Should I worry about HDD Speed for gaming?

[Mahisse]

Hi there!

I'm looking for a new hardisk with about 1 Tb storage capacity. I already have a SSD as my primary boot drive so I just need alot of storage space to keep my games and movies library.
We all know that we can buy a 1 Tb hard disk fairly cheap but they won't be the fastest in the world so my question is simple enough. What is the minimum speed I should look for when looking for a hard disk for gaming. Would it be better to buy a smaller and faster HDD and invest in an external HDD for movies and music?

 

[guanyu210379]

I bought Seagate 3TB 7200.14. It is big and it is fast. No need to compromise between speed and capacity. It is a lot faster than my old 500GB 7200.11.

Active games gain benefits if you put them in the SSD, this makes the loading time a lot faster. I would put all of my actively used games in the SSD along with the OS.

Hmm...external HDD?
I do not like the usual 3.5" external HDD
..I have a 1TB 5400 rpm 2.5" HDD for portability reason and a NAS system (6TB capacity in total).
I put my videos, music, etc. in my NAS as back up and to share/store between computers in the house...also to stream via DLNA.
My 3TB in my PC is where I keep my personal/private videos and other stuffs...it is only about 450GB full now, still 2.5TB free...hehehe...3TB too big... I guess...

If you have more than 1 system...NAS is better so that you can organize things...centralize things...

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

i there!

I'm looking for a new hardisk with about 1 Tb storage capacity. I already have a SSD as my primary boot drive so I just need alot of storage space to keep my games and movies library.
We all know that we can buy a 1 Tb hard disk fairly cheap but they won't be the fastest in the world so my question is simple enough. What is the minimum speed I should look for when looking for a hard disk for gaming. Would it be better to buy a smaller and faster HDD and invest in an external HDD for movies and music?

The only options asides from an SSD is a 10k rpm Raptor or your standard 7200rpm HD. Unless you go for the Raptor, your standard HDD will be just like an external (although some external drives only operate at 5400rpm speeds). Stick with your 1tB HDD, unless you have the money for another SSD/Raptor purely for your games.

 

[MC_K7]

The HDD speed shouldn't be a factor once the game has started.

The only thing it can slow down is game load time, but once the game or map has loaded into memory and the game starts, it's all about CPU, RAM and GPU.

 

[MC_K7]

The only options asides from an SSD is a 10k rpm Raptor or your standard 7200rpm HD. Unless you go for the Raptor, your standard HDD will be just like an external (although some external drives only operate at 5400rpm speeds). Stick with your 1tB HDD, unless you have the money for another SSD/Raptor purely for your games.

I would avoid the Raptor, because they're not the most reliable. Just get a standard 7,200 RPM drive and it will get the job done. Especially if you already have a SSD for OS and Software, it means your secondary mechanical drive will rarely be busy so you might be surprised how fast it is.

 

[AgentMcBride]

7200RPM Minimum. I would reccomend getting a large but slow HD and getting a small but fast SSD. Then Partition the SSD and use that as a cache for the HD.

Good Luck!
-Thomas

 

[Sangeet Khatri]

Nope, the SSD helps in loading programs, games and other stuff, but once the games are loaded there is not much difference between the two, it makes the interface of the OS snappy but it does not have almost any affect on gameplay. The games depend mostly on CPU and GPU.

 

[Mahisse]

Well that was quickly answered😀. Thank you guys!
So I will just go for a normal 7200 (minimum) RPM HDD and maybe push the budget to get a 3Tb (Don't know if I'll ever need it though)
I do have a standard 80 GB (lol) 7200 HDD as my second hard drive at the moment and really don't notice much difference if I boot a game from that or the SSD.
Was just wondering if 7200 was too old schoold I guess 😀

 

[hubbardt]

I have 128GB SSD for o/s and keep my 2 or 3 mosft frequently played games on it
My other stuff goes on the HDD

 

[MC_K7]

Was just wondering if 7200 was too old schoold I guess 😀

Yeah, 7,200 RPM has been the standard speed for a long time now (over 15 years I believe). But that being said, all 7,200 RPM drives aren't equals. They've been constantly evolving and new models are much more efficient and optimized, probably two times faster compared to drives from 10 years ago or so.