Good Internal 2 - 3TB HDD ?

Welp, currently my 2X 1TB HDD Blue are getting filled with games...may need an upgrade in future and this time I'm thinking maybe I go for a bigger capacity in one go and maybe in future I'm able to ditch one of my HDD instead of having 3 HDD in my system.
As of now you can see it's trend that most cases are providing lesser and lesser HDD bays...some users even don't use any HDD....( I wonder how they even manage, unless you can afford like a 2 - 3TB SSD ? )

Problem is, W.D Blue anything above 1TB ( being 2TB - 4TB ) the HDD RPM speed is only 5200 ! Which compared 1TB it's 7200 RPM....
Will there be a noticeable differences if used for gaming ??

W.D Black are just stupidly expensive here in my country....
I've check Seagate...they are cheaper and they do have 7200 RPM 2 - 4TB drives, but their warranty is only 2 Years....and isn't Seagate like really really suck ??
I heard that Seagate have a high failure rate for their drives ??

So what's everyone's advice ? Fork out more money and go with W.D Black ?? ( Which is a fortune even just for a 2TB one...the price for a 3TB one I could buy like a Samsung EVO 850 512GB SSD )

Gh0sT-NoVa said:

Problem is, W.D Blue anything above 1TB ( being 2TB - 4TB ) the HDD RPM speed is only 5200 ! Which compared 1TB it's 7200 RPM....
Will there be a noticeable differences if used for gaming ??

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You will definitely notice a difference in loading times and defragmentation. the Toshiba P300 seems to be one of the fastest in the market and comes with a very nice price tag for it's size. Amazon marks it at 500GB-3TB 7200rpm 64mb cache and the higher models X300 from 4TB-6TB 7200rpm 128mb cache.

http://xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/toshiba-p300-3tb-hdd-review/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0151KM...lid=1T4K99F9KLCTI&coliid=I3QVRC21E7ENE2&psc=1

Kenrou said:

You will definitely notice a difference in loading times and defragmentation. the Toshiba P300 seems to be one of the fastest in the market and comes with a very nice price tag for it's size. Amazon marks it at 500GB-3TB 7200rpm 64mb cache and the higher models X300 from 4TB-6TB 7200rpm 128mb cache.

http://xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/toshiba-p300-3tb-hdd-review/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0151KM...lid=1T4K99F9KLCTI&coliid=I3QVRC21E7ENE2&psc=1

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Well I check with my local and online store in my country. There's literally no one selling the P300 model here at all.
I will have to import it via Online store...and the price is same as W.D Black...but only being back up by 2 Years Warranty !
If so I'm better off with W.D Black with 5 Years Warranty.

But we do sell normal ones like W.D Blue, 2 Years warranty, 1 Year less compared to W.D
But it's 7200 RPM at very least for all capacity. Maybe I would get this instead.
The price is similar to W.D Blue as well, just that it's 7200 RPM instead. I don't understand why W.D made it only at 5400 RPM, what a ripped off..

But are Toshiba drives good and durable in general ? I've never use them before or rarely heard of them honestly.
Though lately their SSD ( OCZ ) is really popular and they come with 5 Years warranty !

EDIT : One more question, If I were to get HDD big as 4TB - 6TB, would you recommend me to Partition it ?? So maybe if I were to Defrag the drive it wouldn't take forever !
I most probably be only storing all my games, nothing important. I never thought of it, but are there any disadvantages for Partitioning your drives ? If not mistaken, let's say if you wanted to Merge them back together you can't unless you format the entire thing right ?
If that's one of the bad thing, is there anything else ??

Is the HGST brand available in your country? They come in large sizes and 7200 rpm and is generally considered by the OC Forums community to be the most reliable brand right now. HGST used to be Hiatachi which was bought out by Western Digital. HGST is now a subsidiary of WD.

trents said:

Is the HGST brand available in your country? They come in large sizes and 7200 rpm and is generally considered by the OC Forums community to be the most reliable brand right now. HGST used to be Hiatachi which was bought out by Western Digital. HGST is now a subsidiary of WD.

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We used to sell them, there are still some. But it's only either NAS or Ultrastar Enterprise versions lol, which is expensive as hell. It's the same price of W.D Black.
A 4TB one cost about a 1TB Samsung Evo 850 SSD lol....I would rather invest on that 1TB SSD and constantly uninstall game and re-install it instead if so lol...least I get that super fast loading speed.

I think I have no choice but to go with Toshiba and give them a try. Isn't too expensive. 2 Years Warranty not much but I'm storing Games only so I guess it's worth the risk.

But my previous question isn't answered, would you guys recommend I Partition the drive ?? Since I be getting least 4 - 6TB or so. If I don't then Defragging it will take forever !
But I would like to know what are the downside of Partitioning drives ?? If I were to Merge them back I first must format it completely right ? Is there anything else ?

Sorry for not replying sooner, i have never had a Toshiba so can't help there, but reviews seems promising especially if the other offers are that much more expensive. It's worth partitioning if you use the drive for different things (work/games/backups) and like you said for defrag times if you use it often. If you do it make sure to put the stuff you use the most in the 1st drive as it will be the fastest area of the HDD.

Kenrou said:

Sorry for not replying sooner, i have never had a Toshiba so can't help there, but reviews seems promising especially if the other offers are that much more expensive. It's worth partitioning if you use the drive for different things (work/games/backups) and like you said for defrag times if you use it often. If you do it make sure to put the stuff you use the most in the 1st drive as it will be the fastest area of the HDD.

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Wait..so you're saying if I Partition my drive, files that are saved / stored / installed on the further back will run slower ??
So example a 4TB drive let's split into 4 section each 1TB named Drive 1, Drive 2, Drive 3, Drive 4.

So Drive 1 will be the fastest and Drive 4 be the slowest ??
This is only affected by defragging or even in game loading times? How much of a difference are we talking about here.

Gh0sT-NoVa said:

Wait..so you're saying if I Partition my drive, files that are saved / stored / installed on the further back will run slower ??
So example a 4TB drive let's split into 4 section each 1TB named Drive 1, Drive 2, Drive 3, Drive 4.

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I think that's probably the case. The outer tracks have room for more sectors at the same recording density. If the disk rotates at a constant speed, then more data can be read from the outer tracks in one rotation than the inner tracks. That's assuming that the disk does not go faster as the head moves to the inner tracks. (Some drives may do that.)

There was a time when some folks wanting the fastest spinning drives possible only partitioned the outer part of the drive to take advantage of the slight improvement. I don't think it makes a big difference.

(Happy new year! )

The HDD is basically several spinning plates stacked together like pancakes (depending on the size). It doesn't make a HUGE difference but it's noticeable if you use it constantly. My old WD Green 1TB for example loses 20MB/s-30MB/s in the outer tracks. You shouldn't have that much since it's a newer model

HankB said:

I think that's probably the case. The outer tracks have room for more sectors at the same recording density. If the disk rotates at a constant speed, then more data can be read from the outer tracks in one rotation than the inner tracks. That's assuming that the disk does not go faster as the head moves to the inner tracks. (Some drives may do that.)

There was a time when some folks wanting the fastest spinning drives possible only partitioned the outer part of the drive to take advantage of the slight improvement. I don't think it makes a big difference.

(Happy new year! )

Click to expand...

Kenrou said:

The HDD is basically several spinning plates stacked together like pancakes (depending on the size). It doesn't make a HUGE difference but it's noticeable if you use it constantly. My old WD Green 1TB for example loses 20MB/s-30MB/s in the outer tracks. You shouldn't have that much since it's a newer model

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Ah I see, Tks for the Info, I never thought of it, I mean logically I guess it does means slower.
But luckily it's no major impact. I guess I would just save up and see when it's the right time to get one.
Now only to decide whether to go for a 4TB or 6TB ( which is overkill though lol ).

And Happy New Year !

One last thing, does the quality of SATA cables matter ?? So far the only SATA cable I bought, which is a cheap non branded one and it's being used for my DVD-ROM though.
The rest is from ASUS that came with the Mobo and another one from Bitfenix which cost a whopping 15$...
Or does all SATA cable work just fine ? I don't think I've seen any branded ones besides the ones like Silverstone and BitFenix which costs alot...

Gh0sT-NoVa said:

One last thing, does the quality of SATA cables matter ??

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At some point it has to. I can imagine cables bad enough that a drive will not work or perhaps be on the edge and work slowly. I think the designers of the SATA spec must have put some thought into reliability and noise immunity and as a result cable problems seem to not come up here very frequently. I usually buy the cheapest cables available and am not aware of any problems with any of them.

Considering the price difference between the cheapest and more expensive ones it may not be the best place to save $$$.

HankB said:

At some point it has to. I can imagine cables bad enough that a drive will not work or perhaps be on the edge and work slowly. I think the designers of the SATA spec must have put some thought into reliability and noise immunity and as a result cable problems seem to not come up here very frequently. I usually buy the cheapest cables available and am not aware of any problems with any of them.

Considering the price difference between the cheapest and more expensive ones it may not be the best place to save $$$.

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Cheap unbranded ones are only about mere 2 - 3$ here lol...a good branded one like Silverstone, Bitfenix that's all we sell honestly and it's rare as well....would cost much as 12 - 15$ as I said.
Well if I live in the US, of course to me that extra 10 - 13$ is like nothing honestly....but in my currency this is what I'm seeing RM 10 vs RM 50 - RM 60. Now to give you an idea how much is that...basically a McDonald set meal, Big Mac + Fries + Drink it's only like a mere RM 11 - 12....so I can have like least 5 Days worth of McDonald for lunch !
That's the differences there....even my cell phone bill only costs like RM 31 per month lol...I can pay off two months worth bill ! ( And the bill is Inclusive 3GB off DATA for Internet, not much but enough for Facebook, GPS etc )