a high capacity hard drive (2TB or thereabouts) but I'm not 100% sure on what I should advise him on. It's probably easiest if I show you the options with prices. I also found this one, which is a Green at 7200RPM. He'll be using it as a general "stick files on here for the space" drive - videos, music and so forth and using them on regular occasion; the OS is on another drive. He does photography, filming and editing for his daughter's school and likes to have his own personal files too so space does tend to be used up quickly, even though it gets cleared down of old files quite regularly. He's already got an external drive for extra storage space. WD Black would be overkill IMO. Anyway, WD Green I wouldn't recommend for him, judging by the general gist I get (too low a performance, better used for storage space only). 5400RPM I don't know - would that perform noticeably slower than a 7200RPM drive? His budget will get to £80 tops, give or take a pound or two so 7200RPM is out of reach. Do you think the 5.2k/5.9k will suffice or should I suggest a 1.5TB? I'm not sure if he has enough available connectors for two 1TB drives, I'd have to check. __________________ I don't get paid to know the answer, therefore I'm far more likely to give you a straight and honest answer. Mods Rig, Box Mods Rig, Folding details

Jan 13, 2011, 09:22 AM	#2
blibbax What does this do? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 4,230 Rep Power: 254 System Specs	Re: High capacity HDD If he's not running any programs from it, I'd have thought that the £70 Green on Ebuyer, which after all does have 64MB of cache, would be fine. A pair of 1TB drives does sound like a better way to go to me, though, if it's possible. __________________ Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease and cancer: Fold for HH!

Jan 13, 2011, 10:47 AM	Thread Starter #3
Takaharu I can fart in 7 languages Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: England, UK Posts: 1,847 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	Re: High capacity HDD What if you're rendering a film in After Effects that uses files stored on a Green, would that slow down the process? __________________ I don't get paid to know the answer, therefore I'm far more likely to give you a straight and honest answer. Mods Rig, Box Mods Rig, Folding details

Jan 13, 2011, 05:13 PM	Thread Starter #5
Takaharu I can fart in 7 languages Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: England, UK Posts: 1,847 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	Re: High capacity HDD I found out that we went cheap & cheerful when I chose his motherboard and got one with 2 SATA ports, one of which is currently used for the hard drive, the other for one of the optical drives. I'll need to discuss with him what the options are (new m/b, PCI card for more slots, change the disk drive or remove the current hard drive) and establish exactly what the hard drive is going to be used for. In all likelihood, the drive will be used for more than just storage, which is why I asked about the lower-speed drives (other than Green). Thanks for the clarification __________________ I don't get paid to know the answer, therefore I'm far more likely to give you a straight and honest answer. Mods Rig, Box Mods Rig, Folding details

Jan 13, 2011, 05:36 PM	#6
blibbax What does this do? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 4,230 Rep Power: 254 System Specs	Re: High capacity HDD You could look at an IDE DVD-RW drive on ebay, shouldn't be too steep. __________________ Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease and cancer: Fold for HH!

Jan 13, 2011, 06:58 PM	#7
mkk Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 4,490 Rep Power: 132 System Specs	Re: High capacity HDD The very latest "green" drives aren't that horribly slow really, like the WD20EARS or HD204UI from Samsung. I'm using one of the later for games and while they start up a little slower (like 15-20%) than with the latest 7200rpm drives, it's perfectly usable as such. I'd like to note that there are no 7200rpm "green" drives but that all are 5400rpm, or very close to that. Western Digital has contributed to uncertainty by not specifying rotational speeds for several drives and at least once indicating that a "green" drive may vary its speed. WD's drives have all been 5400rpm when tested, for instance by putting a microphone to the motor noise.