500GB hard drives

dss · 28 Mar 2008 at 11:47

For storing media, and possibly running the odd program (this won't be my C drive). Quiet & reliable mainly, but a fast one wouldnt hurt

.

I've been looking at

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS)
and
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS)

but now I've seen
Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD6400AAKS)

and it looks quite interesting. BUT I'd prefer to spend around £65-70 inc P&P. Thanks

semi-pro waster · 28 Mar 2008 at 12:29

The WD 640gb should be the fastest of the lot as it uses two 320gb platters, however if you don't want to spend that much I'd be tempted by the WD 500gb AAKS.

Slackworth · 28 Mar 2008 at 12:40

7200.11 or 6400AAKS would be my choice.

martian_aphid · 28 Mar 2008 at 13:18

like semi-pro waster said the 2x320gb platters on the new WD should improve performance, perhaps not noticably but the extra 140gb is always nice. Out of the 2 500gb I expect the barracuda is the better choice since I'm guessing the drives are almost identical apart from the 32mb cache on the on the seagate?

dss · 28 Mar 2008 at 13:39

i think i will go with the 640gb, for the extra space + speed. Anyone know the formatted capacity of it?

thanks everyone

semi-pro waster · 28 Mar 2008 at 14:53

Give or take I think you should have about 610gb (minus file system overheads) assuming my maths is not incorrect - 640,000,000/1024/1024 = 610.351...