Importance of access and transfer speeds for a secondary drive holding only files and data

Assume I have an SSD in my SATA III main bay, which will hold Win8 and all my application programs.

I want to put a second storage device in my Lenovo ultrabay, a bay which also can operate at SATA III speed. This secondary storage device will hold only data and files such as documents, photos and videos.

For this second drive, I am looking at a traditional HD, an SSD-cached hybrid HD like the Seagate Momentus XT, and at full SSD's. The traditional HD's are virtually all SATA II, while the Seagate hybrid and the full SSD can transfer at SATA III speed.

I know the cost differences, and I have read and seen tests of these choices when they are used as primary Windows boot and application program drives. The SSD beats the hybrid which beats the standard HD.

My question is how significant are the comparative access and transfers speeds of an SSD or hybrid drive versus a standard 7200 rpm platter when dealing solely with documents, photos and videos?

 

I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you're doing some very intense video editing work you aren't going to challenge a SATA II hard drive. Those ridiculously fast access times and throughputs associated with SSD technology only really benefit the operating system and your application's program files.

 

Agreed with Greg. The Momentus XT is meant to be an OS/programs drive when a person doesn't want (or can't get) a full SSD as the OS/programs drive.

For a secondary drive, I'd get the highest capacity SATAII hard drive that you want (or can get) since all you're doing is accessing Docs/Pics/Videos (and/or Music).

 

I have a Samsung SSD as my OS/program drive and a HDD as my data drive for storing videos/photos/music/etc. I have experienced zero issues with access times or transfer speeds with my HDD and it's not even a 7200rpm drive (it's a WD 5400rpm drive).