WD Scorpio Black 320GB vs WD Scorpio Blue 500GB

I am trying to figure out which hard drive would be best for a friend to get. He has 180GB hard drive right now w/ the Gateway 7811, but he runs out of space rather quickly. The main area I would see him really stressing a hard drive is moving around large files and loading up games.

I know the advantages of each, but I am still unsure which would be best for him. I am leaning towards the black for the speed boost a he would get right now. Though if the speed boost is not as good as I think it is compared to the blue, I could see that more worthwhile for the extra 180GB of storage compared to the black. The reason I am not as concerned with storage is, because he has a 750GB external hard drive so he can have a lot of his non gaming stuff on that instead.

Whichever one he does get is it worth keeping the old hard drive in the laptop for storage purposes? I just didn't know if it was worth the extra heat and battery life it would take up is all.

Thanks in advance.

 

Budget? How about a SSD?

 

SSD would be nice, but that is way out of the range. Probably around 75ish for budget.

 

i feel 320 GB should suffice.where can find its benchmarks?
as i am also about to get it for my vaio fz.

 

As it is, the 320GB Scorpio Black doesn't offer much of a performance upgrade over the 500GB Blue model. See the following comparison here:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4954

 

WD3200BEKT and WD3200BEVT ( http://techreport.com/articles.x/15079/6)


WD5000BEVT ( http://techreport.com/articles.x/17010/6)

That review doesn't tell the whole story because it relies on synthetic benchmarks only.

Techreport.com has done many real world benchmarks on the WD3200BEKT and WD5000BEVT.

In multi tasking and program launching the WD3200BEKT is faster. In other situations it will be hard to notice.

 

Thanks for the links!

 

You're welcome.

There is one problem with the reviews, although they have used the same test system I am not sure if the results from the two reviews can be compared with one another. The 5400.6 beating the 7200.4 in Far Cry level loading seems akward. So better uses it as ballpark figures.

 

While I don't disagree with the benchmarks, it can be said that the drives offer similar performance in many areas; as such, I am encouraging the OP to consider whether the upgrade from Blue to Black is worth the money. There is no question, however, that the Scorpio Black offers better performance.

 

Sorry if there is any confusion but there the hard drive in the laptop is some 180GB one. Not sure of the speed. Don't know which of the hard drives I listed to get is what I'm asking.

 

If speed is priority get the WD3200BEKT.

If capacity, silence or batterylife is priority get the WD5000BEVT.

 

How much would the battery life difference be out of curiosity? And how much more silent is the 500gb model?

 

Just get the 5400rpm unit. More storage, more reliability, ect.

7200rpm drive are for desktops that dont move.

 

Depends on many circumstances but give or take 10 minutes on 3 hours.

The sound: sometimes you're lucky and don't hear it all, sometimes it's like a very soft fan that makes a constant hum.

When I installed a Black in my NC10 there was no extra sound, but the vibration was quite noticeable.