A Laptop HDD

BennettWHU · 16 Oct 2015 at 17:01

Would I see much of a performance increase if I replaced my current HDD with a laptop sized 1TB HDD? I'm using a Seagate HDD at the moment, but it's rather old and I wasn't sure if the more up to date laptop HDD would be a better option now. The laptop HDD is a Seagate Expansion Portable, but I would open the housing, format it and install it as my new main drive where I'd have everything from my OS to my games.

stringbean · 16 Oct 2015 at 17:07

You might see a small performance increase but if you are looking for a real increase then you'll need to go for an SSD or a hybrid SSHD.

BennettWHU · 16 Oct 2015 at 17:09

stringbean said:
You might see a small performance increase but if you are looking for a real increase then you'll need to go for an SSD or a hybrid SSHD.

I don't fully understand SSHD's. Can you choose what goes onto the SSD part of the drive?

Firejack · 16 Oct 2015 at 17:15

There will likely be a small improvement in benchmarks but I doubt you'll notice any real world performance improvements.

Personally I'd go for an SSD. Completely transforms a laptop. The better battery life and and being able to hibernate/ resume in seconds by opening/closing the lid make the laptop far more flexible.

The performance boost from an SSD is far more noticeable then anything you'll see swapping HDD.

BennettWHU · 16 Oct 2015 at 17:17

I'm not upgrading a laptop. The laptop drive is for a desktop PC.

Firejack · 16 Oct 2015 at 17:41

Ah sorry got my wires crossed there!

BennettWHU said:
I don't fully understand SSHD's. Can you choose what goes onto the SSD part of the drive?

No. The drives firmware monitors what data is access frequently and copies it to the SSD portion of the drive for fast performance.
SSHD's are great for laptops where you are limited to one drive and want SSD-like performance with HDD-like capacity.

I wouldn't put the laptop HDD in your computer. Its likely going to be a low rpm drive with a small cache.

Personally in your situation I would get an SSD for your Operating System/ Programs and Games. Use your Seagate HDD as a second drive for data storage. Then have the Seagate Expansion Portable in its enclosure setup as a backup device.