Solved Looking for a new hard drive...

[badger906]

Most hard drives say they can with stand forces of up to 100G on the front, don't think a 6ft drop will do much harm lol.

If you want a decent sized HDD buy a 2tb NAS system, they still haven't been effected by proce increases. Ok you'll pay about £30 more as it has a NAS enclosure but £120 for a 2TB drive is still as cheap as one 1TB drive.

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[vpwin7]

I really didn't want the extra clutter of an external around so it seems I will just have to wait; not to mention I have cats. I also decided to just get a 750GB-1TB drive. On a more important note what should I look for to ensure fast hard drive speeds, and what most will these specifics improve? For example, will it only be good for copying multiple files, or writing on the fly, or large files, or quickly jumping between files on different platters, ect.

Also for the UPS debate I've never had them bring me anything that didn't work at their fault(as far as I know). I did order a graphics card from newegg not too long ago and it went from working to dead in less than 10 minutes of run time but I'm not sure who's fault that is. I've also received some boxes in pretty poor condition containing car speakers but luckily everything was fine thanks to the manufacture heavily packing the product in Styrofoam.

 

[strollin]

Yeah, I got those with the plastic form too. It may handle the impact better, but I still don't think it's a good idea to have a six foot drop on the conveyor. There's momentum that's just encouraging the disk heads to smack up against the platters. But I agree that bubble pack wrap was not helping.

As long as the drive isn't powered and the platters spinning (kinda hard during shipping) the heads are parked and resting in a "landing zone" so they are not as susceptible to damage during shipment as you might think. Major damage occurs when the head comes into contact with a spinning platter.

 

[badger906]

I wasn't implying it stays external

Take the drive out and stick it in your pc, you've then got a nice NAS caddy to sell on ebay!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

On a more important note what should I look for to ensure fast hard drive speeds, and what most will these specifics improve?

Generally--get a current generation 7200 rpm drive with a minimum number of platters. You can google around for info on speeds of specific drives, but I'd be at least equally concerned with reliability. The last I heard, the maximum size per platter was 500 GB, so you should be able to get a 1 TB drive with 2 platters.

I think storagetech.com has been rejuvenated fairly recently, so you might be able to pick up some pointers there.

As of a few months ago, Western Digital Blacks and certain Samsungs were among the fastest spinning drives. I don't know if that has changed. A lot of people frown on Seagate, but you can of course have a horrible experience with any brand or model.

You can fiddle with cluster size if you think your file sizes and typical transfers are unusual, but I've always accepted the default--4096k I think?

 

[Phone Man]

I am not sure about that 6 foot drop at UPS. My local UPS deport has all flat conveyers. Could be just an "internet legend"

Jim

 

[MilesAhead]

I am not sure about that 6 foot drop at UPS. My local UPS deport has all flat conveyers. Could be just an "internet legend"

Jim

Guess the legend extends to customer reviews with DOA drives, drives dying after a couple of months, and photos of said conveyor belt. All of which is possible. But it's like leaving your car unlocked. Any real thief has a slim jim. But if the insurance company finds out you didn't lock it, they get out of coverage using the lame loophole.

You order your drives UPS Ground and let me know.

edit:

Anyway, the moderator on this board is very into building systems. If it's a myth he seems to believe it too:

http://forum.digital-digest.com/f105/after-market-drive-talk-91875.html#post578110

 

[carwiz]

If you want a decent sized HDD buy a 2tb NAS system, they still haven't been effected by proce increases. Ok you'll pay about £30 more as it has a NAS enclosure but £120 for a 2TB drive is still as cheap as one 1TB drive.

I don't know about the NAS enclosures but if the thought has spread to robing an external drive such as the Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB, forget it. While the price is appealing at $122 (Amazon), WD and the others are using old ATA-100 drives connected to a USB-3 interface. I suspect to use up old inventory and ride-out the shortage. Unless your PC is from the early turn of the century, removing the drive from the enclosure will turn it into a boat anchor. Be sure to read the detail specs of any "external" drive before you buy it. Buyer Beware!

 

[badger906]

I'd never use a large drive for a main bootable drive anyway.

That's what SSD's or velocoraptors are for

But for a secondary slave drive speed isn't essential.

If you need such large amounts of space 1tb+ you obviously don't want to loose it, s on a bootable drive is a no no, a slower more reliable drive is advised.

The slave drives in my server are probably slower than 7200rpm drives, but they have minimal platters and are designed to work, not to be fast. Remember speed kills lol

 

[carwiz]

I'd never use a large drive for a main bootable drive anyway. That's what SSD's or velocoraptors are for.

I don't think anyone suggested you do.

But for a secondary slave drive speed isn't essential.

It depends on what your time is worth and the type of data. I'm pretty sure your wouldn't enjoy watching a movie off a slow drive.

But, that's why there's so many drives out there. Plenty of personal choices to be made.

 

[vpwin7]

I just want something that won't hiccup a gaming experience. I don't want to be stuck at a loading screen any longer than I have to be because the drive is trying to load textures. I understand most of the performance will come from other hardware which is why I was wondering if it's even of great importance to find a particular hard drive. Either way I'm going to end up waiting for the prices to go down because I'm not dealing with this price gouging stuff.