Looking for storage advice

R

RaithVZ

n00b
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
Messages
59
Hi all,

I'm currently running two Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB, based on the reviews I found here probably over a year ago. I am also running an Intel X25-M G2R5 160GB for my system drive. I would like to expand to 2x2TB drives, because I'm running out of space on my two 640's. My concern is that after reading some of the posts on here, there seems to be some models of questionable reliability and I just wanted to get some clear recommendations.

I care about:
Noise (I have a very quiet system and like it that way)
Performance (At least to be able to stream a movie from the drive smoothly)
Size (I would really like 2x2TB, or 2x1.5TB if there is a good reason)
Reliability (Based on the recommendations here, the drives I currently have are flawless)
Heat (To a much lesser degree, but I have a Lian Li A05B, so heat could be a concern)

I don't care about:
Power consumption
Raid

Thanks for your time!
 
I would consider 2x 1.5TB instead; as that's the sweet spot currently and best GB-per-dollar.

That's logical as 2TB disks need four platters right now; whereas 3 platters it the maximum to be produced cheaply. That means 3x500GB = 1.5TB disks would be your best choice at the moment.

Samsung Green, Seagate, WD Green; they really don't differ that much. All HDDs have their quirks. As i assume you're backing them up also, you don't really need to care about their reliability too much.

You did not tell us your OS.
 
If I were you, I would move all my storage devices out of the system as your 160GB SSD should be more than enough to hold many apps or games.

As a storage device, if you have spare parts around, you can build a cheap Windows Home Server box to serve all your PC around the house. On a gigabit network, it's fast enough to bottleneck a single hard drive. I've streamed 1080p movies over wireless G and it's just fine. If you don't want a networked box, the Drobo is a good choice as a direct attached storage if you can run it over firewire.

The point of running WHS or a Drobo is that those devices are easily expandable and give you piece of mind when it comes to data protection and management.
 
deanx0r said:
If I were you, I would move all my storage devices out of the system as your 160GB SSD should be more than enough to hold many apps or games.
Click to expand...

Depends on how far into the future you're looking. If it's just a matter of gaining some more storage space, then moving from 1.25 TB to 3.0 or 4.0 TB will already be a big step up, so it may not be worth spending a couple hundred more for a dedicated server or Drobo box at this time. And if there are additional SATA headers and 3.5" bays available, then there may be even more room for expansion for no cost beyond the drives themselves.

If there's only a single PC in the house, the cost of a file server isn't justified. Could be a future consideration, though.

In terms of moving the drives out of the PC for reasons of heat, noise or power consumption, the move from 7200 RPM to 5400/5900 RPM drives should address all of those concerns.
 
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