Hard drive options: 640GB or 2 x 320GB

I'm looking at the HP dvt7 series, which currently features a "free upgrade" to either:

1. A single 640 GB 7200RPM hard drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection or

2. Two 320 GB 7200RPM hard drives with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

Which do folks think is the better option? My gut feeling is to go with the single drive in order to maintain expandability, but are there advantages to having the dual drive setup? I know next to nothing about RAID, including even whether the dv7t supports it.

 

If the dv7t supports raid 0 then definitely go for the 2 drives, it will double your speed to almost SSD level (you get double the chance of HDD failure though, but still minimal).
You would also only have 320GB of usable space so if you're a bit of a data hog then maybe it's not such a good idea, however if you don't use too much space then raid 0 it is.

 

Not sure if the dv line supports raiding, but 320 GB is a lot of space.

 

That is incorrect. 2x 320 GB drives in Raid 0 will give you 640 GB of space (well, minus overhead, but that happens with all drives). RAID 0 lets you use all the space on both drives, it's just that with the way that it works, since all your data is spread across both drives, if you lose one drive, you lose everything. This makes the chance of failure actually higher than double, but it's stable enough for general use. Just make sure you have backups, or that you don't use it as the only copy of anything you can't afford to lose. It's RAID 1 that will give you only the capacity of one drive in a 2 drive array; that's because the second drive is essentially a clone of the first, so if one drive goes bad, you have the redundancy of having all your data on the second drive at the same time. Also, drives in RAID 0, while in theory twice as fast as a single drive, still won't approach most SSD speeds. The latency inherent in a mechanical drive simply can't match the latencies possible with solid state memory.

 

Don't get RAID 0 for the reasons Judicator mentioned; it provides a minimal performance boost in most activities and doubles the risk of data loss from drive failure. RAID 0 is one of the most mis-marketed technologies on the market.

If you don't order the notebook with a second drive then HP will not send the notebook with a drive caddy in the second bay, so you will have to buy that later on if you want to use it. So, I would get the notebook with dual 320GB drives.

 

If the upgrade cost to 2x640GB isn't too great that might give you the best of both worlds....

One other point, it's possible that HP will stop supplying the second drive caddy long before other spares since there isn't much demand for them. In a year or two it may not be possible to get hold of them.

 

Agreed. 320 x2 is a shootload of space on a notebook!

 

Thanks to all. Are there any advantages at all to getting 640GB x 1?

 

Sure, 1x 640GB will use less power than 2x 320GB. One hard drive is also easier to manage than two.

If you want to have a real snappy system I recommend getting either a SSD or a Seagate Momentus XT. Both are a lot faster than conventional hard drives.

 

Durmat,

I have regretted not getting a 2x HD setup in my VAIO and now, less than two years later it is an almost worthless upgrade to do so (can't find the caddy/connector cables for it - or, anyone who will install the connectors/cables with any sort of guarantee).

The point here is that HP will only give you the notebook properly set up for dual drive use if you order it with two drives. (And don't specify any sort of RAID configuration - just not worth the hassle as mentioned above).

Once you have the system in your hands, the options for upgrading are pretty exciting. An SSD as the system/boot/app drive and 750GB or more of fast storage is a pretty powerful setup.

As each component is significantly upgraded (the speed on the SSD side, or the capacity on the HDD side), you can simply pop in the latest and greatest.

You asked if a single 640GB drive had any benefits: yes - in a single drive bay system.

In a dual drive bay system such as you're considering the single drive is actually a detriment to optimum overall performance, maintenance and upgradeability - assuming of course that the second bay is wired properly from the factory and you have the necessary HD caddy to use a secondary HD too.

With a no charge - 'free' upgrade to 2x320GB drives I say this discussion is finished - if you want to get the most/optimum performance from your new system from day one right until you decide to replace it sometime in the future.

Good luck.