Fastest NON SSD hard drive...

[kanej2007]

I'm looking to get a second hard drive, it must be a regular hard drive since I need the space.

I'm not prepared to pay over $2000 for a SSD when I can get a fast regular 3.5'' hard drive running almost as fast...

I am looking to buy a 500gb hard drive, no more and no less.

What are the top 3 fastest 500gb hard drives?

I am looking for either Western Digital, Toshiba or Samsung, only top brands...

I'm not at all interested in Seagate as I've had multiple problems with them before and have lost considerable amounts of data...

My budget is $100 or less...

Thanks guys...

[kanej2007]

I was looking at this one, is there anything quicker or would this be the one to go for?

I should have named this thread to ''Fastest 500gb Hard Drives...'' Thanks gurus...

Western Digital
WD 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Caviar Black Hard Drive - 7200rpm 32MB Cache

Specifications:

Specification
Product Specifications
General
Device Type Hard drive - internal
Width 10.2 cm
Depth 14.7 cm
Height 2.5 cm
Weight 0.69 kg
Hard Drive
Form Factor 3.5" x 1/3H
Capacity 500 GB
Interface Type Serial ATA-600
Buffer Size 64 MB
Features Dual actuator technology, StableTrac, NoTouch ramp load technology, dual processor
Compliant Standards S.M.A.R.T.
Performance
Drive Transfer Rate 600 MBps (external)
Internal Data Rate 126 MBps
Average Latency 4.2 ms
Reliability
Non-Recoverable Errors 1 per 10^14
Start / Stop Cycles 300,000
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces 1 x Serial ATA-600 - 7 pin Serial ATA
Compatible Bays 1 x internal - 3.5" x 1/3H
Miscellaneous
Compliant Standards RoHS
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support 5 years warranty
Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 5 years
Environmental Parameters
Min Operating Temperature 0 °C
Max Operating Temperature 60 °C
Shock Tolerance 30 g @ 2ms (operating) / 350 g @ 2ms (non-operating)

[PhatKat]

WD has big VelociRaptors.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136555

[Mufflore]

$100 (£60 ish) is easily enough to get a 1TB drive.
For £44.61 you can have this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804
It has 500Gb platters so has the highest data density currently on offer (= highest transfer rate of any 7200rpm drive)

There are some 2TB drives around £60 but they are 5900rpm (instead of 7200rpm) so arent as good for performance.

[kanej2007]

Thanks both PhatKat & Mufflore. Out of the hard disks you both posted, the WD is more than double the price of the Samsung, though it is 10,000 rpm...

Is paying the extra $100 worth it for the Western Digital or are the differences very minor?

If the Western Digital is a LOT faster then I will pay the extra and pay that.

Otherwise if it's not a great deal faster I will go for the Samsung.

Cheers guys.

[kanej2007]

I forgot to mention guys, I currently have the Western Digial Raptor 10,000 rpm...

Reason why I wanted another hard drive was so that I could use one hard drive for gaming ONLY and the other for Windows, programs, junk, etc...

As I only have 300gb on my current hard drive I will need more space, hence need a second hard drive.

I've had quite a few WD hard disks over the years as well as Samsung and never have any of them failed, that's why I want one of the 2!

[PhatKat]

I think if speed is the goal, then money will be an issue. At $250 for the Raptor, there are also good SSD's, but not quite the capacity you want. That could be remedied bt using a smaller SSD with a big HDD as storage. I'm looking at a new build, and I think that is what I'll be doing.

[PhatKat]

Originally Posted by kanej2007

I forgot to mention guys, I currently have the Western Digial Raptor 10,000 rpm...

Reason why I wanted another hard drive was so that I could use one hard drive for gaming ONLY and the other for Windows, programs, junk, etc...

As I only have 300gb on my current hard drive I will need more space, hence need a second hard drive.

I've had quite a few WD hard disks over the years as well as Samsung and never have any of them failed, that's why I want one of the 2!

I see.

I just bought a 640GB WD Black, and for me it is quite fast enough for now, but I am not too picky about HDD's.

[PhatKat]

Oops, I missed where you said $100 budget, my bad.

[kanej2007]

Originally Posted by PhatKat

I see.

I just bought a 640GB WD Black, and for me it is quite fast enough for now, but I am not too picky about HDD's.

Yeah, as Mufflor mentioned, the Samsung Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache is a blazingly fast hd and cheap, well under $100...

BitTech reckon its the fastest hard disk they benchmarked so far!

Originally Posted by PhatKat

Oops, I missed where you said $100 budget, my bad.

Haha, no probs mate.

[PhatKat]

Originally Posted by kanej2007

Yeah, as Mufflor mentioned, the Samsung Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache is a blazingly fast hd and cheap, well under $100...

BitTech reckon its the fastest hard disk they benchmarked so far!



Haha, no probs mate.

Hehe, word. Do it man.

[att_user]

Maybe you prefer a quiet computer so i would recommend buying a 2.5" HDD drive which produces far less noise and no vibrations. Also a 2.5" HDD runs a lot cooler and needs far less power and no active cooling.

A very good 2.5" HDD is the Hitachi 5K500.B.

[Mufflore]

That drive uses 250GB platters and only runs at 5400rpm.
Achieving the same power saving can be done by turning a fan down.
That amount of power saving only matters on laptops or special projects.

[kanej2007]

Originally Posted by Mufflore

That drive uses 250GB platters and only runs at 5400rpm.
Achieving the same power saving can be done by turning a fan down.
That amount of power saving only matters on laptops or special projects.

Yeah, I'm after maximum speed and performance, sound does not bother me.

Also, when you have a massive heatsink as well as 5 other fans spinning in your case, your not likely to hear the hard drive at all!!!

[RTS100x5]

in other words you want a Ferrari on a VW budget ......

[BamBoozleD]

Look into Seagates Momentus XT, solid state hybrid. Great as a boot drive, I ran it for a couple of weeks and was very impressed to how snappy things felt. My boot time went from 40 sec down to 22 from the windows loading bar to a movable mouse curser. Fast!

[kanej2007]

Originally Posted by RTS100x5

in other words you want a Ferrari on a VW budget ......

Well, I don't see it that way. Whilst an SSD drive is faster than a standard hard drive, when gaming I do not seeing it making much of a difference, if any noticable difference that is...

It will not make my games perform any quicker nor give me any more fps...

At most it may make some games load a few seconds quicker. Paying 3-4 times the money for a few second improvement is not worth it.

With regards to windows, I'm not bothered if windows takes 22 seconds or 2 minutes to load...

So long as my games load and run smoothly, I'm happy. My ram & processor help a lot in this.

Also I needed a 1tb hard drive, unfortunately there is no such thing as even a 500gb SSD & if there were it would cost more than my whole computer put together...

I ended up buying the WD Caviar Black 1TB Internal hard drive - 600 MBps - 7200 rpm.

So far I can say it's an EXCELLENT & super quick hard drive, I'm happy with my purchase...

If there was such thing as a 500gb SSD drive and at an affordable price then I'd reconsider.

As of now they are too new, too expensive and not large enough in size.

I will reconsider buying one in the future when the prices drop and the sizes increase!

[killer_939]

Originally Posted by kanej2007

I'm not prepared to pay over $2000 for a SSD when I can get a fast regular 3.5'' hard drive running almost as fast...

8-14ms access times vs 0.01ms isn't almost as fast.

[sykozis]

Originally Posted by killer_939

8-14ms access times vs 0.01ms isn't almost as fast.

As far as perception, the user will never notice the difference in access time. Also, the access time has nothing to do with the actual "speed" of the harddrive. Doesn't matter if the access time is 0.001ns, if the max transfer rate is only 45mbps, nor does it really matter if the access time is 25ms, if the max transfer rate is 600mbps. In the case of gaming, as the OP already stated, an SSD won't increase framerate.

[killer_939]

Originally Posted by sykozis

an SSD won't increase framerate.

True for like 98% of games. I guess owning one makes me love it more. =\ WINDOWS IS SO FAST D:

[kanej2007]

Originally Posted by RTS100x5

in other words you want a Ferrari on a VW budget ......

Originally Posted by sykozis

As far as perception, the user will never notice the difference in access time. Also, the access time has nothing to do with the actual "speed" of the harddrive. Doesn't matter if the access time is 0.001ns, if the max transfer rate is only 45mbps, nor does it really matter if the access time is 25ms, if the max transfer rate is 600mbps. In the case of gaming, as the OP already stated, an SSD won't increase framerate.

So why all the hype about SSD drives?

I agree they are smaller, lighter, do not generate heat/noise and in some cases quicker.

However they are very expensive for what they are and should you have a lot of storage/games you will need more than one SSD drive, it can be costly...

[killer_939]

Originally Posted by kanej2007

So why all the hype about SSD drives?

I agree they are smaller, lighter, do not generate heat/noise and in some cases quicker.

However they are very expensive for what they are and should you have a lot of storage/games you will need more than one SSD drive, it can be costly...

They make windows and games like wow MUCH faster, I am tempted to get an ssd for my 2nd rig and laptop now after getting one for my main rig, they feel like using an old pentium 1 trying to run xp now that my main rig is running an ssd. =\

[sykozis]

Originally Posted by kanej2007

So why all the hype about SSD drives?

I agree they are smaller, lighter, do not generate heat/noise and in some cases quicker.

However they are very expensive for what they are and should you have a lot of storage/games you will need more than one SSD drive, it can be costly...

Some SSDs have a considerably higher transfer rate. The SATAII or SATA3.0GB/s compliant harddrives can typically transfer from platter to buffer at a rate of 3.0GB/s, but from buffer to controller at a maximum of 300mb/s, with a typical transfer rate of less than 200mb/s. Some SSDs however, can transfer up to the full 300mb/s allowed by the SATAII spec, and are even capable of exceeding this transfer rate.

[scheherazade]

Buy more ram, run a large cache.

You'll only have to deal with slow load times the first time you load something.

After that, it'll be the same speed. SSD or HDD.

-scheherazade

[nsol]

I would recommend the Samsung Spinmaster. Great HDD and at just shy of £45 for a 1TB you're getting a great bargain!