Need recommendations for a 2nd hard drive

[mtrotchie]

I currently only have a 240gb samsung 840 ssd in my system. And I'm running out of storage pretty qucikly. I'm unsure whether I should add another ssd to my system or just get a hard drive disc... ssd wouldn't give me as much memory but it'd be nice for everything to be so quick. I'll admit I feel a bit spoiled after loading everything via ssd.

 

[The_OGS]

Caviar Black.

 

[EzioAs]

Seagate Barracuda or just Seagate (because I believe they got rid of the Barracuda name now) or WD Black (more expensive) or Green

 

[edogawa]

You do not want a western digital black for storage or any normal drive.

You want a low powered, quiet, and cool drive such as the Western digital green drive; Western digital makes reliable hard drives. I run the green drives 24/7, and have lasted me several years now.

For more information on the green drive consult this product page: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=780

Green drives are not recommended for raid though, you'd want a red drive for raid.

Anyways here are some links to the product on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Green-Desktop/dp/B004RORMF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363491559&sr=8-1&keywords=western+digital+green

Also keep in mind, western digital offers a great advanced RMA system if your drive begins to fail, you can get a new drive, then send the old one to western digital.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136891

One last thing, the blue drives are a typical balanced drive between the green and black.

 

[mtrotchie]

so everyone unanimously recommends an hdd over another ssd?

 

[mtrotchie]

and quick question about WD, I know there are several colors but what's the difference between them all?

 

[edogawa]

so everyone unanimously recommends an hdd over another ssd?

Yes. A SSD isn't a good option for storage at this point in time.

and quick question about WD, I know there are several colors but what's the difference between them all?

Read my last post if you didn't see or read it:

Black: Speed and Performance
Blue: General use balanced drive
Green: low powered, quiet, and the highest storage drives

If you want a storage drive that is quiet and makes little noise then a green would be a good option.

 

[maestro0428]

I have used WD Blacks for several years and they are great storage drives. They are fast and reliable, although a bit more money.

 

[edogawa]

I just checked the warranty on western digital drives, if you don't care about black drives being loud, and consuming power then you might want to consider it over the green drive because the blacks have a 5 year warranty. The greens have a 2 year warranty only(3 with retail kit) vs the blacks 5 year warranty.

 

[maestro0428]

Storage is the biggest bottle neck in a PC. What you buy really depends on what you do with your computer. I run a 840Pro, 16GB RamDisk, 3TB-4 disk RAID and a 3TB drive for storage. That is the best I can afford for what I do. I agree that a green is quieter and uses less power, but it trades speed for that.

 

[edogawa]

Storage is the biggest bottle neck in a PC. What you buy really depends on what you do with your computer. I run a 840Pro, 16GB RamDisk, 3TB-4 disk RAID and a 3TB drive for storage. That is the best I can afford for what I do. I agree that a green is quieter and uses less power, but it trades speed for that.

Thing though is, it's a storage drive, speed isn't a necessity here(except in certain situation I would say though).

 

[ericjohn004]

The best balance between performance and price is the Seagate Barracuda XT HDD's. IF you read some reviews they are really quite fast for an HDD. And you can get a 1TB for 59.99. Thats what I paid for mine.

If you want speed and space then go with a 500GB Velociraptor 10,000 RPM HDD. They cost about 135$. You can get a 250GB for 98$. They are the single fasted HDD that there is. About twice the speed of the average HDD. I find it absolutely pointless to have so much speed on a DATA drive. I even keep all my games on my HDD. I find everything to be pretty quick on my Seagate.

I have a 120GB Kingston HyperX SSD for my OS and programs, a 64GB mSATA Crucial m4 for additional programs and games often played, and a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 XT for all my music and videos and files and bulky games. Theres no reason for an SSD when all you'll be accessing is music, videos, and files.

 

[mtrotchie]

thank you for all the help everyone! will probably be purchasing a WD blue or seagate

 

[storageio]

If you have an open drive slot/bay, and not sure of HDD or SSD, do more reads vs. writes, want a lot of capacity, some performance boost at a good cost then check out the Hybrid HDDs such as the Seagate Momentus XTs. I have several of them in different systems (some physical, some VMware, along with SSDs including Samsung 800s, and HDDs from WD, Toshiba and STX. Here are some notes about my use of HHDDs along with SSD and HDDs. http://storageioblog.com/?p=3004

 

[storageio]

Seagate Barracuda or just Seagate (because I believe they got rid of the Barracuda name now) or WD Black (more expensive) or Green

STX still has the Barracudas, they are now the 3.5" HDDs in the desktop/workstation product lineup. On the enterprise side they go by a different name and features.

 

[maestro0428]

Western Digital Blue is a good all arounder. Seagate, although I do still use them cuz they are cheap, have had issues lately as well as in the past with durability. Whatever you choose, just make sure you back up regularly anyway as any drive could take a dump at any time.

 

[storageio]

Western Digital Blue is a good all arounder. Seagate, although I do still use them cuz they are cheap, have had issues lately as well as in the past with durability. Whatever you choose, just make sure you back up regularly anyway as any drive could take a dump at any time.

Good point about importance of backing up. I backup my STX, WD and Toshiba as well as some older HGST & Fujitsu to local disk (STX) as well as to cloud and also have removable HDDs off-site for master/gold copy just in case.