HD Question

[davidkulzer]

Hey everyone. I want to add a second HD mainly as a storage drive just for media stuff. I have a Velociraptor 300gb right now. I want to upgrade to a SSD when I have the money. I'm planning on a 500gb or 1tb depending on the price differences. My question is which HD should I go with. I was thinking the WD Black but was wondering if a blue would give me the same results.

 

[danraies]

You're basically going to want the cheapest drive you can find at the capacity you want from Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, or Samsung. Ideally you're looking for 7200RPM but if you're mainly just storing files (i.e. you're not running applications or an operating system off of the large drive) then a "green" drive at 5400RPM is fine if it's a good deal. Before the great flood of 2011 I recommended the Samsung Spinpoint F3, but prices fluctuate so often these days that if you find a good deal you should jump on it.

I avoid WD drives because they tend to be kind of loud, but they also tend to be overpriced. If I had to buy one today it would be a Hitachi - they've been the lowest price for a couple weeks now.
($120) Hitachi 7200RPM 1TB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145533
($80) Hitachi 7200RPM 500GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145299

If you want a more "popular" option that has been around for a while, Seagate has a good 1TB option for only $5 more. Some people (not including me) have a negative opinion of Hitachi but I don't think I've heard anyone say anything bad about Seagate.
($125) Seagate 7200RPM 1TB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697

 

[kajabla]

Plus to all that, though I don't think you'll find that WDs are louder.

 

[davidkulzer]

I don't plan on running any applications off of the drive but I do plan on streaming media and burning DVDs from the drive if that matters. I planned on spending about $100 for a 500gb or about $150 for 1tb so anything around that range would be ok. I also thought about maybe getting a 500gb now and another in a month or 2 and raiding them. I've kinda lost track of anything computer related since I built the one I'm using a few years ago.

 

[danraies]

I don't know much about the importance of hard drive speed in streaming media or burning DVD's (although I suspect that the bottleneck will be elsewhere), but just to be safe I would get a 7200RPM drive.

You're not really going to do any better than the Seagate that I recommended above. This is a strange time for hard drive prices where spending more money doesn't really get you better quality. $125 with free shipping is pretty good right now.

 

[davidkulzer]

Cool. Thanks a lot for your help. The prices were kind of weird to me too. The only drives I had checked were the WD's. Some of the lower quality ones are higher in price than the better quality. My only other option would be a small cheap SSD to hold my OS and use my 300gb for my media, kind of small though. Thanks again

 

[davidkulzer]

Best answer selected by davidkulzer.