HDD recommended for new build

SayWhat?

SayWhat?

SayWhat?

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I'm planning to build a new PC (after waiting 4.5 years!) and I'm of course going to be buying and using a SSD drive as the main OS drive. This is going to be the Samsung 256GB 840 Pro drive. However I will also be getting a HDD as a secondary drive which will be used to store photos/videos and files and I was wondering if someone can provide any recommendations.

I was initially going to buy a speedy HDD drive (2TB Western Digital Black), however a lot of people suggested that this would be a waste of money and it would be better to consider NAS drives instead? Any comments/suggestions would be most welcome.
 
If I was going to go down the NAS drive route, I was looking at something like the following:

Seagate ST3000VN000 3TB NAS Drive

But I'm open to other suggestions and nothing has been finalized yet.
 
You have a fairly beefy SSD so a NAS drive would suit fine.

WD Reds are excellent, and generally up there as one of the best. I picked up a 3TB one for £99 on the rainforest website the other week, so there are deals out there.
 
Digitalle said:
You have a fairly beefy SSD so a NAS drive would suit fine.

WD Reds are excellent, and generally up there as one of the best. I picked up a 3TB one for £99 on the rainforest website the other week, so there are deals out there.
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Thanks for the response. Should I care about the performance of the NAS drives? I read an Anandtech article recently, which compared the WD Reds with the Seagate NAS drives and as the Seagate drive had a slightly faster RPM (5900 vs 5400) it offered slightly better performance.
 
SayWhat? said:
Thanks for the response. Should I care about the performance of the NAS drives? I read an Anandtech article recently, which compared the WD Reds with the Seagate NAS drives and as the Seagate drive had a slightly faster RPM (5900 vs 5400) it offered slightly better performance.
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I believe the RED drives can go up to 5900 as well.
 
Won't you need to buy a NAS enclosure, as well as a NAS drive ?

Sticking with an internal HDD will be much cheaper (and faster).

Of course, the recommendation might be that you opt for a HDD designed for NAS enclosures as an internal drive. I suspect this might be seen as a more reliable option over a "normal" HDD.

Sorry, I'm a bit confused by the question.
 
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Dervious said:
Won't you need to buy a NAS enclosure, as well as a NAS drive ?

Sticking with an internal HDD will be much cheaper (and faster).

Of course, the recommendation might be that you opt for a HDD designed for NAS enclosures as an internal drive. I suspect this might be seen as a more reliable option over a "normal" HDD.

Sorry, I'm a bit confused by the question.
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Hrmm I thought NAS drives such as the ones mentioned could be installed as standard HDD drives? I was recommended specifically to go with with NAS drives like the WD Red or the Seagate equivalent.

More opinions/comments would be welcome please!
 
NAS drives are exactly the same in every respect as normal HDD's, however they are generally more reliable and come with a slightly different firmware to prevent data loss.

They are perfect for home use, although yes they do tend to be 5400rpm, but used in conjunction with a large SSD you don't require as much the faster read speeds of the secondary drive.
 
SayWhat? said:
What do other folk on here do in terms of secondary storage? Fastest/largest possible HDD drive or use a NAS drive?
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Personally I get the fastest possible (no raptor) disks, I have 3Tb 7200 in mine at the moment, but I put steam on my HDDs and a few other applications plus I encode on them.

Stelly
 
Stelly said:
Personally I get the fastest possible (no raptor) disks, I have 3Tb 7200 in mine at the moment, but I put steam on my HDDs and a few other applications plus I encode on them.

Stelly
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Thanks for the response Stelly, that was also the original route I was going to go down initially and was planning on getting the 2TB Western Digital Black series HDD. What 3TB HDD do you have?

Is there actually a noticeable difference between the various 7200RPM HDD drives other than from benchmarks?
 
For a secondary drive to an SSD, I'd just buy a "normal" 7200RPM drive with a decent reputation. A "NAS" hard drive will usually be more expensive.

If your data is very important, it would be foolish to store it on just one drive anyway, even if it is supposed to be a reliable (NAS) one.
 
SayWhat? said:
Thanks for the response Stelly, that was also the original route I was going to go down initially and was planning on getting the 2TB Western Digital Black series HDD. What 3TB HDD do you have?

Is there actually a noticeable difference between the various 7200RPM HDD drives other than from benchmarks?
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These are the ones I have:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-256-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1955

I have always been told that you don't see a difference between black versions and Seagate drives... I get about 900 mbps on these in RAID 5 when doing a full image backup of my OS drive.

Stelly
 
You might be right Stelly, its pretty difficult to tell really as all review sites seem to use synthetic benchmarks to compare differences in performance amongst the various HDD.

Whether there is actually any real world difference is open to question. The Seagate drives are definitely more value for money compared to the WD Black Series though
 
SayWhat? said:
You might be right Stelly, its pretty difficult to tell really as all review sites seem to use synthetic benchmarks to compare differences in performance amongst the various HDD.

Whether there is actually any real world difference is open to question. The Seagate drives are definitely more value for money compared to the WD Black Series though
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Completely agree and getting nearly 1Gbps on RAID 5 is fantastic when doing a full backup. I would never purchase WD black editions myself... just don't see the point of the premium

Stelly
 
Digitalle said:
NAS drives are exactly the same in every respect as normal HDD's, however they are generally more reliable and come with a slightly different firmware to prevent data loss.
Click to expand...

I believe the opposite is true in part, in that on a read/write error they will just try less times to fix an error, which is better for raid/NAS.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6157/...iew-are-nasoptimized-hdds-worth-the-premium/2

In terms of reliability there isn't too much difference, the platters and most of the components are going to be the same or very similar, the main reason for the cost difference is the longer warrantee.

They may be better if you are running 24/7 due to firmware being setup for this type of use with. The WD Reds don't park the heads like the WD Greens so they have the advantage here. But my WD greens have been running 3-4 years 24/7 so far, just replaced them now, but they work fine. They are being retired to a 8.5/5 system. :)

If you really want better, generally more reliable drives you need to go for performance or enterprise models like WD Black, Seagate Constellation, WD RE4 & WD VelociRaptor. They do make you pay for better components. :)

Still may advice is to always have a backup, be prepared.
 
Stelly said:
Completely agree and getting nearly 1Gbps on RAID 5 is fantastic when doing a full backup. I would never purchase WD black editions myself... just don't see the point of the premium

Stelly
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5 Year Warranty, slightly better parts so it hopefully lasts that long.

For business/enterprise users having to call out the IT guy to replace a drive would cost more than paying the extra for a better drive.

For most people including me I'll take the risk on cheaper drives and save money. Also I tend to sell my drives off once the warrantee has ended. :D
 
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