are there disadvantages to 2.5" HDD's?

bremen1874 said:
Don't worry about whether a drive is 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s unless it's a SSD. No mechanical drive is fast enough for it to matter.
Click to expand...

I think there's a noticeable speed difference between a 2.5 and 3.5 drive doing disk intensive things. Its not on a scale of a SSD, but its there. Of course it depends on the drive model itself.

http://superuser.com/questions/281613/what-are-the-differences-between-2-5-and-3-5-hard-disks

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2235066
 
OspreyO said:
I think there's a noticeable speed difference between a 2.5 and 3.5 drive doing disk intensive things. Its not on a scale of a SSD, but its there. Of course it depends on the drive model itself.

http://superuser.com/questions/281613/what-are-the-differences-between-2-5-and-3-5-hard-disks

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2235066
Click to expand...

You are getting mixed up, 2.5" to 3.5" is the form factor and the physical size of the disks. The 3gb/s and 6gb/s is the max theoretical connection speed for the SATA connector (SATAII or SATAIII to be crude).

The drive is not even capable of 3gb/s, so you can consider both types in a mechanical drive.
 
Perhaps I shouldn't have quoted bremen1874. I really meant in the context of comparing 2.5 vs 3.5 disks mechanical speeds. 3.5 disks have some advantages (and disadvantages) over 2.5" disks. I wasn't even considering theoretical max speed of the connection. Since as you say you can't attain that with any mechanical disk.

But perhaps someone (Somthing Else) who asked about 2.5 vs 3.5 isn't solely concerned with theoretical sata speeds. But we can't know what to suggest if he doesn't give some more information on how hes using the disks and whats the budget. IE we don't know what bottleneck or problem he trying to solve.
 
Last edited:
I mentioned the interface speed not mattering because the OP was trying to find a 'sata 6gbs 1tb 2.5" drive'. Expanding their search to include 3Gb/s drives would likely be more fruitful.

There are plenty of very fast 2.5" drives, but in the case I assume they're after a drive for a laptop rather than something for a desktop or server.
 
i currently have the seagate drive i posted a link to in my op.
i want to be able to place 2 drives (my current ssd and a mechanical) into my spare 5.25" bay so i can get rid of my 3.5" drive bay to allow for some future plans.

i don't want to lose any performance on the drive and i have found 7200rpm 1tb drives in 2.5" but wanted to know if there are things that could cause a loss of performance that the stats don't show.

alternatively if anyone knows of a adapter that allows for both a 3.5" and 2.5" drive to fit into a single 5.25" bay then let me know
 
Personally, I would use 2 screws and mount a drive to one side. As long as you are not transporting it great distances, it will be perfectly fine. Then just clag the SSD wherever you want. Behind the motherboard tray is a good place.
 
I don't see the point in replacing a 3.5 drive with a 2.5 if you are not stuck for space. You can mount the SSD anywhere. What case is this? On one case I just hung the drive from the bay using cable ties. Velcro would have been better though.
 
Price for price the HDD 2.5" are slow than the 3.5" drives and they are sometimes nosier as they can have a high pitched sound. I used a batch of them I got in a job lot in PC's a while back and was surprised how weak they were compared to a decent 3.5" drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom