New HDD for Gaming

DarkEgo · Dec 11, 2009

My trusty 120GB Vertex has filled up, so now I am looking for a new hard drive. The most important task for this is going to be gaming. I would like 200GB+ of storage so I could wither get another Vertex and RAID0 or get two V-Raps and RAID0 them with a 30GB SSD for the OS. Another Vertex is going to be ~$350-400 out of pocket. If I sell my Vertex I could get the other SSD and the Vraps for ~$150 out of pocket. The last option I have would be to get ~5 1 TB drives and a Perc 5/i witch would cost me nothing out of pocket if I sell my vertex. What do you guys think the best option would be for gaming?

LagunaX · Dec 11, 2009

This one:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/western_digital_caviar_black_2tb

DarkEgo · Dec 11, 2009

LagunaX said:
This one:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/western_digital_caviar_black_2tb

$300 is alot of money... I could get six 1TB drives for that. Or 4 1.5TB.

LagunaX · Dec 11, 2009

Yeah I know.
But it's about the same price as a new 300gb velociraptor if you were going that way...

lemode · Dec 11, 2009

I have a 64 gig SSD as my os drive and 2 500gb caviar blacks for apps and games. I use a 1tb external western digital for my flash/psd/ai, music, images, etc.

2 500gb caviar blacks will set you back $139 (worth every penny) and these things in raid 0 are mad fast/nice!

Just an idea.

Sasqui · Dec 11, 2009

lemode said:
2 500gb caviar blacks will set you back $139 (worth every penny) and these things in raid 0 are mad fast/nice! Just an idea.

Black Friday brought the 640GB black editions down to $50 with free shipping at the egg. I grabbed three of them, with the idea of one being boot drive/temp storage and the other two in Raid1 for coveted data.

Was going to use a fourth 320Gb for programs - I've read that having OS on one drive and programs on another will speed application loading considerably.

Lionheart · Dec 11, 2009

hmmm do u want speed or space, that iz the question!

DarkEgo · Dec 11, 2009

Well I can get 1 TB and 1.5 TB drives pretty cheap...
west dig 1tb / 32mb buffer / 7200rpm / green power $50
seagate 1TB / 32 buffer / 5900rpm / Barracuda LP $50
seagate 1tb / 32mb buffer / 7200rpm / 7200.11 $55
Seagate 1.5TB / 32mb buffer / 5900rpm / Barracuda LP $65
Seagate 1.5TB / 32 buffer / 7200rpm / 7200.11 $70
So with a Perc 5/i and raid5, then get a small SSD for my boot drive.

RejZoR · Dec 11, 2009

Take 4x Spinpoint F3 1TB and pair them in RAID. Cheap, high performance and high capacity.

mlee49 · Dec 11, 2009

I can't agree with this more:

Sasqui said:
Black Friday brought the 640GB black editions down to $50 with free shipping at the egg. I grabbed three of them, with the idea of one being boot drive/temp storage and the other two in Raid1 for coveted data.

Was going to use a fourth 320Gb for programs - I've read that having OS on one drive and programs on another will speed application loading considerably.

The 640 drives at $50 was the best performance/price ratio we'l see all year.

The 1TB + drives you mentioned, half were 5900rpm or 'green' so for gaming I say no. The best 1TB drives imo are the Samsung's.

Lionheart · Dec 12, 2009

how about an SSD

DarkEgo · Dec 12, 2009

CHAOS_KILLA said:
how about an SSD

I have a SSD. But I filled it up and another $400 out of pocket for another 120GB vertex isn't appealing to me.

erocker · Dec 12, 2009

Just for games, I'd go with a single 500gb or 1tb HDD. Get a 2nd and RAID them if you want to shave a couple seconds of load time off. I don't think it's worth it, one should suffice.

DarkEgo · Dec 12, 2009

erocker said:
Just for games, I'd go with a single 500gb or 1tb HDD. Get a 2nd and RAID them if you want to shave a couple seconds of load time off. I don't think it's worth it, one should suffice.

Then maybe I should just keep my Vertex and get one of the 1.5TB 7200.11's for 70 bucks.

phanbuey · Dec 12, 2009

get one of the 1.5tb and short stroke it to use only 320GB or so for the fastest access - that will bring your access times down and you transfer rate will be massive.

OnBoard · Dec 12, 2009

Get couple of these:

1 platter 500GB Samsung F3s. Use first 250GB of it and should be plenty fast. Dunno how high they go with raid.

DirectorC · Dec 12, 2009

I think that guy selling those drives has it wrong about 7200RPM Greenpower drives. I looked up the specs/reviews of that model and they said it was a 5900RPM drive. Two in RAID0 would be pretty sweet, around as fast as a 10K drive...

DarkEgo · Dec 12, 2009

I was looking more towards the 7200.11's and RAID0 doesn't improve seek times like increasing platter speed does. Just like increasing the platter speed doesn't necessarily improve MB/s.

DirectorC · Dec 12, 2009

Nah RAID0 definitely doesn't help at all with access time, in fact my access time is pretty bad on my RAID0, but once you see the load time of game maps, the speed of file copying and extracting large compressed files, well you will be pretty well impressed.

My Dual WD2500AAKS

kenkickr · Dec 12, 2009

DirectorC said:
I think that guy selling those drives has it wrong about 7200RPM Greenpower drives. I looked up the specs/reviews of that model and they said it was a 5900RPM drive. Two in RAID0 would be pretty sweet, around as fast as a 10K drive...

I would not recommend setting up a Raid 0 with LP or Green drives. I tried with two WD 500 Green 32mb cache drives and performance was horrible compared to just 1 drive.

DarkEgo said:
I was looking more towards the 7200.11's and RAID0 doesn't improve seek times like increasing platter speed does. Just like increasing the platter speed doesn't necessarily improve MB/s.

What size drives are you looking at? My recommendation would be either the 500Gb Seagate 7200.12's(single platter) or the new 500Gb Samsung F3's(single platter) for a Raid 0.

DirectorC · Dec 12, 2009

kenkickr said:
I would not recommend setting up a Raid 0 with LP or Green drives. I tried with two WD 500 Green 32mb cache drives and performance was horrible compared to just 1 drive.

Oh that sucks. Will keep that in mind.

DarkEgo · Dec 12, 2009

kenkickr said:
What size drives are you looking at? My recommendation would be either the 500Gb Seagate 7200.12's(single platter) or the new 500Gb Samsung F3's(single platter) for a Raid 0.

I was looking at two of the 1.5TB 7200.11's because I can get them for 70 bucks a pop.

phanbuey · Dec 12, 2009

DarkEgo said:
I was looking at two of the 1.5TB 7200.11's because I can get them for 70 bucks a pop.

Short stroking will give you massive IOPS boost - 40% over normal operation :/

Also increases the lifespan of the drive.

smashed_99cbr · Dec 12, 2009

well honestly I run 4 1tb West Dig Greens in my HTPC
and get great numbers...

3200 mb/s + burst

380 mb/s avg (read)

180 mb/s min (read)

12.8 ms seek

smashed_99cbr · Dec 12, 2009

here are some drives I tested recently:

http://futuremark.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116646

System Name	Primary Rig
Processor	e8500 Q822A549 4.5ghz AIR
Motherboard	Foxconn Mars P35
Cooling	TRUE
Memory	2 x2GB Patriot Viper 1066 5-5-5-12 @ 1.8v
Video Card(s)	Sapphire 5870 Unlocked
Storage	300gb Velociraptor
Display(s)	Dell 24" Ultrasharp
Case	Coolermaster CM690
Power Supply	PC Power & Cooling 750w Quad Silencer
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate x86

System Name	Primary Rig
Processor	e8500 Q822A549 4.5ghz AIR
Motherboard	Foxconn Mars P35
Cooling	TRUE
Memory	2 x2GB Patriot Viper 1066 5-5-5-12 @ 1.8v
Video Card(s)	Sapphire 5870 Unlocked
Storage	300gb Velociraptor
Display(s)	Dell 24" Ultrasharp
Case	Coolermaster CM690
Power Supply	PC Power & Cooling 750w Quad Silencer
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate x86

System Name	Suck it
Processor	i7 860 @ 3.5GHz
Motherboard	eVGA p55 FTW
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12P SE 2
Memory	4gb Corsair Dominator @ 1600
Video Card(s)	X2 Supercharged 570's
Storage	1 80gb Intel SSD/2 128gb Mushkin IO SSDs raid 0/1 500gb WD Caviar Black/2tb WD Caviar Black
Display(s)	ASUS MT276HE 27"
Case	Coolermaster HAF 932
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Ultra X4 1050W
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

System Name	Boomer Master Race
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS APU
Motherboard	BareBones Mini PC MB
Cooling	Mini PC Cooling
Memory	Crucial 32GB 4800MHz
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon 680M 8GB IGPU
Storage	Crucial 500GB M.2 SSD + 2TB Ext HDD
Display(s)	Sony 4K Bravia X85J 43Inch TV 120Hz
Case	Beelink Mini PC Chassis
Audio Device(s)	Built In Realtek Digital Audio HD
Power Supply	120w Power Brick
Mouse	Logitech G203 Lightsync
Keyboard	Atrix RGB Slim Keyboard
VR HMD	( ◔ ʖ̯ ◔ )
Software	Windows 10 Home 64bit
Benchmark Scores	Don't do them anymore.

New HDD for Gaming

DarkEgo

LagunaX

DarkEgo

LagunaX

lemode

Sasqui

Lionheart

DarkEgo

RejZoR

mlee49

Lionheart

DarkEgo

erocker

*

DarkEgo

phanbuey

OnBoard

New Member

DirectorC

New Member

DarkEgo

DirectorC

New Member

kenkickr

DirectorC

New Member

DarkEgo

phanbuey

smashed_99cbr

New Member

smashed_99cbr

New Member

System Name	The Dove Box Rev 3.0
Processor	i7 8700k @ 4.7GHz
Motherboard	Asus Maximus X APEX
Cooling	Custom water loop
Memory	16GB 3600 MHz DDR4
Video Card(s)	2x MSI 780 Ti's in SLI
Storage	500GB Samsung 850 PCIe SSD, 4TB
Display(s)	27" Asus 144Hz
Case	Enermax Fulmo GT
Audio Device(s)	ON BOARD FTW
Power Supply	Corsair 1200W
Keyboard	Logitech G510
Software	Win 10 64x

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS TUF x670e
Cooling	EK AIO 360. Phantek T30 fans.
Memory	32GB G.Skill 6000Mhz
Video Card(s)	Asus RTX 4090
Storage	WD m.2
Display(s)	LG C2 Evo OLED 42"
Case	Lian Li PC 011 Dynamic Evo
Audio Device(s)	Topping E70 DAC, SMSL SP200 Headphone Amp.
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti PRO 1000W
Mouse	Razer Basilisk V3 Pro
Keyboard	Tester84
Software	Windows 11

Processor	13700KF Undervolted @ 5.6/ 5.5, 4.8Ghz Ring 200W PL1
Motherboard	MSI 690-I PRO
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 w/ Arctic P12 Fans
Memory	48 GB DDR5 7600 MHZ CL36
Video Card(s)	RTX 4090 FE
Storage	2x 2TB WDC SN850, 1TB Samsung 960 prr
Display(s)	Alienware 32" 4k 240hz OLED
Case	SLIGER S620
Audio Device(s)	Yes
Power Supply	Corsair SF750
Mouse	Xlite V2
Keyboard	RoyalAxe
Software	Windows 11
Benchmark Scores	They're pretty good, nothing crazy.

Processor	Core i5-750 @ 3.6GHz 1.136V 24/7
Motherboard	Gigabyte P55A-UD3, SATA 6Gbit/s & USB3.0 baby!
Cooling	Alpenföhn Brocken HeatpipeDirectTouch
Memory	Geil Ultra Series 4GB 2133MHz DDR3 @ 1440MHz 7-7-7-24
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB OC (mostly stock speeds)
Storage	OS: Samsung F3 500GB Games: Samsung F1 640GB
Display(s)	new! Samsung P2350 23" FullHD 2ms / Mirai DTL-632E500 32" LCD
Case	new! Xigmatek Midgard/Utgard side window with red cathodes, 1x140mm & 3x120mm fans
Audio Device(s)	new! ASUS Xonar DG & JVC HA-RX700 headphones
Power Supply	Cougar CM 700W Modular
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Benchmark Scores	Logitech UltraX Premium & G5 laser v2 + Ulti-mat Breathe X2 for fragging

System Name	-= Son of a Whore =-
Processor	E8400 @ 4.0GHz (445 x 9)
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Memory	3GB Corsair XMS2
Video Card(s)	EVGA 8800 GT 512
Storage	74GB Raptor + Caviars in RAID0
Display(s)	I-Inc 19" LCD 1440x900
Audio Device(s)	Audigy SE & Logitech X-540
Power Supply	Corsair 750TX
Software	Win32 v6.1.7600
Benchmark Scores	Logitech KB & Sidewinder X3

System Name	Addison Clark
Processor	Ryzen 9 7950x3D delid
Motherboard	Asus X670E Hero
Cooling	Custom Bykski loop CPU, GPU, 2x 360 rads, and 1x 280 rad with Arctic P12 and P14 ARGB fans
Memory	G.Skill DDR5-6000 64GB CL30
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte 4090 Aorus Master
Storage	Kingston Fury 2TB and 4TB NVME
Display(s)	Samsung 57"
Case	Lian Li O11 mini
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Thermaltake 1000w SFX-L
Mouse	Corsair Dark Core RGB SE
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Platnium
Software	Win 11 Pro