Next Hard drive set-up?

kc_kyle · 7 Apr 2013 at 15:50

My current hard drive, a 1.5TB WD Caviar Green is on it's last legs after just over two years so I'm looking at what to get next.

The first question is, do I get one HHD (looking at 2TB) as before or spread it over two (one 500GB for OS and programs and one 1.5TB one for my data)?

Obviously the second option is more expensive, but I'm willing to spend more if it means having a more stable set-up with better performance.

(By the way I use my computer pretty much for everything: surfing, work, music, films, gaming e.g. FIFA and BF3)

Jinxter · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:14

You might want to remove those competitor links...

Why would you go for a Velociraptor when you can get SSD's which are so much faster?

Repeating my previous post on your other thread you might want to consider an SSD as your main HD for OS and frequently used programs - you'll get a performance increase as read/write rates are superior to what traditional HD's offer.

Then get a mechanical as secondary HD for everything else. That's what I would do...

kc_kyle · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:41

Jinxter said:
You might want to remove those competitor links...

Why would you go for a Velociraptor when you can get SSD's which are so much faster?

Repeating my previous post on your other thread you might want to consider an SSD as your main HD for OS and frequently used programs - you'll get a performance increase as read/write rates are superior to what traditional HD's offer.

Then get a mechanical as secondary HD for everything else. That's what I would do...

Done. Okay what about something like the Samsung SSD 840 Kit 250GB SATA 6Gb/s with 2TB Seagate Barracuda? Would that work/be advisable?

Mercutio · 7 Apr 2013 at 23:51

Generally the "best" setup at the moment IS something like an SSD for boot (with a bit of extra "fast" space for current main game or something) and a biggish drive to back it up.

You can take that further and have SSD boot, ssd cached "fast access" drive and some slower media storage etc right up to fairly crazy extended setups with various raid type etc.

Personally I go:
SSD for boot
3TB raid 5 for main storage (games, stuff I use a lot)
3TB single WD green for media

kc_kyle · 8 Apr 2013 at 21:13

Mercutio said:
Generally the "best" setup at the moment IS something like an SSD for boot (with a bit of extra "fast" space for current main game or something) and a biggish drive to back it up.

You can take that further and have SSD boot, ssd cached "fast access" drive and some slower media storage etc right up to fairly crazy extended setups with various raid type etc.

Personally I go:
SSD for boot
3TB raid 5 for main storage (games, stuff I use a lot)
3TB single WD green for media

So the SSD only really needs to be big enough for the OS (with a bit of space ideally)? 6TB of storage is for me kind of overkill. At the moment I'm using about 1TB altogether (programs/games/music/films/pics - everything) therefore I don't feel the need to go more than 2TB storage, but thanks for the advice. Does it matter what SSD I get? Are some brands better than others? From what I gather, Samsung seems decent.

kc_kyle · 9 Apr 2013 at 23:26

I don't want to seem pushy, but I'm feeling impatient. Any more advice?

Space Monkey · 9 Apr 2013 at 23:45

Samsung SSDs are well thought of, I'm running an 830 myself and am very happy with it, also just bought the misses an 840 basic (120GB)

Crucial & Intel are also highly regarded too

kc_kyle · 10 Apr 2013 at 19:20

Space Monkey said:
Samsung SSDs are well thought of, I'm running an 830 myself and am very happy with it, also just bought the misses an 840 basic (120GB)

Crucial & Intel are also highly regarded too

I've shortlisted the Samsung 840 pro one and the Crucial M4 (both 128GB). Are they both good options? Is one slightly better than the other? I'm leaning more towards the Samsung as it has a 5 year warranty, where the Crucial one is 3 years, and there's only 10€ difference.

Space Monkey · 10 Apr 2013 at 19:21

If its the Pro model, then personally I'd get it for only 10€ difference

djxput · 10 Apr 2013 at 19:37

What I have been doing ...
Is I usually upgrade part of my drives and still keep my older ones and then chuck the oldest ...

So right now I have a SSD as OS/games
and 2 3 tb seagates (which at the time were better IMO then WD offerings) and 2 older WD AAKS drives (which were specced as quiet and fast drives).

a 120 gig drive wont give you much space but enough for the OS and a few games ... and then you would place your other stuff on another drive.

Im not sure which other drive would be best - have to review the WDs out there ... I do approve of the seagates 3 TBs ... 7200 spindle speed and quiet; there is a noise when waking up from sleep thou.

Id probably go for a Samsung pro also at the 120 size level.

kc_kyle · 11 Apr 2013 at 22:06

Okay, I think I'll order the Samsung 128GB SSD Pro when I get the money. Then I'll reformat my current hard drive (1.5TB WD Caviar Green), which has been having problems and see if I can get away without having to buy a new storage HDD. Sound like a plan?

Mercutio · 14 Apr 2013 at 21:32

Been a long time away from this.

Plan sounds fair if you don't have the spare dough to drop on other mass storage.

In answer tho, yup. Most folks use the SSD for boot and a bit of fast storage for other things, talking around... 25/30GB spare (most probably) after OS install and with some space left for program files to grow a bit. You can go a little extreme and move program files etc to slower storage but... not really much point imo.

kc_kyle · 16 Apr 2013 at 21:31

Mercutio said:
Been a long time away from this.

Plan sounds fair if you don't have the spare dough to drop on other mass storage.

In answer tho, yup. Most folks use the SSD for boot and a bit of fast storage for other things, talking around... 25/30GB spare (most probably) after OS install and with some space left for program files to grow a bit. You can go a little extreme and move program files etc to slower storage but... not really much point imo.

I think I'd be okay with 128GB on the SSD so long as I don't install all my games on it. I discovered this cool program called SteamMover, which, if it works, means you can easily transport games/programs from your HDD to SSD at the click of a button and back again. Meaning you can always have the game(s) of the moment on the SSD and when a new game comes along rotate them. I don't know how this works in practice, but it sounds like a great idea.

Phil2008 · 18 Apr 2013 at 22:50

kc_kyle said:
I think I'd be okay with 128GB on the SSD so long as I don't install all my games on it. I discovered this cool program called SteamMover, which, if it works, means you can easily transport games/programs from your HDD to SSD at the click of a button and back again. Meaning you can always have the game(s) of the moment on the SSD and when a new game comes along rotate them. I don't know how this works in practice, but it sounds like a great idea.

Yeah I have only a 80gb ssd for my OS/apps and Im only using just under 30gb. Then I have a 640gb hdd for storage/games and a 2tb hdd for my media.

I find this drive setup works really well, and then I backup on a 320gb external hdd, with a 2nd backup of the data on the storage/games hdd.