2.5" vs 3.5"

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 13:03

would i benefit at all running 2.5" in a desktop? do they run cooler or use less electric etc?

Philtor · 13 Jun 2011 at 13:21

Have a read at this thread mate.

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 13:26

thanks for that, an interesting read

at the moment i have 2 500GBs in raid for my OS, a 1TB for films, 500GB for music and 500GB for software installation files. my case has a bracket that allows me to mount 2x2.5" drives by the psu, so thought about maybe using a 500GB drive (never going to need 1TB) for my OS and programs. this should then allow better airflow from the front fan through the case and maybe cut down a bit on noise and power usage.
have to check if any of my 2.5" drives arent 5400rpm as i guess that will slow things down quite abit?

Philtor · 13 Jun 2011 at 13:30

Indeed just watch out that you don't end up with a 5400RPM version if your using it as a boot disk. The Western Digital Scorpio Black seems a good drive (and it's 7200RPM too).

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 13:34

a lot of my drives are in enclosures, if there any way of telling what rpm they are without opening the cases up?

Philtor · 13 Jun 2011 at 13:41

The free edition of HD Tune should be able to tell you.

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 13:49

just run it on the drive in my laptop and got :
Transfer rate:
Min 25.6MB/sec
Max 77.5MB/sec
Average 58.0MB/sec

Access time :
18.8ms

Burst Rate
100.2 MB/sec

CPU usage -1.0%

im guessing this is slow? it is indeed a 5400rpm drive, so is the one i have in my enclosure with me, will look when i get home but guess all will be similar

Philtor · 13 Jun 2011 at 13:53

Yeah you probably don't want to use a 5400RPM model as a boot disk although it would work ok I guess. If all your 2.5" drives are 5400RPM (and chances are they will be) then I would have a look at the WD Scorpio Black.

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 14:06

if im going to be spending money though, an SSD would be the way to go

was hoping i could recylce what i had. would 2x500GB 5400rpms in raid be similar speeds to a single 7200rpm drive?
would i notice a huge difference in the speed going down in rpm?
i spose only thing to do is run the same test on the current hdds in the desktop and see what speeds it gives and compare.
does it affect the results a lot bearing in mind im doing the tests on a drive that is running windows?

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 14:38

from a previous thread of mine i found this is what i get on my raid0 and standard 3.5" drive :

raid0

3.5"

and this is what my 2.5" drive got :

so there will be quite a speed decrease

but how about in raid? or will the fact they are slower drives just not make it worth the effort?

Philtor · 13 Jun 2011 at 14:45

I would have thought the fact they are 5400RPM drives would mean putting them in RAID would provide very limited benefit.

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 14:49

philtorrens said:
I would have thought the fact they are 5400RPM drives would mean putting them in RAID would provide very limited benefit.

ok thats kool. in the real world, how much would it affect the overall speed of the computer? to be honest i dont really notice and real difference in load up times from my laptop and desktop. or are there other factors to look at?

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 14:52

ok, reading a few other forums via google, my WD 500GB 5400rpm drive outperforms some of the 320GB 7200rpm 2.5" drives. now im proper confused.

paradisiac · 13 Jun 2011 at 15:24

right, now after reading about my WD5000BEVT i decided to bench that, and thats just made me even more confused, can someone please explain what the results mean?

1TB standard 3.5"

vs WD5000BEVT

so from that, my 5400rpm drive have some speeds very similar to my 7200rpm 1TB 3.5" drive :confused:

paradisiac · 18 Jun 2011 at 08:54

this is the inside of my case :

so im thinking if an OS isnt suited for a 5400rpm drive, maybe move my 500GB 3.5" 7200rpm music drive to a 500GB 2.5" 5400rpm drive. then as only 200GB or so is used up of my 2x500GB raid drives, ditch raid and go down to 1x500GB for my OS. this would then mean 2 HDDs can be removed. therefore increasing airflow? or would it not make a huge difference?
then when funds allow, add an SSD in with the 2.5" hdd and use the 500GB new os drive for installing games/apps to. does this sound like a good swap around or will it be a lot of hassel for little gains?

paradisiac · 19 Jun 2011 at 07:25

moved the drives around (temps for mobo dropped by 3-4c and temps for cpu dropped 2-3c). im thinking maybe i could do with a new front fan as putting your hand by it you can barely feel any air.