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How To Decide On How Big A Hard Drive To Buy!

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HarryWild

HarryWild

Technical User
Sep 21, 2004
57
US
Hi all!

Just purchased a new computer a Lenovo ThinkCentre M58p SFF! My current computer is a IBM ThinkCentre model 8183 - it a small form factor like my new one. I had purchased it with a hard drive. I been using the Western Digital high end server type drive and been very happy with it. I like the speed and it has been very nice in that it seems to no fragment much and no corruption of data.

Prices have gone down a lot on hard drives. I need to decide go with a 70, 150 or 300gb drive. Currently, I have a Raptor 70gb with only 23gb left free. My plan is to clone my existing drive into my new drive, place it into the M58p and used the Windows Upgrade Install procedure to make the clone drive work with the M58p. I was going to go with the 300gb but at my rate it take 6 years before it reaches 2/3rd of the hard drive size. I'm planning on getting a SDD(Solid State Drive) in two years to migrate to Windows 7 when the SSD prices come down. I keeping the original M58p hard drive to use as my upgrade option since it has Vista on it. The 150gb is around $160 while the 300gb is around $200. So for $40 you basically get double the size.

The question is should I go with the 150gb or 300gb. I fear the maintenance of the larger drive size since the utilities will take longer to run because of the size - disk frag, optimize, etc... while the corruption might be easier to obtain on a larger drive size.

I plan on using a portable or external drive for storing so call "crap". Movies, photos, stories, etc...

Any thoughts on the Blu-Ray to be consider in an optical drive. Burners are $200, Combo package read Blu-Ray, but burner DVD/CD are around $135 and multi-burners are $50. Is Blu-Ray needed and which type would you buy? Kind of scare off by the Blu-Ray disk price of $5 a disk but like the 25gb. 50gb is very nice too but disk are very pricey. Even the Blu_Ray drive is costly even at $200 when compare to multi-burners.

Please tell me your thoughts on what I should buy and what you would do!

Thanks.

Harry
 
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Yeah, that's why I say the Intel X25M ...G2... series.. From all reports, they are not as vulnerable to all that stuff, and even if they do slow down over time, the slowdowns they see would still put them over the raptors, velociraptors, etc..

They should easily last a couple years, it seems. I'd just be careful to not fill the whole thing up, I'd imagine with the new TRIM technology, you'd benefit from leaving a fair amount of free space at all times - which it seems best to do this with hard drives as well.


Yeah, they're back up to $300 again ($299). They were actually as low as $220 or $230 around Thanksgiving. I've also seen one or two on eBay for around $250, I believe it was. That's for an 80GB model. The 160GB model would seem idea, but it's $540 right now at NewEgg:

If it were me, and I was going to spend the money, I'd go strictly with Intel right now, with that specific model. There are a couple out there that may be faster, but overall, the Intel disks seem to be the best overall, and most of the time, best in every category. The G1 series didn't support TRIM, but the G2 series do.

Being that it's still fairly new technology, it would seem more risky than spindle drives. However, from all i've read with these, I just about would say they are far less risky than the spindle drives at this point in time... IF you get the good ones, such as Intel. Yes, they use NAND flash, but somehow the stuff they're using in the SSDs seems to be of higher quality than what's been in the NAND flash thumb drives I've used.

Oh, here's another trick that makes the X25-M G2 so fast. They use 10 or 12 channels in those. Most of the drives don't use near that. But if you wanted to jump there, I don't think you could go wrong. I'd personally get a spindle drive for storage, and an SSD for the system, that way you don't have to worry about over-filling the SSD.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me
 
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kjv1611,

Thanks for sharing your ideas on SSD. I going to however, stick with my plan of buy the Raptor and wait three years or more till the technology improves and cost go down to that of the hard drives now.

I think you agree with me that this is still the beginning of the technology curve in SSDs. I even check if their are defrags and optimizers out their for SSD. I could not find one specifically for SSD drives.

I going to play it smart!

I will be happy with my VelociVaptor. I looking into now an eSata External Drive for backup.
 
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eSata is nice for external drives - very nice in my opinion. At my church, I handle about 98% of all the audio/video stuff right now. For both, I spit the files out to an external eSata hard drive, carry it home, and swap files also over eSata. Before I was using a USB thumb drive. I was murdering the thumb drives with the kind of read/write operations I was doing, just transferring the files:

Audio files (raw pcm wav) - 2 to 4 GB per service (2 on Sunday, one on Wednesday, at the least.

Video files (1080i AVCHD format) - 10 to 20GB per service.

I never even tried to put the video files on the thumb drives, but the audio files - after we went to pcm wav format, oh...... how....... slow....... even on "fast" drives at that... the fastest speed I EVER saw, write speed on the thumb drive was 19 or 20MB/sec. On the eSata drive, 7200 RPM drive, I typically see at least 40 to 50 MB/sec, and have seen as high as 70MB/sec. It's not a particularly performance drive that I use, but it's a pretty decent one. Can't remember the brand name right now, but we've got 3 of them... and that reminds me, I need to take the time and run some checks on one of them, as it was making more noise than I'm comfortable with the other day... Okay, trying not to go off topic. [wink]

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me
 
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I may get a universal external case that can swap any 2.5 and 3.5 hard drive with eSATA, Firewire and USB. I have not quite decided yet! This will enable me to use any drives I have. It about $35 which is very reasonable.
 
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Question? How do you know if your motherboard can do RAID? I thinking of doing a RAID 0. Do you think (ha, ha) that my ThinkCentre m58p can be set in a Raid's array?

Thanks again.
 
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BadBigBen,

Thanks I going to look for two drives then. Fast is fast is my motto for now! I hope two drives together do not too much noise for me.

Just thinking about it now!

Harry
 
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What do you think about this drive as a system boot drive?

Western Digital RE4 WD2003FYYS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive?

Interface SATA 3.0Gb/s
Capacity 2TB
RPM 7200 RPM
Cache 64MB
Physical Spec
Form Factor 3.5"
Features
Features Dual processor - Twice the processing power to maximize performance
Manufacturer Warranty
Parts 5 years limited
Labor 5 years limited


Am I crazy or what?
 
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BadBigBen,

I cannot do a duel drive install unless I make my DVD burner an external drive. Since it is a small form factor case; it has a 3.5 inch slim card reader bay(no good), a 3.5 inch stardand size HHD bay and a 5.25 inch standard size height optical bay. I already purchase the DVD multi-burner from Lenovo internal. So; do you still think I should it as you suggest?
 
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HarryWild,

In your case, if it's the same as here, then you should be able to fit 2 hard drives in the case. The motherboard may support 2, but you'd probably be asking for trouble in a SFF if you try to go for more than 2 anyway.

If you are ONLY concerned with speed, and you only have space for 2 hard drives, then you could go with 2 RE4s or 2 Velociraptors in RAID 0. Then, if anything you have on that PC is important, setup a backup routine to an external hard drive, or either to the other PC you have.

I don't think you can go wrong with either the Velociraptor or the RE4 for speed. The only way you're going to see a difference beyond that would be SSDs, which you said you're going to skip for now.

The other options could be RAID1 if you are concerned about the data, or you could get one Velociraptor for the system, and 1 RE4 for data.

If you end up wanting to setup a RAID 0, then I'd suggest just getting a decent external drive with both eSata and USB connections. It doesn't have to be an RE4 class for that role, as you don't really need high performance for something like backups - I don't think you'd notice the difference, vs, say a WD Green drive.


--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me
 
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So; do you still think I should it as you suggest?

in that case go with the 2TB solution...

I was under the impression that it was the tower case, and not one of the two Ultra Small & Ultra Small Form Factor cases...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
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The drive is too pricey $426! I going with the Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive for about $160.00.

What do you think? Or do you still like the VelociRaptor 300gb?
 
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Harry, where in the world are you shopping at... at Newegg you can get a 2TB (albeit slower) drive for $10 less...

or take a look at this one:


or this one:





Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
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Ben,

All or most of these are "green" hard drives. That means they are not "fast" because of the testing for power savings. I leaning on buying the 300gb Velociraptor again but not sure if I should get the SATA cable version or the backpane version with hot swap which is $30 less.

I don't want to have it not fit and force to return it at my cost of shipping so; which should I get? Newegg has the best deal on it at $200 backpane version WD3000HLFS and the SATA cable version which is the WD3000GLFS is selling around the $230 range.

I kind of leaning towards the backpane but fearful that it may not fix the bay and that the connection will not be proper for like a regular SATA drive. Need your opinion on the version before I buy however.

Harry
 
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Actually, both should work in your case with out a problem, the only real difference is the location of the SATA port and Power connector...

Here is the HLFS version, note where the connectors/ports are at:
4a26def19c8da.jpg


and for comparisson the GLFS:
020804.jpg


can you see the difference? in other words, the HLFS has an attached PCB that places the ports further down to where the normal SATA ports on all drives are, and the GLFS does not have this, it is like a 2.5" drive with a metal brick (heat sink) attached...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
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Ben,

Thanks for the pictures! I guess I will think about it but leaning towards the backpane version since it save me money but the connections to it are lower while the SATA version is in the center.

I going to think this over; but the ThinkCentre should be like the current model which has a cage built in that flips upward to mount it into. I will have to open the box and look through it but I going take a chance and just buy one or the other.

Thanks again.

Harry
 
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Yeah, the only problem you could possibly run into is that if the hdd cage covers up any portion of the drive where the connections are. If it does, just be 100% sure that it doesn't cover up the portion that you'll need open for the connections, depending upon the drive. But more than likely, it won't matter which one you get. Either way, you'll be happy performance wise.

And I hate to throw a different option in there, but if you went with a WD Black drive - 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, 1TB, or 2TB you'd get about the same performance with more storage space and a cheaper price. (Cheaper, except for the newer 2TB drive.

The 1TB is $100 right now at NewEgg. The 640GB and the 2TB drives are both sold out.

Honestly, if you went with either, you won't be dissapointed. The WD Velociraptors, though, are really a whole island to themselves if you look at them from every possible angle. Very interesting in HDD technology, I think.

If you really want to make sure you're getting the fastest drive possible (without getting SSD), you could look at these charts:

However, I'd say you've well put enough time into the decision. The Velociraptors will be a little faster than the WD Blacks in some scenerios, in others you won't see any difference.

In this specific test, the WD Black 1TB actually scored a HAIR (a tiny hair) better than the Velociraptor 300GB drive. The fast RE4 had the best score, but I don't think any of those differences is worth worrying about:

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me
 
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I did not read this final post before I Ebay a Velociraptor 300gb GLFS version. What to play it safe! What it to line up like a normal SATA drive. I would of purchased the RE3 if I had known this. Too late know.

I will let you know what I think when I in install it in mid January!
 
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