Help choosing HDD

[MeltingPoint]

Hey everyone,

I'm want to buy a drive to use in my computer.
The choices I have are only between these two drives:

• Seagate 2TB ST2000DM001
• WD Red 1TB WD10EFRX

I will use the drive for the OS and games. Majority of the files will be games. I wont be having really important files here.

I've read a lot of bad things about this Seagate drive. A lot of people claim that it is crap. The WD Red spins slower though. Because of this, I'm leaning toward the WD but the spindle speed is kinda holding me back.

How much is the difference in boot up time and loading times is there gonna be between 5400rpm vs 7200rpm? A few seconds, a minute?

Which one would you choose?

 

[sttubs]

The WD Red series is for NAS storage, not meant to be used as an OS drive. I'd go for the Seagate if that is your only other choice. A WD Black would be the best route as far as performance with your OS & games.

 

[Devon68]

If these are your choices than I would chose the Seagate 2TB ST2000DM001 if not than maybe the WD 1TB blue.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Definately the Seagate. The Red is a great drive...for storage. It's basically a Green drive with better head parking and firmware. I would never recommend as an OS drive, though.

 

[Dent1]

Hey everyone,

I'm want to buy a drive to use in my computer.
The choices I have are only between these two drives:

• Seagate 2TB ST2000DM001
• WD Red 1TB WD10EFRX

I will use the drive for the OS and games. Majority of the files will be games. I wont be having really important files here.

I've read a lot of bad things about this Seagate drive. A lot of people claim that it is crap. The WD Red spins slower though. Because of this, I'm leaning toward the WD but the spindle speed is kinda holding me back.

Have you considered an SSD for the OS and games and a HDD for the important files?

How much is the difference in boot up time and loading times is there gonna be between 5400rpm vs 7200rpm? A few seconds, a minute?

Which one would you choose?

Generally speaking all HDD will give you virtually same performs for general use. Disk drives have reached the limit in terms of innovation. The technology is decades old and has reached its peak. Typically you'll always get lows of 10MB/sec, average of 60MB/sec, highs of 100MB/secs with very high latency. Yes some models will do slightly better, but not enough to make a huge difference. Same goes for 5400 RPM vs 7200RPM, the later would generally perform better but with more noise, not always but typically. But there is often not a measurable difference that will matter in the real world. e.g. the boot time you mentioned will be virtually the same.

The only way to improve performance to a significant level is to look into an SSD.

 

[MeltingPoint]

Thanks for all the advice. Luckily, the store I am buying from just had the Seagate 1TB SSHD in stock a while ago so I'm going with that.

 

[Dent1]

Thanks for all the advice. Luckily, the store I am buying from just had the Seagate 1TB SSHD in stock a while ago so I'm going with that.

SSHD's do show occasionally good performance relative to a normal HDD but its inconsistent, and frankly if your sole purpose is for fast booting and fast game loading only a SSD would be worthwhile. An SSHD is good for general storage though.

I feel you will be either disappointed, or very happy because you don't know any better.


Buy online, you will be exposed to a greater variety of products.

 

[MeltingPoint]

An SSD will have to wait. I don't have the budget for it right now.

My main priority is mass storage so this will have to do and I'm not expecting it to perform any better than regular drives.

 

[Fx]

You should have gotten a WD Black WD1003FZEX. It performs really well, is very reliable, and comes with a 5yr warranty.

I would suggest returning that drive if you can, and saving up for a 2TB version of the WD Black if possible. Otherwise, the 1TB Black is only $75.