640GB vs 500GB HDD's in speed

I know that the larger the disk the faster the data access (particularly on the outer rims) will be. Will I see much difference in speed when it comes to a 640GB and 500GB 7,200RPM drive?

Space isn't really the biggest issue for me, I haven't come very close to filling up my current 320GB drive (though I could) but speed definitely is.

This would not be a boot drive, just a drive for playing PS2, Wii, Gamecube, and PC games as well as going online.

Just curious if there's any difference in speed.

 

Doubt you'd notice much difference, especially if it's from the same company since they would use the same platter density.

 

I don't have any particular models in mind.

I'll probably just stick with the 500GB, which is plenty for me.

 

Some good and fast hard drives are :

WD5000BEKT
Hitachi 7K500
Samsung HM640JJ

 

Thanks so much That'll really help me out. The first upgrade I make is going to be RAM and then I'm going to get a new hard drive.

 

hmm..

mayb post all the 3 hdd results here would be gd?

 

If you want a hard drive speed bump, you really need to go with a different storage technology like a hybrid drive (Seagate Momentus XT) or an SSD to really notice it.

Any speed benefit you get from one hard drive size over another is going to be so small, it might as well be within a margin of error.

 

You may want to look at something like the Momentus, a hard drive/ssd hybrid if you want a lot of space and good read/write speeds. They're supposed to be the pinnacle of hard drives in terms of performance so that sounds like something you may be interested in .

 

I'm looking into hybrid drives. I don't know if I'm going to remove my OOD and put in a HDD and use a SSD or if I'm just going to replace it with one high capacity hybrid.

 

My plan with my laptop (Which I'm getting by Jan 31st). Is just getting a good cheap SSD in the 128gb range for 200-250 dollars and install it into whatever laptop I end up getting. For me 128 gb is more then enough since I format my PC's every 6 monthes and also because I tend to keep my drives extremely clean. This'll be my first SSD so I'm probably not the best person to ask but if you're looking for higher performance definitely look at the Hybrids/SSD's as those are where the real performance boosts are, more so with the straight SSD but apparently the Hybrids can be pretty nice too from what I've read.

 

I can't just go with a SSD... I have a 320GB drive right now and about 200GB are used. It would be a huge expense to get another 320GB drive and I'm looking for 500GB of space, which would be like a thousand dollars lol (or 500 after December)

I'm considering removing my optical drive and using it as a hard drive instead. If I did that I would have a SSD and then some hard drive but I don't know which one yet.

 

I'm thinking of putting this instead of my DVD drive:
Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

and then this instead of my current boot drive:
Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Or something very similar. I have to wait until G3 to be sure.

If a hybrid 7.2k RPM 750GB drive comes out before then I'll be all over that =p

 

Also, if I have a hdd that's disk is 1inch diameter (just an example) and one that's 2inches and they both rotate at the same speed... won't the information at the tip of the 2 inch be about 2x as fast as the info on the tip of the 1inch?

Distance being relative to speed and all that.

 

According to physics, yes, the angular velocity increases as your radius increases. Some people try to take advantage of this by putting their data only on the outer edges of the drive. This practice is called short stroking.

There is some doubt as to whether or not this actually has any benefit on a physically small 2.5" laptop hard drive. Some people believe yes, some people believe no. I am in the camp that believes no. The only real way to dramatically improve hard drive performance is to buy a drive with different storage technology... like a hybrid drive (Seagate Momentus XT... not the regular Seagate Momentus) or a true solid state disk.

 

Well I see no reason why it shouldn't. Speeds will be significantly greater at the edge of the disk if the disk is further out. Perhaps the speeds won't be so greatly different, I really wouldn't know.

The thing is, I want to get a SSD for my boot drive... the one that's giving me trouble is the HDD. The XT won't benefit me any if I'm booting from a SSD.

 

In theory, it will make a difference. But in real-world usage, the difference is so infantestmal that it might as well be a rounding error. I could sit you down in front of two identical computers... one short stroked, one non-short stroked, ask you to use those computers for 4 hours each, and then tell me which one is the faster PC. You would not be able to definitively give an answer.

As for your situation - people typically run OS, apps, and games off of their SSD, where the speed makes a difference. They typically store their content that uses a lot of space (typically videos and photos) on a mechanical hard drive. If that is the scenario you are considering, then it really doesn't matter how fast your mechanical hard drive is. Any 7200rpm hard drive will be "fast enough" to store and retrieve video content that you store onto it. Just get whatever drive gives you the price / capacity that you want. Speed is irrelevant, once you get a drive that is "fast enough".

 

I suppose I'll save the money and just get a 500GB one instead of the 750GB.

Maybe if prices go down or something improves I'll get a 500GB with nand cache.

 

Seems reasonable to me.

And FYI... the 500GB with NAND cache is a hybrid drive... it is the Seagate Momentus XT. It has 500GB of storage on mechanical hard drive platters, and uses 4GB of NAND-based flash memory as a cache for fast access to commonly used information. It is approximately twice the cost of a pure mechanical 500GB drive ($130 vs $65).

If you are using the hybrid Seagate Momentus XT to run any applications / games, then the price may be worth it for you. But if all you are doing is storing media files (video, photos, etc), then the additional speed will not benefit you.

 

Yeah I'm not sure about how it will effect me yet. I play games often... but I don't know... we'll see.

 

I currently have a 640GB 5400RPM drive, would I get a speed boost from swapping to a 500GB 7200RPM?

 

I would think so =p, not sure.

 

I may have bad luck or something, but I've had 3--yes, 3--of those HDDs fail on me. 2 came from HP parts (new), the other was ordered from Amazon new.

 

Don't all Western Digitals come with 5 year warranty? I assume they were replaced for free.

 

Depends on you're usage and brands your talking about.

For example: the performance difference between Seagate 5400.7 and Seagate 7200.4 is rather small.

Wow that's a pretty bad track record. Hadn't heard that before.

 

I'm so torn =\ I don't know if I should just remove the OOD and put in the hard drive and have a SSD boot drive... or just get a 500GB Hybrid drive and stick with that... and maybe upgrade in the future I don't know.

 

I would get the Momentus XT, probably the fastest mechanical/solid hybrid laptop drive on the market these days. I'll be placing one in my sig rig pretty soon here.