Advice for first time computer-builder

[4x Fan]

I’m in the process of creating a component list that I will use to build my first computer, and I would appreciate some advice about HDD's.

I’m looking for overall capacity from 600GB to 1TB. Do you think the performance of a 10,000 rpm model justifies the additional price over one that runs at 7200 rpm? (I’ve ruled out purchasing a SSD because of budget.) Am I likely to perceive an appreciable difference when playing 4x games like Age of Wonders III and Endless Legend?

And are there any brands/models that you’d recommend?

Here’s a list of the components that I’ve already decided upon…
i5 4690
ASRock Fatal1ity H97 Killer
Radeon R9 270x
8GB 1600 G.Skill Sniper

Thanks!

 

[TheDeanster13]

I think you should just go with a 1TB 7200 rpm as all hard drives are going to give you the gaming performance you need no matter what. I recommend the WD Blue 7200rpm 3.5" 1TB HDD as an all-around hard drive to give you the basic performance you need. Here is the link to the hard drive: http://www.wdc.com/global/products/specs/?driveID=1092&language=1

 

[TheDeanster13]

While 10,000 rpm's and SSD's will give better performance, gamers like us can thrive off a simple 7200 rpm. 10,000's and SSD's are best for video editors and others that require faster data transfers. Hope I helped

 

[Guest]

Simply? Hell no.

10,00rpm drives have their place, arguably, but nowadays with the rise of the SSD market it's difficult to justify the cost for such a limited performance gain compared to a regular 7200rpm hard drive. Especially if that is a top-end performance drive, such as the Western Digital Black line.

My advice is to use the additional money you would have spent on the 10,000rpm drive and go for a small SSD / large hard drive setup. Quite the popular set up currently, given the price of SSDs. Put your OS on the SSD and a few select programs and the rest on the mechanical drive.

You'll be able to do that in the same budget, as small SSDs are quite affordable now. I can thoroughly recommend either the Samsung 840 EVO or the SanDisk UltraPlus II, but, generally, they're all sitting around the same price/performance/capacity bracket at the moment.

If you can't stretch to the SSD then the shorter answer is, nope, 10,00rpm drives aren't worth the noise, reliability, power consumption and price. In my opinion.

 

[TheDeanster13]

Simply? Hell no.

10,00rpm drives have their place, arguably, but nowadays with the rise of the SSD market it's difficult to justify the cost for such a limited performance gain compared to a regular 7200rpm hard drive. Especially if that is a top-end performance drive, such as the Western Digital Black line.

My advice is to use the additional money you would have spent on the 10,000rpm drive and go for a small SSD / large hard drive setup. Quite the popular set up currently, given the price of SSDs. Put your OS on the SSD and a few select programs and the rest on the mechanical drive.

You'll be able to do that in the same budget, as small SSDs are quite affordable now. I can thoroughly recommend either the Samsung 840 EVO or the SanDisk UltraPlus II, but, generally, they're all sitting around the same price/performance/capacity bracket at the moment.

If you can't stretch to the SSD then the shorter answer is, nope, 10,00rpm drives aren't worth the noise, reliability, power consumption and price. In my opinion.

You sure as heck explained it better than I did...

 

[4x Fan]

My advice is to use the additional money you would have spent on the 10,000rpm drive and go for a small SSD / large hard drive setup. Quite the popular set up currently, given the price of SSDs. Put your OS on the SSD and a few select programs and the rest on the mechanical drive.

That's something I will consider. But isn't it true that I'd be required to perform a RAID setup? I have very limited knowledge of such things, and I'm concerned that the set-up would be beyond my current level of competency.

 

[4x Fan]

You sure as heck explained it better than I did...

Actually, I think you both explained it well.

 

[Guest]

My advice is to use the additional money you would have spent on the 10,000rpm drive and go for a small SSD / large hard drive setup. Quite the popular set up currently, given the price of SSDs. Put your OS on the SSD and a few select programs and the rest on the mechanical drive.

That's something I will consider. But isn't it true that I'd be required to perform a RAID setup? I have very limited knowledge of such things, and I'm concerned that the set-up would be beyond my current level of competency.

Not at all, I'm no expert on RAID but I'm not even sure that would work anyway, pretty certain they have to be matching drives.
Just plug them both in as you normally would using the SATA power, and, SATA data cables. Preferably plug the SSD one into a slot before the HDD one to save messing about in the BIOS boot priorities prior to installing your OS.

They will just show up in Windows as two separate drives, the SSD being the C: drive if you did it correctly. Just like plugging in two USB sticks at the same time.
One last thing if you do go for the SSD option, before you install Windows, make sure the BIOS is set to run the SSD (or both drives is pref) in ACHI mode instead of IDE. Otherwise your SSD will be severely limited. Quite a few enthusiast oriented boards will do this for you, or it might just be ASUS that does that, I'm not too sure.


and @TheDeanster13, ha, that picture just makes it all the more amusing :F