Collecting some statistics about using 5.25" HDD

[andiey]

I have just built a new system, basically everything is new except the GFX card which was purchased 3 months ago.

I have a pretty damn good Case MasterBox MB511 and it is spacious. I also have installed Sabrent Rocket 1TB M.2 drive, it's very fast.
Assuming some AAA titles (existing and forthcoming) have an average size of 25GB(source), maybe my current only storage can accommodate around 6 of such games.

I love tidiness and just gave my PSU 2x SATA flat cables (1 for H100i power, another for future use) and 1 Molex cable (for the case's RGB lights).

So even though I intend to get a 6TB 5.25" HDD, as they are quite cheap one of these days, I intend to connect them up with some sort of USB-to-SATA cable rather than permanently install it inside the case.

I wish to know how many people are using such configuration to store your games?

 

[silentbogo]

6TB 5.25" HDD

You mean 3.5"?

I intend to connect them up with some sort of USB-to-SATA cable rather than permanently install it inside the case.

Why not SATA hotplug? Most newer platforms support it, it's going to be faster, and you won't have to mess with unreliable USB-SATA adapters.
It would've been even better if your chassis had any 5.25" bays to install a hotswap HDD caddy.

 

[andiey]

Why not SATA hotplug? Most newer platforms support it, it's going to be faster, and you won't have to mess with unreliable USB-SATA adapters.
It would've been even better if your chassis had any 5.25" bays to install a hotswap HDD caddy.

hotswap HDD caddy - never heard of that, link please.

 

[silentbogo]

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EDIT: A little offtopic. Just browsed some stuff at my local etailer, and found the coolest ever accessory from Chieftec, of all people....
They've made a cool 2.5" adapter for rear expansion slots:

Chieftec - In This You Can Trust

www.chieftec.eu

I guess that solves the issue of modern cases not having any front storage bays Gotta get me one of those for sure.

 

[andiey]

But how do I know that my motherboard Asus ROG Strix Z390-F supports hot swap-able devices?

If it doesn't, will my motherboard be damaged?

 

[Jetster]

If you want tidy, then mount it in the case. That case has a spot for a 3.5 drive down under the PSU cover
Completely hidden

Having a drive that you utilize daily on a USB connection is a mistake . Having wires coming outside the case is not tidy

 

[silentbogo]

But how do I know that my motherboard Asus ROG Strix Z390-F supports hot swap-able devices?

It does. More info in BIOS manual, page 48

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/ROG_STRIX_Z390-F_GAMING/E14966_ROG_STRIX_Z390-F_GAMING_BIOS_EM_WEB.pdf?_ga=2.91763802.1718338744.1573987342-1504485216.1555748550

 

[Jetster]

I actually have a Quantum 6.4 Gb Bigfoot Hard drive 5.25

Sorry off topic

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

I actually have a Quantum 6.4 Gb Bigfoot Hard drive 5.25

Sorry off topic

6.4 Gb as in 800 MB or 6.4 GB?

 

[Bill_Bright]

If you want tidy, then mount it in the case.

Having a drive that you utilize daily on a USB connection is a mistake .

Having wires coming outside the case is not tidy

I agree completely with all of the above. I personally think a case full of drives with proper cable management looks a lot better (and cooler!) than a case with cavernous open spaces. An empty case is wasted space, IMO. And having a drive you use regularly connect via USB is not only messy looking, but USB connections just aren't as reliable as SATA. Not to mention every read and write operation would require some SATA to USB conversions - introducing more latency and points of failure. Then there is the headache potential caused by possible drive letter shifting issues.

I think that CM case is a bit odd in that it is a normal size mid-tower but it only supports two 3.5 inch drives. But still, it does support up to six 2.5 inch drives which suggests to me it is designed for a "modern" build - one that is populated with mostly SSDs.

 

[silentbogo]

I think that CM case is a bit odd in that it is a normal size mid-tower but it only supports two 3.5 inch drives. But still, it does support up to six 2.5 inch drives which suggests to me it is designed for a "modern" build - one that is populated with mostly SSDs.

That's a ridiculous modern trend: most recently released cases are rather plain and empty. Not even gonna start my rant about front panel expansion slots....
I think my current Chieftec was the only sub-$50 full-tower with at least one 5.25" bay and a decently-sized internal HDD rack, and which at the same time did not look like a ghost of 90s.
I was almost desperate enough to get an old Chieftec Dragon or CM Cosmos and mod it to fit my requirements.

 

[Bill_Bright]

That's a ridiculous modern trend: most recently released cases are rather plain and empty.

I think "premature" would be a better word than "ridiculous".

SSD densities continue to go up while prices continue to drop. That IS resulting in more and more computers, including PCs, to go all SSD. That's a very good thing, IMO. All of my own personally builds have been full SSD in the last 5 years. So the trend is definitely there and not likely to stop. And of course, that trend is really prevalent in notebooks where thinner, lighter, smaller, more efficient and cooler (not to mention faster) is where SSDs shine.

But even with hard drives, there seems to be a trend for smaller sizes. I note you can get a 5TB 2.5 inch hard drive for $210.

So the trend for physically smaller drives is definitely going on. And I don't have a problem with that. I just think it is premature to assume computer builders are there yet.

One thing I noticed when looking at that CM Masterbox case is you can get more 3.5in support, but you have to pay extra for the adapters.

As for 5.25 inch bays, they've been disappearing for awhile now which I personally think is a shame. There are still many who like to have DVD or Blu-Ray drives in their PCs rather than use external USB drives. Such bays are nice for fan controllers and LCD monitoring devices too.

 

[silentbogo]

I think "premature" would be a better word than "ridiculous".

Not when it boils down to an ATX full tower having less storage space and less front panel real estate than my old crammed mini-ITX LianLi...
I'd be fine if it had, let's say, a small 6-bay SSD rack accompanied by a couple of 3.5" bays, or if cases included adapter rails for 3.5", so i can decide where to put my stuff.
Insted, it's a totally backwards way of wasting lots of space with PSU shroud, making 3 different ways you can install AIO, but sticking SSDs to some weird locations, like on the back of the motherboard tray, or behind PSU (which confuses the hell out of me when I need to take off the opposite case cover than I used to) etc.

As for 5.25 inch bays, they've been disappearing for awhile now which I personally think is a shame. There are still many who like to have DVD or Blu-Ray drives in their PCs rather than use external USB drives. Such bays are nice for fan controllers and LCD monitoring devices too.

Exactly. I really need to have at least one bay for card reader and extra front-panel USBs. And that's just for my daily, non-work related stuff. My second workstation has all 4 bays filled up with stuff, like 3.5 and 2.5" hotswap bays, extra i/o etc. Still had to resort to an external DVD-RW, cause I ran out of space ))))

 

[Bill_Bright]

Not when it boils down to an ATX full tower having less storage space and less front panel real estate than my old crammed mini-ITX LianLi...

You can't cherry pick some extreme, exception to the rule example and declare it renders the whole point moot. Now that is ridiculous. I have NEVER EVER seen a "full" tower case that holds less than a mini-ITX case. But even if something like that existed (and I highly doubt it), that, in no way is representative of any sort of norm or trend.

So please - let's stick to reality here and not some off-the-wall extreme one-off, anecdotal example or worse, some hypothetical.

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

I did something like this with build which is an itx. I use external hdd for this. You can just drag and drop your games and files into your external hdd and it would run just fine. If you want to be more thorough you have set your "user" files location to the external drive. The latter is high not recommended as any unplug got lead to windows problems. So you are left with the drag and drop method. I really don't recommend using external drives are daily common use location though they can work. It is more points of failure like the usb controller and also heat in an external casing. The worse thing can happen is io corruption from unplugging errors or some controller issue. I lost my 8tb external from an io error taking my data all with it.

Its best to have drive inside your case for daily driver.

 

[John Naylor]

I don't get it ? Why wouldn't just mount them inside the case ? Of course, not that case.

The case looks like a visiual clone of the Phanteks P600S styling wise. It has:

3.5" Bays = 10 (4) included / (6) optional
2.5" Bays = 4

It's only $150 ... A $45 Scythe Fuma would outperform the H100i (thermally and acoustically) and saved enough money to pay for the difference in case cost. The p600S also has outstaning cooling and cable management.

I am still surpised that case makers didn't follow the example of the Antec D85. All the drives are accessible from the outside of the case... like opening a cabinet, the doors swing open. Behind them, you had “Fleet-Swap” interfaces. These are movable brackets, with SATA data and power connectors on both sides, that screw on to the rear edge of the drive cage in a number of different positions to give you hot-swapping capabilities. In addition, the top panel included a bay (housed in hard, clear plastic) for inserting a 2.5-inch drive at any time. I usd the top bat to hot-swap data fro off-site storage or to move data between locations. Why this model has not been widely adopted is something I still don't "get".

There was a technology on my Treo 650 Smartphone that, again, I am surprised was never brought o the PC, It had a small amount of fast storage, and additional storage vould be added via an SD card. There was a utility which basically, moved data between the two automatically. So your most used apps went on the fast storage and the rest went on the SD card. When you launched any app on the card ... it would swap in the all from the SD card to the fast memory. When you closed it, it got swapped back out to the card.

There are inexpensive options for external HDs ... no location with a PC should be w/o on of these. We use them for transferring data for offite storage or to transfer data between drives on new builds ... it's also great fo fixing drive errors which can no longer be accesses when inside the PC. Of course the interface dies have an effect on acess time which in the preceding examples is not very relevant.

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[Bill_Bright]

Why wouldn't just mount them inside the case ?

Unless the drive will be moved frequently from one computer to another, I agree. That said, I have a docking station and love it. But they are not for everyone. They leave most of the drive exposed and offer virtually zero protection from bumps and such.

The case looks like a visiual clone of the Phanteks P600S styling wise.

Ummm, not even. Are you looking at the right cases? The front panels are nothing similar in "style" or function. The side panels are nothing similar in style. Look at the back of the Cooler Master and compare it to the back of the Phanteks and you can see (except for both being black, mid towers) they are very different - to include the Phanteks being significantly larger in all 3 dimensions. The Phanteks also costs almost 3 times more than the CM. The only similarity I see is what's necessary to support ATX motherboards and power supplies.

 

[newtekie1]

That said, I have a docking station and love it. But they are not for everyone. They leave most of the drive exposed and offer virtually zero protection from bumps and such.

A docking station is great for drives that aren't going to be connected to the computer for long. For things like testing drives and pulling data off old drives. But any drive that is going to be connected for long periods of time, I'd either put it in an enclosure or mount it in the computer.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Me too.

I bought my docking station because I had a stash of more than 30 old drives that "I might use one day." I decided I was finally going to get rid of them but I knew most, if not all still had data on them. So I bought the docking station to make it easy to "wipe" the drives. And being able to slip a drive into a docking station is so easy - you can even do it with one hand.

 

[andiey]

I actually have a Quantum 6.4 Gb Bigfoot Hard drive 5.25

Sorry off topic

Is WD Raptor still exists? I used to have a raptor, it was lightning fast back in those years.

I wonder if they still produce the series. I am willing to get one of them if they are less expensive than SSD.

Me too.

I bought my docking station because I had a stash of more than 30 old drives that "I might use one day." I decided I was finally going to get rid of them but I knew most, if not all still had data on them. So I bought the docking station to make it easy to "wipe" the drives. And being able to slip a drive into a docking station is so easy - you can even do it with one hand.

Yeah, I have the Sabrent in mind, it's not very bulky.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I have the Sabrent in mind, it's not very bulky.

Sabrent makes lots of different enclosures and docking stations so just saying "the Sabrent" really does not tell us anything.

I personally don't like enclosures except for travelers who need the enclosure case to provide physical protection for the drive. UI don't like them because heat can be a problem unless the enclosure has a fan. And it is my experience, enclosure fans for those enclosures that have them, are not the quietest. In fact, some are annoyingly loud.

So a docking station like this one is the type/style I prefer. Even though the drive's electrical contacts are exposed, that also means heat can readily escape.

 

[newtekie1]

Is WD Raptor still exists? I used to have a raptor, it was lightning fast back in those years.

I wonder if they still produce the series. I am willing to get one of them if they are less expensive than SSD.

Nope, they stopped making them a long time ago. I think the last model they released was only 1TB. SSDs pretty much the Raptors obsolete.

 

[spectatorx]

I actually have a Quantum 6.4 Gb Bigfoot Hard drive 5.25

Sorry off topic

I would love to see that monster, please show off!

 

[Sasqui]

I've got one of these. The hard part is finding a case with enough 3.5" drive bays to fit it. I ended up with a Rosewill, it has 5 front drive bays. Yes, I still use an optical drive, so there's that too.

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[andiey]

Nope, they stopped making them a long time ago. I think the last model they released was only 1TB. SSDs pretty much the Raptors obsolete.

Yeah, I just learnt that the raptor has ceased production. Pitty.