Recommended high-storage hard drives?

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KHAndAnime

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#1  Edited By KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

I'd like to upgrade the hard drive accompanying my 850 Pro, right now I'm using a Samsung Spinpoint F3. I'd like something that is at least 2 TB (preferably higher if there are any), reliable, and fast (at least as fast as my Spinpoint). What do you guys recommend?

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#2 insane_metalist
Member since 2006 • 7797 Posts

That seems like, a waste of money. Grab 1TB 840 or Crucial MX100 / M550, Intel 730 series.

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#3  Edited By KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

@insane_metalist said:

That seems like, a waste of money. Grab 1TB 840 or Crucial MX100 / M550, Intel 730 series.

Storing music and movies on a SSD is precisely the definition of a wasting money lol

Might as well start wiping my ass with $1 bills

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#4 insane_metalist
Member since 2006 • 7797 Posts

@KHAndAnime said:

@insane_metalist said:

That seems like, a waste of money. Grab 1TB 840 or Crucial MX100 / M550, Intel 730 series.

Storing music and movies on a SSD is precisely the definition of a wasting money lol

Might as well start wiping my ass with $1 bills

Your money, if you want that much storage in SSDs then get two 1TB SSDs. I recommended SSD that I find to be solid. Also, Corsair SSDs are quiet nice.

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#5  Edited By KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

@insane_metalist said:

Your money, if you want that much storage in SSDs then get two 1TB SSDs. I recommended SSD that I find to be solid. Also, Corsair SSDs are quiet nice.

I can't even fill up my 256GB SSD with things that take advantage of it - I frankly can't possibly imagine a practical benefit to having a SSD for media storage. That money would be better spent on just about any other aspect of my PC if I was looking for actual performance gains. Really, what you're suggesting isn't even sane let alone within the realm of what I'm looking for :p

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#6 kraken2109
Member since 2009 • 13271 Posts

It looks like @insane_metalist misread and thinks you're asking for a 2TB SSD.

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04dcarraher

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#7 04dcarraher
Member since 2004 • 23823 Posts

Seagate Barracuda 2tb will do the job

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#8 insane_metalist
Member since 2006 • 7797 Posts

@kraken2109 said:

It looks like @insane_metalist misread and thinks you're asking for a 2TB SSD.

I did misread indeed. 3 days of work and no sleep.. it got to me, my bad. In this case 2TB WD Black or 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD or SSHD.

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#10  Edited By zaku101
Member since 2005 • 4641 Posts

@KHAndAnime said:

I'd like to upgrade the hard drive accompanying my 850 Pro, right now I'm using a Samsung Spinpoint F3. I'd like something that is at least 2 TB (preferably higher if there are any), reliable, and fast (at least as fast as my Spinpoint). What do you guys recommend?

Something you might want to look at when purchasing. I've owned all 3 and have never had an Hitachi die on me, the other two have...

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#11 Byshop  Moderator
Member since 2002 • 20504 Posts

@Chatch09 said:

I have the WD Caviar Black 2TB, its said to be the fastest 2TB mechanical drive on the market but I have nothing fair to compare it too (other drives are 500gb 850 evo and 250gb 840 evo). Working great so far, even for gaming, load times are not that far behind the SSDs so I'd say its a solid choice. If you need more than 2TB you could just get a 2nd WD black for RAID-0 and get even better performance as well, although most people frown upon raid-0 with mechanical drives because of the theoretical failure rate, I haven't actually heard of that many horror stories of people losing all their data, I would honestly try it if I needed it.

WD Black drives are pretty solid. I'm running five 4TB WDBs in my SAN. Normally I'd say that the Black line is overkill for archival storage but the op said "fast" too so these are a good combination of speed and size. However, if speed is not that critical I'd recommend saving the money and getting multiple WD Green drives and running them in a mirror if the intetion is archiving data.

-Byshop

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#12  Edited By FelipeInside
Member since 2003 • 28548 Posts

@KHAndAnime said:

I'd like to upgrade the hard drive accompanying my 850 Pro, right now I'm using a Samsung Spinpoint F3. I'd like something that is at least 2 TB (preferably higher if there are any), reliable, and fast (at least as fast as my Spinpoint). What do you guys recommend?

WD Blacks are the best of the bunch in terms of speed. If you want something more on the side of reliable then go WD Reds which are their NAS drives.

Remember these are still HDDs, so reliable doesn't really have a place here since HDDs can die in 5 years or 5 days. Backup is the magic word.

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#13 04dcarraher
Member since 2004 • 23823 Posts

@zaku101 said:

@KHAndAnime said:

I'd like to upgrade the hard drive accompanying my 850 Pro, right now I'm using a Samsung Spinpoint F3. I'd like something that is at least 2 TB (preferably higher if there are any), reliable, and fast (at least as fast as my Spinpoint). What do you guys recommend?

Something you might want to look at when purchasing. I've owned all 3 and have never had an Hitachi die on me, the other two have...

Those charts are slewed because of the amount differences, and the usage area for those drives ie large scale storage/server use, which isn't the same as someone at home. Ive been using hard drives from most makers and models for the past 15 years and fact is that all drives fail, Ive seen WD drives die within the first day to last over a decade, On average all the seagates Ive used I get 5-7 years before issues.

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#14 KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

Okay, well if anyone can convince me otherwise I'm getting this 3 TB WD Black for $150.

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#15 Byshop  Moderator
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@KHAndAnime said:

Okay, well if anyone can convince me otherwise I'm getting this 3 TB WD Black for $150.

That's a fine drive and likely to be very reliable, but if your intention is archival storage then you're better off with two Green drives of the same capacity for a similar price. If you intend to run games/VMs/whatever off of it, go with the Black.

-Byshop

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deactivated-57e5de5e137a4

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#16  Edited By deactivated-57e5de5e137a4
Member since 2004 • 12929 Posts

The newer WD Green drives are fine for that. You might have to disable the feature that parks the heads frequently, but that's the most space for the buck that's also a reliable drive. Seagate has big cheap drives, but the quality of that company is pretty bad.

The WD Black drives would work too, but that's way overkill for the kind of use you were asking about. I set up a HTPC for my parents with a Green drive to record to, and then it will copy to a larger server a week later. It's easily able to record several HD quality tv shows at the same time with no troubles keeping up.

For my part, I've had three different Seagate, and one Hitachi drives fail over the past ten years or so and never had a WD drive fail. They have lasted me long enough that I just had to throw them away because the space they provided was too small.

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#17 KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

@Byshop said:

@KHAndAnime said:

Okay, well if anyone can convince me otherwise I'm getting this 3 TB WD Black for $150.

That's a fine drive and likely to be very reliable, but if your intention is archival storage then you're better off with two Green drives of the same capacity for a similar price. If you intend to run games/VMs/whatever off of it, go with the Black.

-Byshop

Thanks, I'll be putting games on it - ones that I don't play often enough to deem necessary for my SSD. :) Basically I have the titles I actually often play on my SSD, and then everything else (including games I play only occasionally) on the HDD.

But I just realized I may need X99 to unlock the full storage capabilities of a 3TB hard drive so I might have to wait on it

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#18 Byshop  Moderator
Member since 2002 • 20504 Posts

@KHAndAnime said:

But I just realized I may need X99 to unlock the full storage capabilities of a 3TB hard drive so I might have to wait on it

I'm not clear on what you mean by that. There shouldn't be any speed or capacity restriction with any modern OS/motherboard.

-Byshop

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#19  Edited By KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

@Byshop said:

@KHAndAnime said:

But I just realized I may need X99 to unlock the full storage capabilities of a 3TB hard drive so I might have to wait on it

I'm not clear on what you mean by that. There shouldn't be any speed or capacity restriction with any modern OS/motherboard.

-Byshop

I just read that you need UEFI to get past 2.2 TB, unless what I read was mistaken

2.2 TB is more than enough for now, I might still pick up the drive so it gives me more incentive to upgrade my mobo+cpu+ram in the near future. As is though, I can't get full speeds from my 850 Pro because I only have a 3rd party SATA III port, and I don't necessarily want to try to find a new mobo just for the hard drive features - I'd want to get the whole new shebang.

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#20 Byshop  Moderator
Member since 2002 • 20504 Posts

@KHAndAnime said:

@Byshop said:

@KHAndAnime said:

But I just realized I may need X99 to unlock the full storage capabilities of a 3TB hard drive so I might have to wait on it

I'm not clear on what you mean by that. There shouldn't be any speed or capacity restriction with any modern OS/motherboard.

-Byshop

I just read that you need UEFI to get past 2.2 TB, unless what I read was mistaken

2.2 TB is more than enough for now, I might still pick up the drive so it gives me more incentive to upgrade my mobo+cpu+ram in the near future. As is though, I can't get full speeds from my 850 Pro because I only have a 3rd party SATA III port, and I don't necessarily want to try to find a new mobo just for the hard drive features - I'd want to get the whole new shebang.

Technically that's true but there are some workarounds. Gigabyte, for example, had a "hybrid efi" bios which was basically a normal bios that could recognize large drives. There are also software drivers to help with addressing issues on older systems.

If you have a 64-bit OS (preferably win7 or later) and you aren't using it as your OS drive you should be fine.

-Byshop

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#21  Edited By KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

@Byshop said:

Technically that's true but there are some workarounds. Gigabyte, for example, had a "hybrid efi" bios which was basically a normal bios that could recognize large drives. There are also software drivers to help with addressing issues on older systems.

If you have a 64-bit OS (preferably win7 or later) and you aren't using it as your OS drive you should be fine.

-Byshop

Nice, you're right, I found this utility which supports my mobo. I'll order the hard drive tonight - thank you.

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#22  Edited By Byshop  Moderator
Member since 2002 • 20504 Posts

@KHAndAnime said:

Nice, you're right, I found this utility which supports my mobo. I'll order the hard drive tonight - thank you.

No problem. If I were buying a large HD for my gaming rig that's the line I would go with. Of the five 4TB WD Black drives I have, not one has failed yet and I'm actually looking to pick up a sixth before too long. They are all in one SAN and the oldest drives have been running 24/7 for at least a year and a half.

-Byshop

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#23 KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

@Byshop said:

@KHAndAnime said:

Nice, you're right, I found this utility which supports my mobo. I'll order the hard drive tonight - thank you.

No problem. If I were buying a large HD for my gaming rig that's the line I would go with. Of the five 4TB WD Black drives I have, not one has failed yet and I'm actually looking to pick up a sixth before too long. They are all in one SAN and the oldest drives have been running 24/7 for at least a year and a half.

-Byshop

Curious - what are you storing on all those drives?

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#24 Byshop  Moderator
Member since 2002 • 20504 Posts

@KHAndAnime said:

@Byshop said:

No problem. If I were buying a large HD for my gaming rig that's the line I would go with. Of the five 4TB WD Black drives I have, not one has failed yet and I'm actually looking to pick up a sixth before too long. They are all in one SAN and the oldest drives have been running 24/7 for at least a year and a half.

-Byshop

Curious - what are you storing on all those drives?

Media server driven by Plex. Rips of my DVD and Bluray collection, DRM free digital downloads, DVR recordings, music, photos videos, etc.

-Byshop

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#25 GeryGo  Moderator
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@KHAndAnime said:

I'd like to upgrade the hard drive accompanying my 850 Pro, right now I'm using a Samsung Spinpoint F3. I'd like something that is at least 2 TB (preferably higher if there are any), reliable, and fast (at least as fast as my Spinpoint). What do you guys recommend?

Seagate offer right now a 6TB HDD with 5900rpm and 128Mb cache for 250$ http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-stbd6000100 they're going to release very soon with the same money a brand new technology HDD with 8TB storage while the cost should be the same as the 6TB one.

You can pick one from Hitachi 6TB 128Mb cache and 7200rpm for little more http://pcpartpicker.com/part/hitachi-internal-hard-drive-0s03839

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#26  Edited By zaku101
Member since 2005 • 4641 Posts

@04dcarraher said:

@zaku101 said:

@KHAndAnime said:

I'd like to upgrade the hard drive accompanying my 850 Pro, right now I'm using a Samsung Spinpoint F3. I'd like something that is at least 2 TB (preferably higher if there are any), reliable, and fast (at least as fast as my Spinpoint). What do you guys recommend?

Something you might want to look at when purchasing. I've owned all 3 and have never had an Hitachi die on me, the other two have...

Those charts are slewed because of the amount differences, and the usage area for those drives ie large scale storage/server use, which isn't the same as someone at home. Ive been using hard drives from most makers and models for the past 15 years and fact is that all drives fail, Ive seen WD drives die within the first day to last over a decade, On average all the seagates Ive used I get 5-7 years before issues.

It doesn't matter, it still shows the build quality. Keep in mind unless you have the time to compare 27,000 drives your opinion does very little here. Hitachi must have higher standards that need to be met for their drives.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2089464/three-year-27-000-drive-study-reveals-the-most-reliable-hard-drive-makers.html

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#27  Edited By 04dcarraher
Member since 2004 • 23823 Posts

@zaku101 said:

@04dcarraher said:

@zaku101 said:

@KHAndAnime said:

I'd like to upgrade the hard drive accompanying my 850 Pro, right now I'm using a Samsung Spinpoint F3. I'd like something that is at least 2 TB (preferably higher if there are any), reliable, and fast (at least as fast as my Spinpoint). What do you guys recommend?

Something you might want to look at when purchasing. I've owned all 3 and have never had an Hitachi die on me, the other two have...

Those charts are slewed because of the amount differences, and the usage area for those drives ie large scale storage/server use, which isn't the same as someone at home. Ive been using hard drives from most makers and models for the past 15 years and fact is that all drives fail, Ive seen WD drives die within the first day to last over a decade, On average all the seagates Ive used I get 5-7 years before issues.

It doesn't matter, it still shows the build quality. Keep in mind unless you have the time to compare 27,000 drives your opinion does very little here.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2089464/three-year-27-000-drive-study-reveals-the-most-reliable-hard-drive-makers.html

Need to read your own proof, it does prove build quality......

"Backblaze’s data may look like making your next drive a Hitachi is a no-brainer, but it's important to remember that Backblaze runs drives harder than the average PC user ever could. So while Seagate products may go down all the time at the company, a PC user may never notice a problem during the lifetime of their PC."

"Backblaze said it will stop buying Seagate LP 2TB drives and Western Digital Green 3TB drives, because they just don’t work in the company’s environment. Part of the problem, Backblaze says, is these drives are designed to spin down when not in use to save power. That’s a great feature for a home PC user, but in an industrial environment"

"Backblaze's earlier study showed that hard drives are actually pretty reliable overall over a four-year stretch, even in a server farm. And hey, a number of individual Seagate models actually had a longer average age than Hitachi products!"

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#28 C_Rule
Member since 2008 • 9816 Posts

@KHAndAnime said:

@Byshop said:

@KHAndAnime said:

But I just realized I may need X99 to unlock the full storage capabilities of a 3TB hard drive so I might have to wait on it

I'm not clear on what you mean by that. There shouldn't be any speed or capacity restriction with any modern OS/motherboard.

-Byshop

I just read that you need UEFI to get past 2.2 TB, unless what I read was mistaken

2.2 TB is more than enough for now, I might still pick up the drive so it gives me more incentive to upgrade my mobo+cpu+ram in the near future. As is though, I can't get full speeds from my 850 Pro because I only have a 3rd party SATA III port, and I don't necessarily want to try to find a new mobo just for the hard drive features - I'd want to get the whole new shebang.

I've got two 4TB Greens running on a G41 (socket 775) motherboard. lol

I think you'll be fine.

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#29 ShepardCommandr
Member since 2013 • 4939 Posts

Anything but seagate.

Seagate much like AMD is for peasants and sucks.

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#30  Edited By KHAndAnime
Member since 2009 • 17565 Posts

So I hooked this bad boy up to my PC and 3 observations...

1) Much faster read speed (50%-75% faster on average)

2) Slower write speed than my Spinpoint F3 (according to Samsung Magician, but maybe I should've used different bench?)

3) 3x louder than the Spinpoint F3. Almost every operation on this thing is really audible. I had difficulty even hearing my Spinpoint F3.

All in all, I'm satisfied. Does anyone know the best way I can gauge if my write speeds are slower than other people's 3TB WD Blacks? Recommend any specific benchmarks?