Which SATA 3 HDD for pairing with SSD? ($100 max)

[Timstertimster-1294585]

I'm bummed.

I thought I got it all figured out thinking I can just get a WD blue 7600rpm drive for $65.- and call it a day.

Then I realize, WD has "black" drives, "caviar" drives, and the list goes on. I'm overwhelmed again! Damn you choices!

I'm putting my Windows 7 SP1 on a Samsung 840 series (plain, not the pro. Seriously, can these manufacturers make it any harder to distinguish their gear?!)

And because I'm going to be editing video in Vegas, and large RAW files in Photoshop, I need to be able to get a HDD that can act as my secondary scratch disk for these tools. The SSD wll of course be my primary.

My rig is in my signature.

I don't need a ton of space. I have an external 3TB for long-term file storage. This HDD is really for "wroking" files - once I'm done, I put my projects on the 3TB.

Not interested in spending too much. I think 250-500 GB drive is fine. What I'm concerned with is reliability and transfer rate (watching the file copy animation is really boring).

Maybe I'm not considering something I should? If you have any insights, I'm eager to learn.

Thanks.

 

[Timstertimster-1294585]

huh? where is my signature?
AMD FX 6300 CPU :::
ASUS Mobo (bit.ly / YhXUO4) ::: Samsung 840 SSD :::
GeIL 2x 4GB 1333 RAM :::
GTX 650Ti 2GB GPU

 

[jemm]

The best ones are the Black Series, which are intended for performance.

 

[completelyrandomname]

Honestly it doesn't matter what you pick. You won't even notice the performance difference unless you are a robot or do synthetic benchmarks on the HDD and see the numbers. Those numbers shouldn't be too different though.

EDIT: C=Caviar
VelociRaptor (10 000RPM)>C Black (7200RPM)>C Blue (7200RPM)>C Green (5400RPM)

Reds are made for NAS's and are generally binned higher for longevity.

For Seagate I believe it goes like this: Momentus XT>Barracuda. Not too familiar with their naming.

 

[Timstertimster-1294585]

Honestly it doesn't matter what you pick. You won't even notice the performance difference unless you are a robot or do synthetic benchmarks on the HDD and see the numbers. Those numbers shouldn't be too different though.

That is exactly what I figured. But then why is there so much talk over the differences and paying 30% more for one over another? What am I missing?

 

[completelyrandomname]

Honestly it doesn't matter what you pick. You won't even notice the performance difference unless you are a robot or do synthetic benchmarks on the HDD and see the numbers. Those numbers shouldn't be too different though.

That is exactly what I figured. But then why is there so much talk over the differences and paying 30% more for one over another? What am I missing?

They (C Blacks) are probably binned higher for a tiny bit of performance benefit and reliability.

 

[Timstertimster-1294585]

Your sig shows you're using a Seagate barracuda.

Why that one?

 

[completelyrandomname]

It was on sale when hard drive prices were high. ($65)

 

[jemm]

Go with Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

It is for power computing, and with 5 years warranty! You may not notice a difference, but your PC, as a machine will! 😉

 

[Timstertimster-1294585]

The WD blue has 2 year warranty. The black has 5 year warranty.

Says it all.