New HDD: RPM vs. SATA 6Gb/s

[grrrrrrrr]

I'm getting ready to buy a new HDD. I'm debating whether I should focus on SATA 6gb/s vs a minimum of 7200 RPM. Suggestions are appreciated, particularly with documentation.

Thank you very much.

 

[alceryes]

What OS? How will the system be used?
SSD drives raise total system performance, sometimes drastically. Unless you need TBs of space, or need to save every dollar you can, there's no reason to buy spindle drives anymore.

 

[Jungstar]

I'm getting ready to buy a new HDD. I'm debating whether I should focus on SATA 6gb/s vs a minimum of 7200 RPM. Suggestions are appreciated, particularly with documentation.

Thank you very much.

you are confused or misinformed

HDD are very slow, your SATA connection does not matter at all.

Get 720 RPM if you can, but if you in any way can get an SSD do that!! It will be 10-20 times faster!

 

[grrrrrrrr]

There are still situations (storage, backup, limited cash) where an HDD makes sense. This will be a backup HDD. I just want the fastest backups I can get for the dollar on an HDD. Is SATA III or RPMs the more important speed concern?

Thank you.

 

[alceryes]

Comparing the SATA interface to HD RPMs is like comparing the quality of a road (SATA III) to how fast a car can go (HD RPM). You need both for optimum performance but they are not directly comparable.

In any case, SATA II can operate up to 300MB/s (theoretical max). No spindle hard drive will ever get that fast. So, to answer your question, get a 7200RPM drive minimum. If you can find a cheap 10000RPM drive that's a little better still. Any spindle drive you get will be much slower than even a super cheap SSD though.

 

[grrrrrrrr]

So, if I understand correctly, you're saying an HDD won't even max out a SATA II connection, so go for the RPMs, not SATA III, correct?

Thank you

PS: Not directly related, just a curiosity, do HDDs max out USB 2?

 

[alceryes]

You understand correctly.
Remember that we are talking about 'theoretical maximums' when talking about HD speeds, SATA bus speeds and USB speeds. The closest that you'd get over the SATA II bus would be with something like a 10k RPM Raptor, but even that would burst max at around 175MB/s

USB 2 has a high theoretical max bandwidth but, because of architecture constraints, you will rarely see anything above 40MB/s, so, yes, hard drives are sloooooow on USB 2.

 

[grrrrrrrr]

Okay, thanks very much for your input!