What Hard Drive would you recommend?

[snapsnake]

Hello everyone, I am new to this community. I go by snapsnake, and I am a 19 year old College student.

Ok, on to my question. I recently built my first computer. Before I continue I feel it is important to tell you its specs (in case you see something I don't).

Gigabyte DS3L motherboard
C2D e2180 @2.0ghz
4gb G.Skill Ram
Radeon 3870 Graphics
Windows XP Pro

and This hard drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
]

Now, here is my problem. When I first started using this computer, it was very very fast. But the more images (I'm a photographer) and videos (and torrents) I added to the hard drive, the slower things got, especially when it comes to boot time. At this point, there are only 10 gigabytes free on my hd. Now I have often heard of people buying hard drives just for their operating systems and programs, that is what I originally wanted to do, but I just ran out of money and had to settle for just one hdd. Now, I can spend up to about $1000 (but know I won't have to) to speed this thing up again. I expect to spend between 100-200, maybe more.

That's where I need your help. I don't know what to do. Is the hard drive I am currently using fast enough to be considered a 'boot drive?' Or should I buy a fast drive and use this one for storage? I am hoping to get some advice or suggestions on specific models you've had your eyes on. For instance, what do you think of the velociraptor? Overrated? Great? or should i go for another barracuda, say a 7200.11?? Or the Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ (750GB)?

I've been out of the market for a little bit and feel disconnected, but I would really appreciate your advice, thanks alot.

[rainbowdemon]

Where you bought the HD is irrelevant to your question, and could possibly be considered spam.







Sorry to bust your ass, but we've been having a problem with spammers lately.



Anyway, I'd choose the Samsung. After my Samsung cell phone was totally immersed in Coke for about 10 minutes, it still worked. I have a lot of respect for Samsung products in general!!

[carpefile]

Your current hard drive is straight up too packed to be worth a shit at this point.
Once you've passed beyond 80% capacity, its very difficult to even partially defrag it.

You've also got hefty ram for XP, so speed of your drive is a lot less concern, since you have plenty o' room to cache active dlls and other system files.

If it were me, I'd go as big as possible with a sata interface, and within that class, go with the cheapest in terms of cost per gb. Then I'd transfer all my data from the 250gb to the new one, then wipe the 250 and use it as the boot drive with a fresh reinstall of xp pro and a second partition to hold my program files split 60/40 programs to os.

[Mels_Smileys45]

Hard dives too BIG! Too SLOW! Keep a clean small HD and watch how fast your PC calls up anything you want. Bigger is not better in this case. A full 250G HD is so slow.

[snapsnake]

Your current hard drive is straight up too packed to be worth a shit at this point.
Once you've passed beyond 80% capacity, its very difficult to even partially defrag it.

You've also got hefty ram for XP, so speed of your drive is a lot less concern, since you have plenty o' room to cache active dlls and other system files.

If it were me, I'd go as big as possible with a sata interface, and within that class, go with the cheapest in terms of cost per gb. Then I'd transfer all my data from the 250gb to the new one, then wipe the 250 and use it as the boot drive with a fresh reinstall of xp pro and a second partition to hold my program files split 60/40 programs to os.

Hey thanks alot carpefile, that sounds like some very sound advice. Oh yah, and TRUST ME this drive is next to worthless right now, everything is crawling. I really appreciate your advice on making the 250 my boot drive, but how much of a difference would there be if I were to buy say a $150 raptor?

Oh, also, why would you split it 60/40? If I do that that'll leave 100gb just for the operating system, which really takes alot less, doesn't it?

Oh, and I did not know that about how the ram helps cache downloads, does it do that automatically, or is there a setting I can tweak? That will definitely steer me away from a super fast hdd, at least as far as storage goes.

Thanks alot for helping me man.


Where you bought the HD is irrelevant to your question, and could possibly be considered spam.

Sorry to bust your ass, but we've been having a problem with spammers lately.

Anyway, I'd choose the Samsung. After my Samsung cell phone was totally immersed in Coke for about 10 minutes, it still worked. I have a lot of respect for Samsung products in general!!

Hey Rainbowdemon, sorry about that. From now on I'll make sure not to include any links to vendors. The only reason I thought I should include this link was for those readers who might be unsure about which hd I had, and some of its specs. I think I will go with the samsung, the sound of a 750gb hd is beautiful haha.

thanks alot guys

[HelenaP]

...

If it were me, I'd go as big as possible with a sata interface, and within that class, go with the cheapest in terms of cost per gb. Then I'd transfer all my data from the 250gb to the new one, then wipe the 250 and use it as the boot drive with a fresh reinstall of xp pro and a second partition to hold my program files split 60/40 programs to os.

Ditto. Sounds almost exactly like what I did.

I use C (total 30 GB's) for my OS, System32, and most all apps.

D for my recovery drive.

G (I think this one was the one partitioned. I did it way before the wreck, so I forgot? Total space, 150 GB's) is for music and back up image of C drive.

P (total size 250 GB's) for all of my pics (1.3 GB's), and extra crap (apps I don't use, etc.).

I too work with graphics, so I understand why you are thinking about doing this. I just wonder (without googling); Is your graphics card the one you need?

I mean, I know Illustrator froze on me MANY times (could have been that I was trying to make it do something that it did not want to do). I still don't know if it was due to my graphics card...

[mountain_rage]

I've been in your position before and chose a different route then has been mentioned yet in this thread. Much like you I was looking at the western digital raptors to speed up my load times, but I have to say they are overpriced. The advantage the raptor give is on the seek times, but I don't think its worth it for the price. You get way more storage for your buck using other options.

If you want to increase your hard drive speeds you want to invest in a h/d array, more often referred to as a raid. What you are essentially doing is using two or more h/d's and identifying them as a single h/d. From what I can deduce your motherboard does have a raid controller. If you can't find the information on your motherboard's raid controller just let me know and I can probably help you.

You have a couple options with raids also, you can have it so the array is considered one big drive, you can mirror files across all drives, or you can have a mix of the two. Currently I have 2 250gig seagates in a raid mirror and another 2 80 gig Seagates identifying themselves as a single 160gig hd. It doesn't quite halve the load times, but greatly speeds things up. I'm getting faster speeds than if I used a single raptor. In your situation I would probably buy 2 decent sized drives for your operating system and programs, place those two drives in a mirror raid. Then use your old drive solely for your multimedia files and torrents. Make sure if you do a raid that they drives are similar or identical as your computer will adapt your raid to the slowest drive in the raid.

Another option would be the solid state drives but they are bloody expensive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

[Feather]

You all have it about covered so I will just say shop around there are some good deals on drives

I paid 42 for a 320 WD sata drive whenI built mine and the wifes computers

[gemboy]

i had the same problem but i went for 2 hd's c drive is96% empty 250gb and a second hd split into 2 so i got 3 drives all graphics go into the e drive and all other stuff goes in to my d drive,never had a problem in nearly 2 yrs only other thing i did was upgrade the ddram to 4gb..now if flys .

[HelenaP]

BTW, I have one Western Digital 160 GB drive* and the other is a Seagate 330 GB *.

[Mels_Smileys45]

Okay people pay attention this time. Get a small fast hard drive, keep it clean and super fast. Then buy a HUGE external and cram it full of shit if you must. Keeping a big hard drive full of junk on your PC is not good. I have so many people ask me why their PC is so slow and 9 times out of 10 they have their HD stuffed. Break this chain of thought that BEST BUY has tricked you into digesting. Bigger sucks ass. Remember how your PC ran with a fresh install? Why should that change? Why has the response time of your HD went to shit? Hey add some more RAM!!! That will fix it! BONK! Best Buy got ya TWO TIMES!

[kippies]

Okay people pay attention this time. Get a small fast hard drive, keep it clean and super fast. Then buy a HUGE external and cram it full of shit if you must. Keeping a big hard drive full of junk on your PC is not good. I have so many people ask me why their PC is so slow and 9 times out of 10 they have their HD stuffed. Break this chain of thought that BEST BUY has tricked you into digesting. Bigger sucks ass. Remember how your PC ran with a fresh install? Why should that change? Why has the response time of your HD went to shit? Hey add some more RAM!!! That will fix it! BONK! Best Buy got ya TWO TIMES!

absolutely- any decent IT department knows the wisdom of this advice and ships laptops configured that way, keeps them faster for longer- why would your home system be any different?

[ptofvu]

I think that the velociraptor is to expensive for the performance boost that it gives you. I would go with the samsung drive i bought one like a week ago.

[snapsnake]

Hello again, Sorry it has taken me this long to respond, but I have been very busy with work lately. Ok, HelenaP and all you others who were recommending a dedicated OS drive and then separate storage drives, I have a question for you:

Would partitioning my OS Drive have the same effect? Say I partitioned my current 250gb with a 50gb partition for OS and programs, and then completely filled the other 200. Would my computer load just as fast, or would it not? I'm basically trying to find out if I can put anything on my boot drive but the os and programs. If I can't, I should not use this 250gb, I should buy a small like 75gb hard drive, correct?

For instance, WD just came out with their new hard drive, the Velociraptor, with 300gb. I am never going to fill 300 gb on programs alone, so in order to feel like i haven't wasted my money, I would want to use more of it. Right? Wrong? Does partitioning change this?? I HAVE NO IDEA!

Oh and to you raid people, unfortunately the model hard drive I chose does not support raid. I can use a pci card to do that though, can't I?? If so, which would you recommend?

thanks guys

OH and as far as WHAT STORAGE drive I will buy, it looks like its going to be the samsung spinpoint, but which one?? they the spinpoints have different sizes, which is the best price per gig or performance??

thanks

[carpefile]

Partitioning the drive would have almost the same effect, and for the few milliseconds faster response time, to me it isn't worth buying another drive.
I would give your OS 75gb to play in, or you will shortly be dealing with out of space warnings from windows. This is because "my documents" and "program files" are by default placed on C:. You can change them to reside on another drive, but thats a pita too, because you will always have to tell windows where to put stuff.

Raid can also be a hassle to configure and maintain, so unless you are really geeked about it, forget it.

Figuring price per gig is simple, divide the gb into the price, and bingo, cost per gig.

[mountain_rage]

Unless someone can tell me otherwise, H/D have nothing to do with a Raid. Its controlled completely by a chip on your motherboard or a separate PCI board. So as long as you have 2, preferably identical h/d and a Raid controller, which I think your motherboard has, your good to go. The only reason I'm unsure of your motherboards compatibility is that you did not give the full model information. Their should be something like GA - _ _ _ _ DS3L as the model. Anyway I'm downloading the manual for one of the boards now to see how hard the raid is with Intel chip sets. With my Nvidia chip set it was rediculously easy. The performance boost is definitely worth it in my opinion.

[snapsnake]

my motherboard is this one: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L

I'm pretty sure it doesn't support raid.

Could you answer my other question, though? I would really like to know how much of a hard drive I can use before it becomes near useless speedwise.

For instance, If I were to buy this new 300gb velociraptor, and I only have 30 gb of programs, am I supposed to just let the other 270gb go to waste?? I really don't understand the whole concept of a 'BOOT DRIVE.' Would I just partition the velociraptor? would that ensure that my boot times, load times, etc stay the same??

[carpefile]

Well, no. A partitioned drive is not going to be as fast as two individual drives. Two drives, two channels, two sets of read/write heads working at once.
Its going to be faster than 2 drives sharing one set of heads, one channel.

But honestly, with today's specs being what they are, its not a huge difference, unless you measure your life in milliseconds.

If you're building some kind of dream machine, go with a solid state hdd for your boot drive, and then add some 1tb drives for storage.
But if you are just trying to build a decent box on a budget, a partitioned drive is gonna be just fine. Really.

[snapsnake]

Is there any argument for a raptor? I mean some people rave about them, are they really worth the money?

[snapsnake]

HOW DO YOU USE A VELOCIRAPTOR??? That is what I want to know. If it is true that loading a hard drive up slows it down, why would I need 300 gb? Say I bought the velociraptor. I load my OS, and about 40gb of programs/games onto it. If I want to utilise the rest of that hard drive without losing boot/program load time/everything else speed, would that be possible? or, would the entire system slow to a crawl like it has done with my 7200.10 hard drive if I use the 300 for anything more than an OS/programs drive???

[mountain_rage]

I would answer your question, but I've never had a near full h/d, so I'm not sure what your all talking about when it comes to slowdown on a full h/d. The only time I've ever seen an issue with slowdown due to a full h/d is when my aunt had so little space windows was giving her a warning.

[carpefile]

HOW DO YOU USE A VELOCIRAPTOR??? That is what I want to know. If it is true that loading a hard drive up slows it down, why would I need 300 gb? Say I bought the velociraptor. I load my OS, and about 40gb of programs/games onto it. If I want to utilise the rest of that hard drive without losing boot/program load time/everything else speed, would that be possible? or, would the entire system slow to a crawl like it has done with my 7200.10 hard drive if I use the 300 for anything more than an OS/programs drive???

Raptors spin at 10k rpms, so they are faster than the 7200 drives. ANY drive will slow as it fills, because the heads write stuff where its convenient at the moment, not where it can be read fastest.
As data gets scattered across your platters, the heads must travel a much greater distance to read a file. Which translates to slower read times.

Regularly defragging the drive helps keep your data in easy to read groups, but once you pass the 50% mark on your capacity, defragging ability starts to suffer.

The fuller your drive becomes, the less defragging space you have left, the less the ability to order data, the slower your read/write times, until finally it becomes a snail turd.

The new 300gb velociraptor is faster than the old raptors, as far as read/write times go, by 5 and 9 ms respectively. It does boast a higher sustained data transfer rate by 22MBps, so moving files around would be quicker.

So yeah, you shave a few ms here and there, if you're a big time gamer, I suppose that would give you a slight edge.
But yeah, you would pretty much have to waste the majority of the drive space to keep that edge.

Since I'm more of an archiver than a gamer, I don't really care if my box takes 4 more seconds to boot up than my buddy's does. I use a small 80gb 5200rpm caviar for my C:, and everything else goes either into one of the 2 1tb drives in the box, or any of several externals and networked drives ranging from 250gb to 1 tb.

If you are just apeshit for really really fast, you want this one ( http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_parts.asp?PRID=10451 )for your os drive and then maybe a vr300 for your storage.

[Mels_Smileys45]

Ahhh, just got a new 1 TB notebook today. Time to fill it up!


Keep your PC hard drive small and fast. Buy a large external and let that get bloated and slow.

[topino]

I´ve WD sata 320gb 7200rpm split in two partitions, working great, and Lacie 2.5" 160gb external hd, nice and small for new movies and games when transporting data from place to place ;) also memorystick with 16gb, enough for me.

[shawners]

I have a old 40gig as the master drive and what i did was FORMAT THE WHOLE thing.. Loaded on a hacked version of WINDOWS XP.. I Mean that shit was stripped down to 460mb.. And it had a lot of drivers to do.. I think it was the black edition a crew put out.. No spyware, no AOL internet shortcut. Tons of garbage completely gone.. Then i have a 160gig Slave drive that RUNS fast and Flawless on many levels.. All my 4-9gig RAR files of movies can uncompress and rebuilt within 4-5minutes as long as the drive isnt being used.. You can buy a 10,000 cycle drive instead of the 7500 which will read faster.. Or you could Simply compress as much stuff on a slave drive by archiving to make room and use it strictly for photography (AKA PR0N).

[Feather]

good to see ya shawn