1tb or 2x500gb

AlucardCasull · Nov 28, 2008

I am torn, I can get either:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB for $110
or
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB or Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB for $60 and RAID them.

Opinions?

MadMan007 · Nov 28, 2008

Depends on your intended use for the drives and which RAID level you will use.

TimoneX · Nov 28, 2008

What the purple hippo said.

This is a superior drive in nearly every way however:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

...and only $9 more. I've been on Seagates almost exclusively for years, but it seems they've fallen behind a bit. There's an in depth review floating around w/ all the who's who of tb drives and this one is tops in nearly everything. The 7200.11 has a rather poor showing.

AlucardCasull · Nov 28, 2008

Use: Games and CAD. RAID level: 0 (best performer for the buck if im not mistaken)

TimoneX · Nov 28, 2008

I'd get the 1TB Black were it me. I'm a big fan of RAID on the desktop, but unless you're moving big files around often I wouldn't go there. Plus if you need more storage later you can always add another 1TB and RAID them.

ou_phidelt · Nov 28, 2008

I am with Tim. The difference between the two just isn't enough to justify RAID, IMHO.

ziggo0 · Nov 28, 2008

^The 7200.11's are very good performers for the price...1TB that has nearly the same write/read/burst of a raptor, granted random access is down but I think that alone is something worth while.

What kind've data will you be storing on these drives? If it's important, I mean like if you lost it forever would you be sad a week later kinda important, then raid (not sure which one) with redundancy is worth it...I lost files dating back from the 1990's to my 1tb drive that was defective via. manufacturer.

TimoneX · Nov 28, 2008

Here's the camparison I was seeking of the two drives...and several others. The 1TB 7200.11 just didn't get it done. I don't own either drive, but for me the choice would be clear. There was a healthy premium on the WD Black, but that's shrunk to almost nothing.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15363/1

Regardless which way you go, regular backups are an absolute must. With modern drives I think the risk associated with a 2 disk raid 0 stripe is fairly small, but if your 1s & 0s are important to you then backups are critical.

Shiggity · Nov 28, 2008

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...lickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&Item=N82E16822148337

1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 for 119$ on Newegg, if you want more space for a cheaper $ / GB. (People have been mentioned firmware problems with this drive though.)

AlucardCasull · Nov 28, 2008

1.5tb still worries me, to new imo.

JamesXP · Nov 28, 2008

Too new?

seriously...?

I cant see why they would be a problem, if they break, send them back?

MadMan007 · Nov 28, 2008

Well I don't know how CAD files are but if they're anything like Photoshop files the RAID0 might help. RAID0 will mainly increase sustained reads and writes, either from a program or from another source drive although in the latter case the source drive might end up being the bottleneck. The main reason not to do RAID0 is for data safety, if you back up critical info you should be OK.

Are you going to use the onboard RAID controller?

1tb or 2x500gb

AlucardCasull

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MadMan007

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TimoneX

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AlucardCasull

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TimoneX

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ou_phidelt

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ziggo0

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TimoneX

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Shiggity

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AlucardCasull

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JamesXP

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MadMan007

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