Need some advice on purchasing secondary HDD

Hey guys, I'm trying to purchase a secondary internal HDD for my new notebook (Envy 17- 2.5", SATA 3Gbs), and need some of your expertise in choosing the right one. I was browsing through Newegg, but there's just soo many choices and all are scored relatively the same by the buyers and have similar comments...

This secondary drive will only be used for storage. I'm looking for anything between 500gb-1tb (preferably 7200rpm for drives under 1tb), and would ideally like it to cost $75-$100. Quiet operating noise. I have no brand preference so long as the reputation for the particular drive is great. If a certain HDD is really great even though its 5400rpm, then I'll consider the advice. Thanks in advance.


How are these?
500gb:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145275
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314 (5400rpm)
640gb:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152204 (5400rpm)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136459 (5400rpm)

 

For capacity at your budget, I would get the WD 640GB drive. IMO you don't need more than 5400RPM for a storage drive. What make/model is your main drive?

 

Thanks for your recommendation. The SSD that comes with the Envy 17 is an Intel X-25M G2.

 

remember though that not all external enclosures and/or drives can be powered by a single USB v2 port. Some of the enclosures will come with a double headed usb cable that will draw power from two usb ports.

if you end up with an enclosure like this, your laptop will need to have a pair of usb ports next to each other to accommodate the double headed cable.

if this is important to you, some careful shopping will dig out an enclosure/drive setup that can be powered by a single usb port.

not a show-stopper, but something to be aware of.

 

@newsposter

?

This is for an internal secondary drive. I'll clarify it on my original post. Thanks.

 

Storage drive... so just storing media etc?

Or are you planning on putting some games and applications there?

In the first case get the WD 640GB. In the second case get the Hitachi 7K500.

 

The Hitachi is a really nice drive. I had 2 of them in RAID 0 on my Gateway FX. If you get a 7200RPM drive you can always configure RAID in the future. I am assuming that your existing drive is 7200rpm also.

 

I don't think people are reading the OP's posts lol...

 

Haha, it's ok.


@Phil
I'll have my OS and programs installed on my primary, SSD drive. The secondary drive will just be used for general media and temporary storage for rasterized production files. I'd appreciate a good read/write speed for transferring files between it, the SSD, and my external drives (hence the 7200rpm).

The 5400rpm WD HDDs I linked are said to be just as fast as a 7200rpm due to the two platter and data density per platter. Can anyone verify that this speed statement is true for the WD Scorpio Blue HDD? If this is true, then I can probably get away with its 5400rpm & get a higher capacity while at it, right?

Are there any significant trade-offs for having only two plates and a higher density?

 

The WD640GB reads at 67 MB/sec. The Hitachi 7K500 at 83 MB/sec.

Charts, benchmarks 2009 2.5? Mobile Hard Drive Charts, h2benchw 3.12: Avg Read Throughput

As long as the files are rather large you won't notice much difference. With smaller files the 7K500 becomes noticeably faster.

It's not really true. The Hitachi 500GB 7K500 will outperform the 750GB and 640GB drives in all tasks, even though the aerial density of the Hitachi is much lower.

So far all drives larger than 500GB have pretty slow acces times and aren't the best performers. Maybe the new Seagate 640GB 7200RPM will change this when it's out.

 

A 5400 RPM drive is yesterdays technology. Get it if you absolutely positively don't intend to use it for anything but storage and backup--and want save a little bit of money.

I have a 5400 RPM drive but it was the OEM drive that I replaced. I have it in an external enclosure and use it solely for back up, so speed is inconsequential. The rest of my drives--two internal drives, and another external enclose drive are all 7200 RPM.

 

I took in all your advices and ordered the Hitachi HDD (promotion was about to expire so I had to hurry). I wasn't going to get the WD Scorpio Blue HDDs if they are only fast subjectively, and the benchmarking proved that the chatter on newegg was just hearsay. Now I just need to wait for my notebook to arrive... -_-

Thanks guys!