Undecided on Hard Drive (Gaming Rig)

[onlineguy]

Hello, I'm building this PC primarily for gaming. In previous posts members have suggested the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, since I can't afford a SSD. Unfortunately, this model is currently unavailable.

Performance-wise, will I actually notice a difference between HDD brands while gaming? Other than speed the only other factor I can think of is reliability, and that's not much of a concern to me as long as it lasts through the 3-year warranty period. What brand/model would you recommend in this scenario?

I could get a Spinpoint F1, but I'm not sure if it's still faster than other brands' 1TB drives. Also thinking about the 500GB F3, but it's less value.

 

[masterasia]

I have 2 setups with RAID-0 500GB F3 and they work great. I have another setup with RAID-0 WD 640 Blacks and that too works great. Performance gains are superb, but not quite SSD speeds. My Intel X-25M still rocks. All my setups have been running for a few months now with no hiccups.

I would have to say, if you raid-0 2 500GB F3, you should be good to go. You don't want your boot drive to run off the raid, for that you should get another hard drive, or small SSD.

 

[tecmo34]

I second the above recommendations, though not a fan of RAID but it does give a performance boost.

Also, you can pick-up the Seagate 7200.12 (500GB & 1TB) hard drive, which match the Samsung Spinpoint F3 in performance and price.

 

[onlineguy]

I don't know how to do a RAID setup; should I just get one 1TB HDD?

I can get Seagate 1TB for 10$ cheaper than Spinpoint F3. So, Seagate? I read a lot of bad reviews on online retailers about the 7200.12 ):

 

[tecmo34]

I haven't heard issues with the Seagate 7200.12, just with the 7200.11's, which were firmware issues. I wouldn't worry to much about them... You'll be fine

 

[onlineguy]

Best answer selected by onlineguy.

 

[jonnyboyC]

I've actually heard the 7200.12 are better then the spinpoint f3's. While they both have similar maximum throughput for real world applications the seagate is better