Want to keep old HDDs - will that slow me down?

[bippukt]

I am about to buy (on 23rd probably) a new mid-gaming PC with the following specs:

-CM Elite 335 or Antec 200
-Intel core i5 750
-Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2
-Transcend DDR3 1333MHz RAM: 2x2Gb
-500 GB HDD (Seagate Barracuda or WD Caviar Blue)
-GTS 250 512 MB (already bought, so can't change now)
-PSU CM Extreme 600W (already bought, so can't change now - bad choice)
-LG 19" LCD display with max resolution@1440X900 (Bought it 1.5 years ago)
-Altec Lansing BXR1121

I have two old Seagate SATA HDDs, a 4 year old 80GB one and another 2 year old 160GB one. I am definitely keeping the 160GB one, but I am not sure if I should keep the 80GB one as well. Keeping it will prevent a lot of headache for me in terms of making backups

1. Will the old HDDs slow down my system? I will install the OS on a partition on the new HDD and delete the OS partition in the old 80GB HDD.

2. Should I keep the 80GB one too or should just take backup and junk it.

3. Any power consumption problems with a core i5, a GTS 250 and 3 HDDs?

 

[TheKent]

It won't slow your system down notably. If you want to keep your 80GB, do it! I've got 4 SATA disks running and I can't tell the difference if they are gone. As long as you have enough S-ATA ports for the old disks, the old disks will have almost nothing to say on your computer's performance. Of course, if you plan on buying a new disk, i.e a 1TB drive, you should definitely start to think about scrapping the old one. The older a disk gets, the more unreliable it becomes. If you have important stuff on one of your drive, put it on several drives to avoid data loss to prevent losing it.

I don't really know about the PSU, but I don't think it should use more than your old computer. In fact, I think it is more energy efficient than the old one, if that is the answer you wanted.

 

[masterjaw]

You won't be able to experience system slowdown as long as you keep the system files in the newer drive. Maybe you should also opt for a Caviar Black instead of the Blue. It would give you notable performance increase in disk operations.

 

[shubham1401]

Why not Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB.
Much cheaper and faster...

 

[hell_storm2004]

You can use it as a dump drive for storing old data! I have a 7 year old 40GB Seagate HDD connected to my PC as an external drive. No slow downs here!

 

[shubham1401]

^
I have 9 yr old Seagate 40GB. No slowdowns .

 

[marco324]

it wil consume power when a power plug is in do you really need it maybe just use it to put downloaded files on or just for a backup of stuff you might need drivers game and program updates service packs have them all in 1 place just plug the drive in ?

 

[bippukt]

Thanks to all of you for your help. I have decided to keep both the 160GB and 80GB ones and buy a new Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM HDD. I found that I have a seagate service centre very near to me, so I decided to go for it instead of WD. As for keeping the 80GB one for backup and removing it when requirement, that sounds like a lot of work to me. I don't like messing around inside the cabinet 😉

I know the CM Extreme series is not good at high loads and has bad efficiency (70%), but I am really hoping that it will handle a system that needs 450W according to Nvidia's recommendation. They always ask for more than needed, right?

 

[goobaah]

I am running 7 7200 rpm hdd's an i7-860 and a radeon 5750 off a 525 enermax. My battery backup say I pull ~110 at idle and ~200 at peak with cpu. I think you will make it with the power supply you have selected. Those high watts are for SLI and high end video cards more than anything.

 

[bippukt]

Wow, if you use only that much power, then mine will be definitely less. That's great! 😀