Can I use a HGST DeskStar harddrive as a second harddrive for gaming? what hd to get.

[dyno_05]

I have a asus board from 2013. i contacted asus and asked if there are any limits of the type of harddrive to get. they told me I can put a 16tb WD HGST DeskStar without problem.
16tb would cost me to much anyways. I think ill push it to 6tb or change my mind and just get a 4tb.
Anyways i was looking at the size harddrives and noticed most harddrives like WD blue come in at 5200rpm wile the deskstar come in at 7200rpm. Does rpm even matter anymore?
From what I read deskstar is for storage survers or something. Can't I use one for gaming. I could always pay the extra 60 bucks and get a black which is 7200rpm.
It's going to be for gaming thou.

 

[InvalidError]

A 5200-5400RPM HDD is MUCH slower than a 7200RPM one: a 7200RPM HDD does 120 complete revolutions per seconds while a 5200RPM one does 86.7 revolutions per second. This means that the 7200RPM HDD has 8ms of rotational latency while the 5200RPM is closer to 12ms. Basically, the 5200RPM drive will be as much as 50% less responsive, which could hurt performance (loading times) quite badly if you install games on it. HDDs under 7200RPM are mainly intended for archival - doing backups and dumping files that you aren't going to be using on a regular basis.

 

[das_stig]

RPM means it spins faster and results in better performance. Plenty of users use Deskstars in standard machines, my work place has hundreds in our estate.

 

[dyno_05]

looking at the prices just now the wd black is around the same price. I should just get a black right?
It looks like from a fast search that hd has taking out 7200rpm from there blue drives for there larger harddrives. THou you can still get 1tb 2tb at 7200rpm but there the older ones.

 

[toshibitsu]

When using standard hd's for games, you want to make sure it's at least 7200rpm and 128mb cache(although 256mb would be better).

 

[InvalidError]

When using standard hd's for games, you want to make sure it's at least 7200rpm and 128mb cache(although 256mb would be better).

The amount of cache on HDDs hasn't really mattered in something like 10 years.

The main reason why the amount of cache on HDDs is increasing every few years is simply that the cheapest DRAM chips readily available are doubling in size as DRAM manufacturers migrate to higher density processes so HDD manufacturers cannot cost-effectively put any less cache on their drives even if they wanted to. The next best thing they can do is claim the superfluous RAM as a feature for marketing purposes.