Hard drive choice

[Yangsing]

Just planning for a future PC.

Main OS drive: Raptor 150gb
Data storage: 500gb

or

Main OS drive: 500gb
Data Storage: 500gb

The second option is cheaper but I'm not quite sure how much faster things would load with a 10k rpm drive. Any suggestions?

[evilbau]

Just planning for a future PC.

Main OS drive: Raptor 150gb
Data storage: 500gb

or

Main OS drive: 500gb
Data Storage: 500gb

The second option is cheaper but I'm not quite sure how much faster things would load with a 10k rpm drive. Any suggestions?

imo 2x 500gb, I learned my lesson with SCSI which was the same idea. I don't think the speed boost will be worth it. There will be a time when 'the fast drive' won't be fast anymore and all you are left with is a hd you don't want to use as a primary OS drive and smaller than your other drives. High capacity drives can always be used for storage.

This is a personal question more than anything, so feel free to ignore my advice, I know a lot of my friends like having their OS on a faster drive.

[Shuemue]

I'd go with 2x 500 and partition the primary to something like 150/350, and throw the OS/installs on the smaller partition for easy reinstalls.

[Skyylya]

From everything i've read lately, the samsung spinpoint outperforms the raptor when it comes to speed and data transfer and whatnot. I've heard it's quieter than the raptor as well.

That said i'm using a seagate 16mb 7200rpm and it's good for me, i have it partitioned into a 100 gb for OS and some other stuff and 220(approx) for all my music/movie storage and other misc stuff.

Edit: also, do you really need 2x 500gb HDD's? What kind of data/work are you planning on needing it for? You could get a single 500 or 750 and partition it into the 150 as someone suggested for OS and the rest on a storage/media drive and make your life a lot simpler, unless you just wanted to set up a raid in which case you'd need the 2xHDD.

[evilbau]

I'd go with 2x 500 and partition the primary to something like 150/350, and throw the OS/installs on the smaller partition for easy reinstalls.

thats a good idea, i don't think i would ever think to do that. I'll do it on my next system

[Shuemue]

I'd go with 2x 500 and partition the primary to something like 150/350, and throw the OS/installs on the smaller partition for easy reinstalls.

thats a good idea, i don't think i would ever think to do that. I'll do it on my next system

Makes life a ton easier not having to move tons of media files etc for a reformat, and you can just drag your POL folder over to another drive etc.

[evilbau]

dunno what you are paying for your 500 GB but i came across this and thought you might benefit if you haven't purchased yet:
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4551377
$89.99, 3 yr warranty, free ship

[Skyylya]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152052
It's 109.99 with the same warranty etc..

spend the extra few bucks and get this instead, It's much much better than maxtor. especially for the extra 20 bucks, you get much better quality. I used to run a maxtor and it's not exactly a great performance HDD and is kinda loud.

[sekaran]

I did 1x74GB Raptor, 2x500GB.

Out of those two choices, I'd pick the 2x500GB.

[evilbau]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152052
It's 109.99 with the same warranty etc..

spend the extra few bucks and get this instead, It's much much better than maxtor. especially for the extra 20 bucks, you get much better quality. I used to run a maxtor and it's not exactly a great performance HDD and is kinda loud.

few extra bucks lol it costs almost 25% more, then again i wouldn't pay $90 for a hd anyway

[Shuemue]

I'm running a 160gb Maxtor, it's fine. Never had an issue with it.

[evilbau]

I'm running a 160gb Maxtor, it's fine. Never had an issue with it.

Its also worth pointing out that Maxtor owns seagate now and have been repackaging their drives with seagate drives which i have personally bought many of (and are quiet). Also these are 7200.10 drives which are known for being decently quiet.

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4697788

Seagate 500 GB drive (which is basically the same as what i posted earlier, for reasons stated above) but has a 5 yr. warranty instead of 3 for same price $89.99, difference is no free ship (~$6-7)

[Skyylya]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152052
It's 109.99 with the same warranty etc..

spend the extra few bucks and get this instead, It's much much better than maxtor. especially for the extra 20 bucks, you get much better quality. I used to run a maxtor and it's not exactly a great performance HDD and is kinda loud.

few extra bucks lol it costs almost 25% more, then again i wouldn't pay $90 for a hd anyway

this is like that sonic commercial where the guy say's "keep the change" and it's only a penny. Percents aren't an accurate depiction of cost. Something that is 4 dollars is like 25% more than something that's 3 dollars, doesn't mean that is a huge increase.

I have a seagate 320gb 7200.10rpm 16mb cache that works great. I wasn't aware that it was the same company or whatever as maxtor. My last hDD was a maxtor 80gb 5400 rpm 8mb cache that gave me a lot of trouble. I wish I had bought the samsung spinpoint this time, but I was in a rush to get the HDD since my other PC stuff came in and the seagate was the best thing at best buy, albeit way overpriced i'm sure.

[evilbau]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152052
It's 109.99 with the same warranty etc..

spend the extra few bucks and get this instead, It's much much better than maxtor. especially for the extra 20 bucks, you get much better quality. I used to run a maxtor and it's not exactly a great performance HDD and is kinda loud.

few extra bucks lol it costs almost 25% more, then again i wouldn't pay $90 for a hd anyway

this is like that sonic commercial where the guy say's "keep the change" and it's only a penny. Percents aren't an accurate depiction of cost. Something that is 4 dollars is like 25% more than something that's 3 dollars, doesn't mean that is a huge increase.

I have a seagate 320gb 7200.10rpm 16mb cache that works great. I wasn't aware that it was the same company or whatever as maxtor. My last hDD was a maxtor 80gb 5400 rpm 8mb cache that gave me a lot of trouble. I wish I had bought the samsung spinpoint this time, but I was in a rush to get the HDD since my other PC stuff came in and the seagate was the best thing at best buy, albeit way overpriced i'm sure.

pennies and the difference between 3 and 4 dollars is not $20, $20 more from $90 is both significant $-wise and %-wise

[Devek]

You're kind of fucking yourself in price/performance if you don't get 4 cheap drives and raid them as opposed to getting one big expensive drive.

[Sigi]

Depends on how cheap you can get a raid controller/ whether or not your system has the head room power supply - wise to run raid. Frankly, yes in a dream world, raid would be lovely (0+1/5/etc)... Realistically, better to get a good quality drive and a good power supply ... then use the money saved to get a DVD-R with a spindle or 2 of DVD's and make regular backups.

[Skyylya]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152052
It's 109.99 with the same warranty etc..

spend the extra few bucks and get this instead, It's much much better than maxtor. especially for the extra 20 bucks, you get much better quality. I used to run a maxtor and it's not exactly a great performance HDD and is kinda loud.

few extra bucks lol it costs almost 25% more, then again i wouldn't pay $90 for a hd anyway

this is like that sonic commercial where the guy say's "keep the change" and it's only a penny. Percents aren't an accurate depiction of cost. Something that is 4 dollars is like 25% more than something that's 3 dollars, doesn't mean that is a huge increase.

I have a seagate 320gb 7200.10rpm 16mb cache that works great. I wasn't aware that it was the same company or whatever as maxtor. My last hDD was a maxtor 80gb 5400 rpm 8mb cache that gave me a lot of trouble. I wish I had bought the samsung spinpoint this time, but I was in a rush to get the HDD since my other PC stuff came in and the seagate was the best thing at best buy, albeit way overpriced i'm sure.

pennies and the difference between 3 and 4 dollars is not $20, $20 more from $90 is both significant $-wise and %-wise

20 dollars isn't exactly breaking the bank either is my point. I'd happily pay an extra 20 bucks to get something that'll perform better, especially when it comes to my computer. For your money the spinpoint is a better price/performance HDD. Anyway, i'm just suggesting. If you have the extra 20 bucks, you're much better off with a samsung spinpoint, if you don't have it or are just frugle anyway and don't care what you get as long as it's less expensive, the seagate or whatever that's 20 bucks cheaper is good too.

[Devek]

Depends on how cheap you can get a raid controller/ whether or not your system has the head room power supply - wise to run raid. Frankly, yes in a dream world, raid would be lovely (0+1/5/etc)... Realistically, better to get a good quality drive and a good power supply ... then use the money saved to get a DVD-R with a spindle or 2 of DVD's and make regular backups.

You kind of can't buy a motherboard anymore without a decent sata raid controller It isn't realistically "better" to get a good quality drive because the reason you raid a desktop is for speed and speed only. raid0 ftw.

Though I suppose if you haven't got to experience the difference it makes on modern hardware you don't know what you are missing.

[Sigi]

<shrug> kinda hard to have raid on a laptop. You also only have performance boost on raid 0... not reliability. I guess I prefer reliability and durability over performance.

[evilbau]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152052
It's 109.99 with the same warranty etc..

spend the extra few bucks and get this instead, It's much much better than maxtor. especially for the extra 20 bucks, you get much better quality. I used to run a maxtor and it's not exactly a great performance HDD and is kinda loud.

few extra bucks lol it costs almost 25% more, then again i wouldn't pay $90 for a hd anyway

this is like that sonic commercial where the guy say's "keep the change" and it's only a penny. Percents aren't an accurate depiction of cost. Something that is 4 dollars is like 25% more than something that's 3 dollars, doesn't mean that is a huge increase.

I have a seagate 320gb 7200.10rpm 16mb cache that works great. I wasn't aware that it was the same company or whatever as maxtor. My last hDD was a maxtor 80gb 5400 rpm 8mb cache that gave me a lot of trouble. I wish I had bought the samsung spinpoint this time, but I was in a rush to get the HDD since my other PC stuff came in and the seagate was the best thing at best buy, albeit way overpriced i'm sure.

pennies and the difference between 3 and 4 dollars is not $20, $20 more from $90 is both significant $-wise and %-wise

20 dollars isn't exactly breaking the bank either is my point. I'd happily pay an extra 20 bucks to get something that'll perform better, especially when it comes to my computer. For your money the spinpoint is a better price/performance HDD. Anyway, i'm just suggesting. If you have the extra 20 bucks, you're much better off with a samsung spinpoint, if you don't have it or are just frugle anyway and don't care what you get as long as it's less expensive, the seagate or whatever that's 20 bucks cheaper is good too.

lol you make it seem like seagates are bad and samsungs are good. Its marketing and the techie hype du jour, you can't judge new model hard drives' reliability until a few years out anyway (unless they fail very early, which they don't). I guess it all comes down to personal preference and that is a very good drive, but choices like these are why you buy a system for $800 and I buy a system for $400 that performs within 5% of yours.