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    Help with hard drives.

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Brandons3737, Apr 5, 2012.

  1. Brandons3737

    Brandons3737 Notebook Consultant

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    :confused: I'm buying a new laptop and looking at 2 different options in hard rives. I can get 750GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) or 2 hard drives, both the 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s). The 2 hard drives cost a little bit more. Any help on which one to take? I can use the 2 hard drives with raid 0 also, how much will this help performence?

    Thanks any any input about either of these 2 hard drives is helpful? Will on be faster and possible downsides? thx
     
    Brandons3737, Apr 5, 2012
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  2. s2odin

    s2odin Merrica!

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    Get the cheaper option to save for an SSD.
     
    s2odin, Apr 5, 2012
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  3. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

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    If you can do that, it would be the best option.

    The other way i see it is that if the price difference is very small. Get the two 500GB and save for a SSD and an enclosure to use the other drive as an external for backups. Of course that is only if the cost of the two 500GBs isn't higher than what an external would cost you.

    In any case, i wouldn't go for RAID0, if something goes wrong with one drive, you loose all your data and there is a bigger chance of something going wrong with RAID0. Of course, we're still talking about very small probabilities that something bad will happen.
     
    tijo, Apr 5, 2012
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  4. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    Get the single drive, then you'll have a slot for the SSD when you get one.

    RAID won't help much for typical usage. RAID allows for more throughput on the controller, but it's the latency, how fast data can be found and read, that is what makes things seems faster or slower. This is why SSDs rule, they're so quick. The latency for SSDs is like .1ms for SSDs. RAID would help with things that put a heavy load on the controller like copying and pasting files.
     
    ZaZ, Apr 6, 2012
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  5. Kuu

    Kuu That Quiet Person

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    Depending on if the computer you're using uses HDD brackets/special connecting cables, I'd get 2 drives just so you have a spare drive and a 2nd caddy so you don't have to get a 2nd one later on... I'm glad I went that route with my HDX, those brackets + the proprietary cable are like 20 dollars :(
     
    Kuu, Apr 6, 2012
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  6. Brandons3737

    Brandons3737 Notebook Consultant

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    Another optionis I could get one of these - 500GB (w/ 4GB SSD Memory) Seagate XT 7200RPM NCQ Hybrid 32MB Cache (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s). For about 15 dollars more. Than I could save for just an ssd drive, but would it be hard to install the ssd when I get it, and if I bought it from a company would they possibly install it?
     
    Brandons3737, Apr 6, 2012
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