Best external hard drive for recording games?

[sam444]

Hello! I'm currently trying to find the best external hard drive for recording video gameplay onto. So far I've found a few, but I'm not sure which is the best in terms of performance and cost (best price per gigabyte). I'm looking for an external hard drive that has 7200 rpm, 1-2 terabytes of storage, and has transfer rates greater than 100 mb/s. I'm hoping that I can get one for less than $100. I have a PC and I use Dxtory to record. Here are the ones I've looked at so far:


1. The HGST Tour S has a great price for its specs. I just haven't seen anyone review this so I'm not sure how good it actually is. Also practically all the reviews said how people used it for their Xbox One if that makes a difference.
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-7200RPM-High-Performance-Portable-0S03753/dp/B00IVFDNFK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1420499779&sr=8-4&keywords=HGST+Touro+S

2. I saw that this product, along with many other Seagate products have gotten very good reviews. But I'm pretty sure most of their external hard drives are 5400 rpm, so I don't know if that will make it slower.
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backup-Portable-External-STDR1000100/dp/B00H4XH5FY

3. This one had very positive reviews and (according to pc magazine) had very fast transfer speeds, but it's apparently pricey per gigabyte.
http://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-G-DRIVE-mobile-External-0G02874/dp/B00FZN2IZW/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1420407785&sr=1-8&keywords=G-Technology+G-DRIVE

4. I've looked at other forum posts of people asking similar questions to mine and a lot of people gave links to this Western Digital Black (or Blue) hard drive. It doesn't look like an external hard drive though which is my only concern.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FJRS5BA

5. The WD My Passport 1.5TB is a really good price. But again its 5400 rpm
http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Storage-WDBBEP0010BBL-NESN/dp/B007FQNKRC/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1420498396&sr=1-2&keywords=western+digital+external+gaming

So that's pretty much everything I've looked at so far that seems good. I'd appreciate some other peoples opinions because I don't know much about hard drives. If you have any suggestions for external hard drives please tell me! Thanks so much!

 

[Jonas Magnusson]

Use an SSD, they are much faster than HDD's.
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Btw make sure to leave atleast 10% of it's space free.

 

[sam444]

Use an SSD, they are much faster than HDD's.
---
Btw make sure to leave atleast 10% of it's space free.

I've thought about that, but you can't really find any ssd's greater than 320 gb for less than $100.

 

[bambiboom]

sam444,

If you need a large, fast drive and one that is running continuously, my suggestion is to consider an SATA 3 that is economical but good performing like a WD Blue or Seagate Barracuda (faster) and place it in an enclosure that is ventilated and has a fan. There is a StarTech Aluminum enclosure for about $35:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-3-5in-SuperSpeed-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B003F5NS9W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420510219&sr=8-2&keywords=startech+enclosure

> and a WD Blue 1TB at $55. This is single platter design and reasonably quite fast for a mech'l drive:

http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420510423&sr=8-1&keywords=WD+blue

Seagate Barracuda:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST1000DM003/dp/B005T3GRNW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420510963&sr=8-1&keywords=seagate+baracuda+1tb.

> and these two components together make a reliable SATA 3, 1TB storage for $90.

I have one of these StarTech enclosures with a 500GB Seagate Barracuda and it's been completely reliable on 100+GB backups. I even abused this drive: it fell on the floor behind my desk and I only had to reseat the drive in the socket and it's worked perfectly. The nice feature of this kind of drive is to run it only when backing up and they last forever- I have an eight year old Seagate 160GB that runs perfectly.

WD Passport Warning: This is in contrast to my WD Passport 320GB is the worst drive I've ever owned- dangerously unpredictable, working sometimes another times not. I almost tossed the Passport but use it only for transfers that I can duplicate. Check the net for Passport failures- they can be disaster areas.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420, Dell Precisions T5500, T5400 390

 

[Jonas Magnusson]

Try buying a big storage one that is a bit slower than normal. HDD(7200rpm) can transfer files in 25-40 mbps if you ain't recording in max quality.

 

[sam444]

sam444,

If you need a large, fast drive and one that is running continuously, my suggestion is to consider an SATA 3 that is economical but good performing like a WD Blue or Seagate Barracuda (faster) and place it in an enclosure that is ventilated and has a fan. There is a StarTech Aluminum enclosure for about $35:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-3-5in-SuperSpeed-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B003F5NS9W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420510219&sr=8-2&keywords=startech+enclosure

> and a WD Blue 1TB at $55. This is single platter design and reasonably quite fast for a mech'l drive:

http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420510423&sr=8-1&keywords=WD+blue

Seagate Barracuda:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST1000DM003/dp/B005T3GRNW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420510963&sr=8-1&keywords=seagate+baracuda+1tb.

> and these two components together make a reliable SATA 3, 1TB storage for $90.

I have one of these Star tech enclosures with a 500GB Seagate Barracuda and it's been completely reliable on 100+GB backups. I even abused this drive: it fell on the floor behind my desk and I only had to reseat the drive in the socket and it's worked perfectly. The nice feature of this kind of drive is to run it only when backing up and they last forever- I have an eight year old Seagate 160GB that runs perfectly.

WD Passport Warning: This is in contrast to my WD Passport 320GB is the worst drive I've ever owned- dangerously unpredictable, working sometimes another times not. I almost tossed the Passport but use it only for transfers that I can duplicate. Check the net for Passport failures- they're disaster areas.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420, Dell Precisions T5500, T5400 390

Awesome! Thanks for the suggestions! I'll definitely look into buying one of the hard drives you talked about. And thanks for the heads up about the Passport!