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    Dual Hard Drives Vs. Single Hard Drive?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by dkine, Mar 13, 2008.

  1. dkine

    dkine Newbie

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    I'm going to buy a Dell Vostro 1700. I have two hard drive options. Both options are the same price.

    A). 240GB (2x 120) 5400RPM SATA
    B). 250GB 5400RPM SA160

    What are the pros/cons of a dual hard drive vs. single hard drive setup?
    What is the power consumption like on a dual drive config?
    What is the difference between SATA and SA160?
     
    dkine, Mar 13, 2008
    #1
  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    AFAIK, you cannot RAID them...so my reply is based off of that.

    Dual v. Single Performance
    Pro: Two drives, so you can do more reads/writes at a time.
    Pro: Can use one as an internal back up drive!
    Con: Double the risk of HDD failure.

    Dual v. Single Power
    Dual uses about twice as much power AT WORST.

    SA160...what the heck?

    Anyway, dual drives are usually a great thing...as long as you have a backup strategy in case one fails.
     
    Greg, Mar 13, 2008
    #2
  3. dmacfour

    dmacfour Are you aware...

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    2 vs 1 HDD will obviously reduce battery life, but you probably won't notice a big difference.
     
    dmacfour, Mar 13, 2008
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  4. ScifiMike12

    ScifiMike12 Drinking the good stuff

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    Greg, you forgot heat.. ;)
     
    ScifiMike12, Mar 13, 2008
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  5. THAANSA3

    THAANSA3 Exit Stage Left

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    What about RAID technology? Doesn't the computer treat two drives as one? Does that some on most modern machines now, or is that something you have to order if it's offered with your machine? Pardon me if I sound like a novice.lol
     
    THAANSA3, Mar 14, 2008
    #5
  6. D3X

    D3X the robo know it all

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    No, RAID only works if you either have a Hardware RAID controller or using software RAID(which significantly reduces RAID and Computing performance, enough not to use software RAID unless redundancy is utmost important feature).

    Hardware RAID is not available to at least 95% percent of all notebooks out there, and it's not an even an option to order.
     
    D3X, Mar 14, 2008
    #6
  7. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    ^^ The motherboard must have RAID support. This feature is probably uncommon on laptops.

    Keep in mind that adding an HD also adds weight to the laptop.
     
    Bog, Mar 14, 2008
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  8. hydra

    hydra Breaks Laptops

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    Why yes, we can do RAID 0, or RAID 1, on a P6831 at least..

    As Greg and ScifiMike pointed out, there are drawbacks. I'm still monitoring heat issues before I reformat in RAID 0 for a 500 Gig drive. For now, I'm still set up as two separate 250 Gig drives.

    from wikipedia..

    "RAID 0 is also used in some gaming systems where performance is desired and data integrity is not very important. However, real-world tests with games have shown that RAID-0 performance gains are minimal, although some desktop applications will benefit."
     
    hydra, Mar 14, 2008
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  9. LoOpiNg

    LoOpiNg Newbie

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    besides heat and backup drive, what i'm more worried about is noise.

    with 2 drives running simultaneously, does it mean it will have double the noise? is it significantly louder than single drives?
     
    LoOpiNg, May 15, 2008
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  10. sirmetman

    sirmetman Notebook Virtuoso

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    Probably not significantly louder. However, considering that 2X120GB@5400RPM means 1/2 the data density compared to 1X250GB@5400RPM, even in an efficient RAID0, gains will be minimal if any. Unless you want RAID1 for data backup, I wouldn't suggest getting the @X120GB option. In fact, I'd say get 2X250GB and mirror the drives.
     
    sirmetman, May 15, 2008
    #10