Dell Studio 540 (what is a good )1TB 64mb cache 7200 RPM HD Master HD

jjr · 14 Aug 2014

I purchased a 1tb HD I just installed is a WD av-gp wd10eurx Green Drive green drive that me really made for storage (photos, pix' and music etc) I guess it spins a different speeds to save on electricity, by mistake .....

What is the correct HD that I can use for my master drive??

It gets confusing with the NAS, Red, Blue etc logos on these. I can not afford a SSD or I do not think that benefits of a hybrid drive due to the cost.

I'm just looking for a 1tb hard drive that can be used for a master HD application that has a 64mb cache and spins at 7200 rpm....................

ICIT2LOL · 14 Aug 2014

JJR mate try one of the Seagate hybrids I just installed one for my partners daughter and it combines the ability of an SSD with a big spinner and at a fraction of the cost.

It has kept up witht straight SSD's I already have - just about of course the top end stuff it won't but an ordinary spinner - no contest

I don't know what they cost in the US but I got a 1TB for $129 out here .

One point I did track down defragging with these drives and it is a no no.

Try Newegg and see what they quote.

jjr · 15 Aug 2014

Please explain about the defragging?

ICIT2LOL · 16 Aug 2014

jjr said:

Please explain about the defragging?

Now very simply JJR the SSD is a solid state device something along the lines of the chips that make up the RAM and even the CPU. See this Solid-state drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia & this form that link Wear leveling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It follows that during the normal life of a drive the wear would take a long time and it is widely accepted that defragging an SSD merely adds extra wear when it doesn't need it. My self I cannot remember when I last defragged a drive and as nearly all my drives are now SSD's I do not defrag at all.
I also found out from Seagate who make their own hybrid drives do not recommend defragging.

If you are not sure on how to disable defrag then see this. Optimize Windows 7 < point 11 the rest of the tutorial is absolutely in my mind a must to get the most out of your equipment.

KYWD · 18 Aug 2014

Hi jjr,

Good choice with WD. I don't think there's is "correct" hard disk in terms of primary drive for either PCs and laptops. It all depends on the preferencies of each person. If you'd like to use it for general everyday activity, I would recommend this WD Blue: WD Blue The model type that has the exact same specifications that you're looking for WD10EZEX.

Regarding your second question, I wouldn't recommend SSD defragmentation, because it will reduce the SSD’s lifespan by unnecessarily writing data to it. Here's a link explaining whole thing with HDD defragging and the SSD specifics: Tech Talker : Should You Defragment Your Hard Drive? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ?

Hope that I helped.

KY_WD

ICIT2LOL · 18 Aug 2014

Yes KYWD while I don't agree that WD is the better brand drive and that no drive is preferable over another for booting purposes for example simply because an SSD beats any spinner hands down in my experience. Not using a double drive for boot (SSD) and then a spinner for data backup and storage I do agree it is a personal choice.

As for the defrag issue on SSD's there has been much discussion on that subject in this forum and defragging is generally accepted as a no no. I stand to be corrected but Windows on install picks up any drive if it is an SSD and disabling defrag is a must.

I would go even further and say that is true of the new hybrid drives like I recently posted about and got verification from Seagate tech support (my own preference in drives) that even those should not be defragged.

As it stands I have just installed one of those drives in my partners daughters machine and it has shown to be only marginally slower than a full SSD. I am shortly to install a 1TB hybrid on my partner's machine and it will be very interesting to se how it performs as I know the exact timings for booting and hopping from program to program etc etc on the old drive.
Another plus for hybrids is that they are a fraction of the cost of a full SSD by size / space but admittedly more costly than a comparable plain spinner.

But you have your opinion as anyone is entitled to but I wonder if you have tried an SSD for booting and / or general use:)

KYWD · 18 Aug 2014

Hi ICit2lol,

I wasn't saying that the hybrid drives are a bad choice. :) I saw jjr already had WD hard drive, that's why I decided to provide some guidance. After all you're right, it all depends on one's personal preference. :)

KY_WD

ICIT2LOL · 18 Aug 2014

KYWD said:

Hi ICit2lol,

I wasn't saying that the hybrid drives are a bad choice. :) I saw jjr already had WD hard drive, that's why I decided to provide some guidance. After all you're right, it all depends on one's personal preference. :)

KY_WD

No mate I wasn't hinting you were either - I have only just stumbled over these type of drives after seeing they come in very thin format (sizewise) and I was about to replace the old drive for her with a SSD but again the price and the drive's performance made me try one out and to be honest it is the bee's knees for booting from and larger capacity wise than the SSD I was considering.:)

Imrankhan · 20 Aug 2014

Seagate Barracuda Desktop ST1000DM003. This meets your requirements. 64MB Cache spins at 7200rpm.
WD Blue too have 64MB cache and 7200rpm drive(WD10EZEX Model).
You may go WD Black models like WD1003FZEX,WD1002FAEX for this.

But note that there wont be any significant differences between them. They all are spinning drives reading and writing data to Magnetic Tapes. Read speed and write speed vary a little.
In my case, If I want a drive I would goto store buy the one that fits my budget and also have a good name in the market. Blue one you chose is not a bad disk too.

jjr · 20 Aug 2014

So should I just stick with the new green drive I purchased in the first place???

My issue is that when I playing music and browsing/email at the same time, some times the music freezes/lags for a sec and I get a quick buzz sound. My thought that my original 120gb hd w/8mb cache was not big enough and causing the problem. I since then upgraded the PC to 8gb matched ram and installed the larger green drive w/ the larger cache.

Well it was working fine for a few days and started up again. It seems to go away for awhile if I delete my browsing history (Google Chrome) , run CC cleaner then restart the PC. Also I noticed that on my sys restore I had that only at 10% I not increased that to 100%.

I will not be back at the PC till tomorrow afternoon to see if that made a difference.

So what I thought could possibly still be causing that is when I read the specifications on the green drive saying that it does spin at different speeds under different applications that could be causing the lag/buzz.

I have done a lot of searching on the web on this and it seems that I'm not the only person with this issue (running Win7 64bit home) and using the WMP as well as tried using the Cowon MP which did work somewhat better but the issue was still there.

At one point I had all my music on my slave drive with a shortcut to my desktop that seemed to make the issue eve worse, since then i moved all my music to my master drive.......

Sorry to go off a bit but this has been driving me nuts

Imrankhan said:

Seagate Barracuda Desktop ST1000DM003. This meets your requirements. 64MB Cache spins at 7200rpm.
WD Blue too have 64MB cache and 7200rpm drive(WD10EZEX Model).
You may go WD Black models like WD1003FZEX,WD1002FAEX for this.

But note that there wont be any significant differences between them. They all are spinning drives reading and writing data to Magnetic Tapes. Read speed and write speed vary a little.
In my case, If I want a drive I would goto store buy the one that fits my budget and also have a good name in the market. Blue one you chose is not a bad disk too.