Three disks, which is best for Windows OS?

[XspeedPL]

Hello

As in the title, I have 3 HDDs on hand:

WDC WD7500AZEX-00RKKA0

Spoiler

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.2.1 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 134.555 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 108.153 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.543 MB/s [ 376.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.477 MB/s [ 360.6 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 131.286 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 110.515 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.600 MB/s [ 146.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 1.770 MB/s [ 432.1 IOPS]

Test : 100 MiB [D: 88.3% (439.7/498.0 GiB)] (x2) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2017/01/17 16:24:12
OS : Windows 10 Enterprise [10.0 Build 14393] (x64)

ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB

Spoiler

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.2.1 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 128.765 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 127.523 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.263 MB/s [ 308.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 2.330 MB/s [ 568.8 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 127.718 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 127.709 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.592 MB/s [ 144.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 2.266 MB/s [ 553.2 IOPS]

Test : 100 MiB [X: 0.0% (0.0/931.4 GiB)] (x2) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2017/01/17 16:17:32
OS : Windows 10 Enterprise [10.0 Build 14393] (x64)

ST500LM021-1KJ152

Spoiler

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.2.1 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 151.808 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 111.307 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.289 MB/s [ 314.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.010 MB/s [ 246.6 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 151.612 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 106.319 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 1.179 MB/s [ 287.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 1.024 MB/s [ 250.0 IOPS]

Test : 100 MiB [Y: 0.0% (0.0/465.6 GiB)] (x2) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2017/01/17 16:20:39
OS : Windows 10 Enterprise [10.0 Build 14393] (x64)

Which of them is best for keeping only the system on it?
An explanation would be appreciated too.

 

[BadAsAl]

OS benefits most from Read speed. But all 3 are not that far from each other. Based only on what I see here, I would have the OS on the third one.

 

[MidwestG37x]

The WD 750GB and Seagate 500GB are going to perform very similarly. as they are both standard 7200rpm drives. I don't think it really matters which one of those you choose. I'd probably go with the newer of the two. I would not use the Spinpoint drive as it's a 5400rpm drive and will be inherently slower.

 

[geofelt]

Windows does mostly small random I/O.
For that, one of the 7200 rpm drives would be best, for lower latency.
And, Larger drives will have less access arm movement and the outer rings will transfer better.

But... The true answer is none of the above.
Buy a ssd for windows; you will not regret the purchase.
A SSD will be 50X faster than a hard drive.
In sequential operations, they will be 2x faster than a hard drive, perhaps 3x if you have a sata3 interface.
Larger SSD's are preferable. They have more nand chips that can be accessed in parallel. Sort of an internal raid-0 if you will.
Also, a SSD will slow down as it approaches full. That is because it will have a harder time finding free nand blocks to do an update without a read/write operation.
120gb will hold the os, but with lower prices, I consider 240gb as minimum.
I like Samsung EVO for performance and reliability.