Which HDD to use as 2nd drive?

I've replaced the HDD in my wifes netbook and my ProBook with Intel 320 series SSDs. She's going to use an external 320gb drive and two 16 gig flash drives for extra storage. I'm going to get an HD caddy for my ProBook.

Surprisingly, her netbook had a WD Scorpio Blue (320gb)! My ProBook had a Momentus Thin (7200rpm, 320gb). Which would be a better drive to use for file storage?

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I'd take the Momentus Thin. It's single platter and 7200rpm. It's probably faster and more power efficient then the WD3200BEVT.

If it's a newer version of the WD3200BEVT it might be single platter too though... which would make it more suitable as a secondary drive. One way to find out it post HDTune shots.

 

Scorpio Blue HDD's are usually 5400rpm's drives, and the Momentus Thin is 7200rpm hdd.
You could run some benchmarks to see whichever drive performs faster. but I'd probably say the Momentus might be faster.

 

The Scorpio is single platter. Would the Seagate really be more power efficient? I'm not sure if speed would be an issue if it's just hosting docs and media. I've put my VM folder on an expresscad sad (115/65 read/write).

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It honestly doesn't matter which drive you choose.

Everyone is focusing on performance. Performance is irrelevant on a secondary drive. You are using that secondary drive to store bulk media files (docs, pictures, music, video). And it doesn't matter where you store that type of content. A video file will play back equivalently well on the world's slowest 5400rpm drive or the world's fastest SSD. Performance is absolutely irrelevant, especially when the drives are going to be put in a USB 2.0 interface and limited by USB 2.0 anyway.

The other things that tpyically matter in a decision like this are heat, power consumption, and cost. But you already own the drives, and you're putting them in a USB 2.0 external enclosure. And the drives are going to be so close in heat and power consumption anyway, that it really doesn't matter. I could give you both drives in identical USB 2.0 enclosures, and ask you to tell me the difference, and you wouldn't be able to. The drives are not going to give you any real-world performance difference.

So, it really doesn't matter which drive you pick.

If it were up to me, I'd put the Western Digital Scorpio Blue into an enclosure. It is technically the "slower" of the two drives, so it will really only be useful as a secondary bulk storage drive. The 7200rpm drive is fast enough for some people to use as a primary OS + applications drive. So I'd keep that drive available, just in case you need it some day.

 

The drive will be on a caddy to replace my optical drive, so power consumption is a factor.

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If the Scorpio Blue is single platter I'd take that one. How did you check it's single platter?

The older dual platter WD3200bevt was quite power hungry.

Performance irrelevant for a secondary drive? I wouldn't say that. I still care how fast pictures open or files are copied.

 

It's the BPVT. I came across a web site that had listings for platters and number of heads. The BPVT/Advance Format was listed as one platter and two movable heads.

 

Ok in that case I'd use the Scorpio Blue. It's likely it uses slightly less power.