Is my HD bottlenecking my system? Should i upgrade?

[Huxley2k7]

Hey guys,

So i've had this 80GB Maxtor drive for a while now, i think about a year and a half, i didn't put much investment money into it either, nor did i know much about decent hard-drives back when i bought it so it is quite possible that this little beauty could be bottlenecking my system.

It's a SATA drive, its 80GB, and thats about as much as i remember about it. The fact that its a year and a half old and its 80GB sorta puts thing into perspective here. I couldn't find it on the site i bought it on either, it could be this.

So, do you think its bottlenecking my system and if so, what Hard Drive would you recommend to accompany my new computer specs? I never use up too much space, 150-250GB is more than enough room, i'd just like a decent HD with a little more room which will complement the rest of my computer to be honest.

I don't know a thing about RAID and probably wouldn't be too confident setting one up just yet but a new SATA would be nice since these are the faster than IDE i am told? I have had my eye on this, seems like a good deal for only £41. I'm assuming the higher the cache and RPM the faster the Hard Drive? What do you guys think of that, would it be good for my specs? The only downside is that a lot of people have been saying how it has died after only a few weeks/months. So, maybe i want to avoid that one heh...?

Well let me know what you think!

Cheers ya helpful bunch you!

 

[GJSNeptune]

Hard drives are the slowest component of any computer, and the age of your drive doesn't matter much. Unless you want a Raptor (10,000RPM) versus the standard 7200RPM, your hard drive is about the same as any drive others are using.

Your link is a standard 7200RPM drive. Western Digital makes the 10,000RPM Raptors though. Pretty pricey.

 

[Huxley2k7]

Hard drives are the slowest component of any computer, and the age of your drive doesn't matter much. Unless you want a Raptor (10,000RPM) versus the standard 7200RPM, your hard drive is about the same as any drive others are using.

Your link is a standard 7200RPM drive. Western Digital makes the 10,000RPM Raptors though. Pretty pricey.

Damn, that doesn't leave much options other than RAID then. If not performance, i think It would still be worth me upgrading for the extra space. Do you think its worth getting a decent SATA drive now in preparation for a possible RAID setup down the line?

Thanks for the help,

Hux.

 

[GJSNeptune]

What seems to be lacking in performance, or in what area do you need improvement?

I would definitely get yourself a high-capacity SATA drive. Maybe a couple. Or get a Raptor.

 

[Deleted member 3]

The cheapest solution for performance would be RAID0, if you want some data safety RAID5 is a good option as well.

Raptors are quite popular as well, however they're not cheap. If your motherboard supports RAID consider buying 2 new disks, they're cheap now anyway.

 

[Huxley2k7]

What seems to be lacking in performance, or in what area do you need improvement?

I would definitely get yourself a high-capacity SATA drive. Maybe a couple. Or get a Raptor.

Well, i'm just not getting the performance i think i should be getting in-games and i think its due to the hard-drive. Sometimes when playing its like my system has to wait up for the hard-drive to load everything first, it just feels like its lagging behind and the only thing i can see that would be doing this is my old hard-drive which has seen a couple different computers now. Boot ups take too long in my opinion, and when i double click C: Drive, its like the hard-drive sorta wakes itself up THEN the drive opens and i can start browsing the drive. Just things like this making me feel like its just not up to the job anymore.

Also, when my computer is just sitting here doing nothing, i hear a really random noise. It's like a charge up noise, then a massive CLICK, then another charge up noise, then a CLICK, CLICK CLICK then it stops and computer hums as normal. I'm pretty sure thats the hard-drive too.

The cheapest solution for performance would be RAID0, if you want some data safety RAID5 is a good option as well.

Raptors are quite popular as well, however they're not cheap. If your motherboard supports RAID consider buying 2 new disks, they're cheap now anyway.

See i don't know much about RAID, i would have to look into that, learn about it first before taking the plunge. Plus, i wasn't looking at spending that much yet (I'm assuming at least £80-100 for a RAID setup that would be nice for my system). I could just buy 1 SATA drive then get another when i got more cash to spend on my computer. I might consider a Raptor, but those are very expensive for a hard-drive in my opinion.

 

[GJSNeptune]

Sounds like you should invest in a new, higher-capacity hard drive. In addition, maybe your computer is bogged down with junk. Do you regularly clean it with apps like CCleaner? Are you using Firefox to cut down on malware?

 

[Huxley2k7]

Sounds like you should invest in a new, higher-capacity hard drive. In addition, maybe your computer is bogged down with junk. Do you regularly clean it with apps like CCleaner? Are you using Firefox to cut down on malware?

Oh yeah it's all clean dont worry about that, i regularly tidy it up and such and never download stuff to be honest. What would you recommend?

 

[GJSNeptune]

Stuff I use:
1) CCleaner
2) RegScrubXP
3) NTREGOPT

And SpywareBlaster to immunize. How many processes do you have running normally? If your hard drive is making strange noises, especially clicking, you might want to get a new hard drive very soon.

Just a quick question. Why such a powerhouse computer and a dinky hard drive? If you're a gamer, you need hard drive space.

 

[Huxley2k7]

Stuff I use:
1) CCleaner
2) RegScrubXP
3) NTREGOPT

And SpywareBlaster to immunize. How many processes do you have running normally? If your hard drive is making strange noises, especially clicking, you might want to get a new hard drive very soon.

Just a quick question. Why such a powerhouse computer and a dinky hard drive? If you're a gamer, you need hard drive space.

Like i said, i never download stuff, and i usually only play 4-5 games at a time, so i uninstall the inactive ones. I rarely get to the point where im thinking ''Damn, i wish i had a bigger hard drive'' cos i just dont use that much space. But with that said, im looking to make some machinima films in the near future, and will need more space. And, like you said, i may need a new one very soon since this old timer might just give up on me!

Oh, and when i said ''What would you recommend'', i meant hard-drive wise.

Just need one that wont hinder my system at all, with a decent amount of space, anywhere between 150-250 is fine, to be honest as long as its decently priced any size bigger will do. I'm gonna keep looking around.

Cheers,

Hux.

 

[GJSNeptune]

You're in the UK but here are links to the drives on Newegg.

Western Digital - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144701
Seagate - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148144

 

[hat]

CLICK CLICK CLICK is bad. Go for a new hard drive.
You can go for a single 74GB raptor http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/114117
I think it will serve you well.

Hard drives are never a bottleneck. Getting a faster hard drive would improve loading times but that's it. Once whatever you're doing is loaded, say a BF2 map, it's pretty much all up to the memory/cpu/video card. The only thing the hard drives would do is the page file, which even then it wouldn't be much because you got 2GB ram...

I recommend with this raptor:
defrag every so often (like every month or so)
use Ccleaner to clean out all the junk left behind by your browsers and registry entries left from deleting programs, shortcuts, etc...

 

[GJSNeptune]

Yeah, if you're frequently uninstalling games, defragging would be very good to close those big gaps.

 

[hat]

Defragging should be done regardless.

 

[Huxley2k7]

CLICK CLICK CLICK is bad. Go for a new hard drive.
You can go for a single 74GB raptor http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/114117
I think it will serve you well.

Hard drives are never a bottleneck. Getting a faster hard drive would improve loading times but that's it. Once whatever you're doing is loaded, say a BF2 map, it's pretty much all up to the memory/cpu/video card. The only thing the hard drives would do is the page file, which even then it wouldn't be much because you got 2GB ram...

I recommend with this raptor:
defrag every so often (like every month or so)
use Ccleaner to clean out all the junk left behind by your browsers and registry entries left from deleting programs, shortcuts, etc...

£100 for a 74GB raptor? Thats way to steep for me mate, plus thats a size down-grade, im looking to get a bit more than my current 80GB. I'll probably get a decent SATA then somewhere down the line get another and setup a RAID partition. I do regularly defrag by the way, i just think this drive is on its way out.

Cheers mate,

Hux.

 

[EviLZeD]

i got 2 maxtors sata 2's i tried them in raid0 and normal i dont see many performance gains with raid0 in loading really only games like battlefield 2 loaded only slightly faster also applications didnt speed up much. you always got the risk of a drive failing in raid 0 therefore losing all you data if you keep valuable data i wouldnt use raid 0 unless you got a spare drive for important files

if you play games and browsing simple stuff raid 0 isnt worth it just get a new good sata 2 drive

 

[cdawall]

that 80gb maxtor is fine if you want some more speed order a second identical drive and run raid0 with it

 

[GJSNeptune]

Except his Maxtor is starting to fail. (I don't recommend Maxtors, unless it's a Seagate 7200.10 in a Maxtor box. )

 

[cdawall]

RMA it

if you want upgrade order some WD 100GB SATA drives

 

[GJSNeptune]

Do you pay any attention to posts? My impression is that his Maxtor is probably out of warranty.

 

[cdawall]

Do you pay any attention to posts? My impression is that his Maxtor is probably out of warranty.

go to maxtor.com look under warranties type in the HDD info and there you go info on warranty

i think about a year and a half

warranty will vary from 1yr to 3yrs just depends check online it will say

 

[Huxley2k7]

Im not worried about RMA'ing, just upgrading, ill probably go for a new SATA2 drive which shouldnt be too costly. Thanks for the help guys, its cleared up a few things.

Hux.

 

[hat]

£41 or so with VAT. It's 250GB and SATA, but it's not 10000 RPM, only 7200.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/94403

 

[Huxley2k7]

£41 or so with VAT. It's 250GB and SATA, but it's not 10000 RPM, only 7200.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/94403

Yeah thats the one i've had my eye on but apparently its dying on a lot of people within a couple of months.

 

[hat]

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/124228
Let's see what you can do with 500GB...