Whats the normal performance setup for HDDs now?

ps3ud0

ps3ud0

ps3ud0

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Been out of the game for a while and in the middle of building a new PC and Ive decided the 500Gb AAKS I was going to put in this 'needs' upgrading...

So my question was - what what you consider is a good HD setup nowadays? I assume we may have gone past the whole 'raptor for boot+games+apps and a large 7200rpm HDD for data/media'.

I have to admit thats what I was gonna go for - well my Velociraptor turns up tomorrow. Im umming and arring about these lovely 1Tb drives and wondering if I should partner it with a Samsung F1 or Caviar Black. Im not sure which one is faster but the F1 is a lot cheaper (£70 compared to £100) but seems to have had a lot of reliability problems - enough to put me off...

But heres my dilemma - I did RAID years ago and found it translated to fast artificial benchmarks, but I didnt feel the benefits in real-world apps other than it was definitely snappier. Is it worth me trying RAID again (using onboard Intel controller) and getting 2 drives (at whatever capacity makes sense)

I probably dont need all that space :p, but looking to order tonight :p

P.S. I did consider making a media server, but couldnt justify keeping 1 PC on other than my main one just for this usage. Backup just will consist of that 500Gb AAKS and enclosure...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Yeah it definitely looks like the way to go - whats the best HDs to go for? Ive not really kept up with platter capacities but would want 2 HDs that utilise the most compact platters to increase the RAID performance. Only really consider Samsung and WD as they seem to be the only ones bringing out some nice drives lately..

Surprised you didnt tell me to get another Velociraptor :p

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
ps3ud0 said:
Yeah it definitely looks like the way to go - whats the best HDs to go for? Ive not really kept up with platter capacities but would want 2 HDs that utilise the most compact platters to increase the RAID performance. Only really consider Samsung and WD as they seem to be the only ones bringing out some nice drives lately..

Surprised you didn't tell me to get another Velociraptor :p

ps3ud0 :cool:
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I did not read that far unless you added it later lol. :p

Yes 2 VRaptors would be ideal, but if not 2 WD RE3's. ;)

Years back Raid0 gave a Rule Of Thumb gain of about 60%, I replied in a thread today saying the same as this but would not like to guess you a gain on today's modern hardware (HDD+Controllers), it could be near 100%. ;)

BTW, the Black (same speed as RE3 AFAIK) Kills the F1 : http://www.storagereview.com/php/be...&devID_0=368&devID_1=361&devID_2=352&devCnt=3
 
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Thought the 1Tb Black would be - might be the fastest to get their drives out (actually Hitachi win that one :p) but generally they seem to be the default if speed is a consideration

Tempted to get 2 500Gb Blacks then - though need to read up on platter density as the 320/640Gb maybe better...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
If Raid then the RE3 are set up for it and give safeguards (someone posted details somewhere in here).

They are fast but I only used in single use.
 
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Hmm the RE3s are only 32Mb cache on the 750Gb and 1Gb models - 16Mb for the remainder. Whereas all the Caviar Blacks are 32Mb. I know the RE3s are for RAID/Server setups, but that seems a disadvantage considering how much mopre they are (Blacks have 5year warranty too)...

Might just go for Blacks but need to find platter info - WD dont tell you :/

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
fobose said:
This post is out of the HDD benchmarks;

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12723390&postcount=846

Doesn't seem the 640GB "black" drive is any faster than the blue version, not sure how the other sized black drives perform though, but something to bare in mind if you decide to buy a 640GB, would save you some money :) (depends if you wanted the extra 2 year warranty though).
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Thats definitely interesting especially since you are using RAID1 so expect a bit of overhead...

I wonder if its because both may have the same amount of platters and therefore the same platter density. I really need to read more into that as I suspect the other sized drives (other than 320Gb multiples) have their platters managed so Blacks are faster than Blues - does that make sense?

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
If going for 1TB's I'd definitely consider the F1's, personally I couldn't justify the extra £40+ per harddrive for minimal performance gain.
 
For Raid I would trust the RE3's more as that's there purpose Primary, never did like Sammy as a HDD manu where WD are.

Seems lot of Sammy failing on this very forum.

The same could be said about a VRaptor, you pay more for gains that's life and that above review shows the F1 getting ass kicked in it.
 
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Pulse said:
If going for 1TB's I'd definitely consider the F1's, personally I couldn't justify the extra £40+ per harddrive for minimal performance gain.
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Hmm normally I would agree (its only £30 difference) but the amount that seem to be failing or DOA is unacceptable in my book. Factoring in costs to post it for replacement makes the difference small enough to be warranted...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
I don't understand- Samsung F1's can be bought for £70, whereas the cheapest WD black i've seen is £117. :confused:

That £47 difference is massive for an improvement that won't be seen without benchmarking!
 
He obv has found it cheaper and does not want the risk after all the F1 Failures here.

I have built PC's for years and would not even consider using Sammy TBH.
 
lol- well yeah I guess he must have found it cheaper elsewhere.... but at most places the price difference is ~£40-50.

From my own experience (building computers for years as well)- from memory I've come across 1 samsung, 1 samsung F1, 1 IBM deskstar, 1 Quantum fireball, 3 wd raptor, 4 Maxtors....

Out of those, the deskstar, 1 of the raptors and 2 of the maxtors have failed- so Samsung are looking pretty good so far for me. ;)
 
TBH Ive pretty much decided on 2 320Gb RE3s - cost is around £90 and yes I lose 1/3 of the capacity, but with RAID 0 the performance is massively improved (min 90% it seems). Also I cant see how the 500Gb version would have the same performance unless its short-stroked - any ideas?

Seems a shame for just a media/data drive :p. Think Im going over-the-top?

@suitcase, I cant comment on your first point here, but the inconvenience is just too annoying when things fail. Hell how many people get Hitachi drives after the 75GXP incident? The failure rate on 1Tb F1s are significant enough not to ignore IMO. Ive had loads of WD drives and had no issue so far...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Bah Im reconsidering my VR purchase and perhaps just going for 3x320Gb RE3s now or 2x500Gb (if their platters are short-stroked to 250Gb each)...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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