Hard Drive Thoughts & Question

I've had my R3 for a little over a month, and am wanting to increase the drive capacity. I ordered the rig with the 500 Gb Hybrid drive for starters. I would like to put in a Crucial M4 512 Gb, but I am thinking of waiting until the prices drop. I have found that the hybrid drive is pretty quick as it is, and from what I'm reading, maybe about 10 - 15 seconds slower than the SSD's. I can live with that. Right now I have 2ea. 1 TB Western Digital portables that I used with my previous laptop. I am thinking of shedding some weight by either adding a Western Digital Scorpio Black or Blue in 750 gig or 1 TB. Scenario 2 would be to add a Seagate Momentus XT as a 2nd hybrid (750 gig). Since drive # 2 would be mostly for games, utilities & work stuff, is there any real advantage of a 2nd Hybrid. just trying to get the best bang for the buck as well as not hinder performance. Any further thoughts ????

Thanks !!!!

 

Western Digital Scorpio Black are nice i have a 2tb in my pc. How do you like the Hybrid drive been very interested in this. you could always get another Hybrid drive .

 

You could do what I did...and buy a smaller SSD drive (256GB) for your primary and then a larger drive (in my case I went with the 750GB hybrid drive) for the secondary. Right now the price between the hybrid drive and the scorpio black (which is an awesome drive) is pretty minimal, so for me going with the Hybrid drive just made sense. You can buy both for less then a 512GB SSD drive would cost you right now and get more space at the same time. I've upgraded from two 500GB momentus XT hybrid drives and I loved the performance, but really wanted to get a true SSD drive as my primary boot device.

 

My reasoning on the SSD is that I don't want to do it over again. Smallest that would serve me well would be the 512 Gb. When the prices do drop, we may be looking at even higher capacities (year or so). As I said, the performance of the hybrid is pretty respectable. Boot time is about 30 sec or less. I really need the secondary drive more than upgrading the primary at this point in time. I just don't know if there would be any "gain" in performance with a 2nd hybrid vs. a good platter. I was unaware that a Scorpio Black 2 Tb was available for a laptop drive.

 

I have the 500Gb hybrid drive and it is awesome, im using it in my mac right now and i have a 256 Solid slate in my m17x. they boot up in the exact same time maybe off by half a second. Im planning on putting my regular 120 gb drive back into my mac and putting my 500 hybrid drive into my alienware with a clean install. whats the best way to do this? can i raid an SSD and a 500 hybrid drive or is that just pointless? or should i just throw them both in there and install windows 7 to my SSD and games on the hybrid?

 

I'm kinda old fashioned, and still want my drives independent from each other.Raid 0 data mingling increases speed, but if a drive goes down, you loose it all. You have to have identical drives for Raid 0.

 

bro, a 512 m4 is sweet, but not at $600

My question is do you really need the room? Can you offload unimportant things to a 2gig external (that is dirt cheap)? Most people find that a 128gig is enough, then you can use the 500gig hybrid for storage of large files. You can even install games on the hybrid with no performance hit

 

$600 for storage is exactly why have been rethinking this. It seems stupid to spend that much just for faster access. Look at the $ % ratio when compared to the cost of the whole rig.

The reason I need the storage is due to my laptop having to be a multi role device. I am a self employed master cabinetmaker. I use photos of past jobs to show to customers on consultations. I also use high end CAD software for designing kitchens, etc. The layout measurements are done in the field. I use it for entertainment when traveling (movies, streaming, TV, etc), and of course games. It also goes with me when camping, and is an integral support device used in some of my other hobbies out in the field.

The 500 Gig primary drive will fill up fast, and since this is my 1st laptop that allows a 2nd drive, I can use the portable externals for back ups, & misc, and leave them in the bag. I also thought that I'd use the 2nd drive for things like photos, games, & misc, while the primary is for OS, utilities, and work stuff.
Anyway, I think the Seagate Momentus XT 750 @ $ 175 makes better sense at this point in time. The other consideration was the WD Scorpio Black 750, but it is slower & a little pricier (not much). When prices do come down, the primary will be replaced with an SSD, mainly for durability. I had an HD seize on my previous laptop last year. It took over 6 weeks to manually reinstall & tweak everything. Don't want to do that again.

 

if its just photos, you might find that the USB3 external devices now are more than adequate in speed. I wouldn't go for a 750 in this case...but get a nice 2gig or 3gig external for $135

 

hehe, I know you mean TB...just made me laugh as I sit here with an old 2GB HDD opened up and mounted on my wall as a decoration.

 

^^haha, ya, I meant TB. I'm old enough to remember 2 gig harddrives lol...actually i owned much smaller than that

 

In my 1st post, I already have 2 ea. 1Tb externals. I want to trim down and not having to take these with me all of the time, or leave them in the carry bag. I'm going to try & clone a good portion of one of them. I ordered the Seagate Momentum XT 750 Gig yesterday. Will have it on Tuesday.

 

I remember my "maxed out" Amiga 2000 with a 3 MEG HDD. I still have it & it works !!!!

 

ha...i remember those computers. A good friend had one and it rocked in its day!

 

How many HDD can you put in a m17x? Only 2? So if I took the 2x500GB option (not SSD), I would have to remove one before buying an SSD?

 

You could fit in 3 drives but not only would you have to give up your optical drive, you're also have to almost completely disassemble your computer.