WD Blue 5400 or HGST 7200 on Alienware 17

I'm planning to add a 1TB mechanical drive (and a 256GB mSSD) to my Alienware 17 when it comes.

This will be my Steam drive, so I know performance will matter for loading games (although I can stick my favorites on the SSD).

Obviously the HGST 7200 will outperform the WD Blue 5400, but I suspect it will also run MUCH hotter.

Any experience with either or both? If it's not too much of a performance hit, I think I'd rather not have to deal with the heat issues.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.

 

I've had good experiences with this drive: Amazon.com: HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III 32MB Cache Internal Hard Drive 0J22423: Computers & Accessories

I've also got a 750GB WD Black HDD that I haven't used since my Alienware arrived, now that I have multiple SSD's installed. I'd be willing to sell this to you, if you want. I believe the one I have is this drive: Western Digital 750 GB WD Black SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache. I'd do $60 shipped (in the States).

 

Thanks for the speedy reply (and for the link - I was actually looking at the wrong HGST drive - the single-platter one).

Thanks for the offer. I'm fine on 750's, I definitely need a 1TB.

Have you had any heat issues with the HGST? Have you tried it in the AW17?

 

I used one of those in my old M18x R2. Haven't tried it in the AW 17, but I don't see it being any different. It was very fast and kept pretty cool. It is probably one of the best mechanical drives I've ever used. Definitely recommended. :thumbsup:

EDIT: I agree with the post kh90123 made below. All HDD's are going to get warm. SSD's are where it's at.

 

HGST is a subsidiary of WD now. WD isn't where it used to be in the market position, but still not bad. Why not get the HGST 5k1500, then you get 1.5TB of space, and use the mSATA to cache the HDD.

Amazon.com: HGST Travelstar 5K1500 1.5TB 2.5-Inch Mobile 5400 RPM 9.5mm Internal Bare Hard Disk Drive 0J28001: Computers & Accessories

Samsung/Seagate Spinpoint M9T will be the only 2.5" drive with 2TB capacity that's 9.5mm thick.

Any HDD will run hot, unless you get those WD Green drives that spin down aggressively. If you want the disk to run cool, you will have to go all SSD, like what I did. Once you go SSD, you never go back.

 

Always been a fan of Hitachi drives, all my thinkpads used them and none of them have ever failed (I have IDE drives still working today in my thinkpad T30)

 

I would go for the HGST 7200 over the WD 5400. It will perform a lot better.

 

I run a pair of hgst 1tb drives in raid on my m17xr4 with a 256gb msata drive to boot/run favorite games from.

System runs really really well, no heat issues, loads pretty quick for things on the hdds.

Looking to actually up my storage to a pair of 2tb hdds cause I need more space.

 

The HGST one million times, don't touch anything less than that!

 

Also I want to note that I have a seagate 1tb thats 5400rpm and its slow slow slow compaired to the hgst drives...

 

I have had no issues with hgst drives. Jut make sure you get 7200rpm version.

As for data storage, seagate 2tb 9.5mm drive is on the horizon and has been shipped to oems since November 2013, so shouldn't be long, before they pop up on eBay and amazon. Althought it will be a 5400rpm drive.