Solved gaming PC with 2 caviar greens, looking to upgrade

[AndarielHalo]

Right now I have two hard drives, my main OS drive and a gaming drive. I'm looking to upgrade the gaming drive to a Caviar Black, while keeping my main drive as it is.


Will this help improve gaming or is it bottlenecked by the OS drive?


Additionally, would upgrading my main drive to a Caviar Blue or Black see any significant increase in speed in terms of loading programs, performing system maintenance, etc? (My main drive is a 2 TB Green that is 85% full)

 

[Solarstarshines]

SSD would be your best bet and to be honest Athlon 620 is Ancient and probably struggles and would recommend new cpu board and ram if you want to get rid of the bottleneck because it's really the CPU

 

[AndarielHalo]

That setup in my profile is outdated. Right now I have 16 GB RAM and an i7 cpu. As for SSD, I don't know if I want to pay more for generally less space when I regularly use huge amounts of space on videos and graphics files (as well as backups for several other older hard drives).

 

[PSCO2007]

As was said by Solarstarshines an SSD is your best bet for your gaming loading/speed.

The best WD hdd cannot compete with an SSD.

Here's one that is inexpensive and has enough storage for your purposes.

Amazon.com: Crucial M500 240GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT240M500SSD1: Computers & Accessories

 

[AndarielHalo]

Granted, but as it stands I don't want to use an SSD (yet). I don't really have enough money to do so, and my game contents take up more than 900 GB. I'd much rather wait a few years for a more cost-efficient SSD at larger sizes (if that'll even happen). Until then, I'm mostly aiming for larger hard drive size, with the faster speed as a bonus.

 

[whs]

An additional SSD for the OS would be your best bet. Here is a 128GB for $55.

SanDisk Ultra Plus SDSSDHP-128G-G25 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for Notebook - Newegg.com

But if you want a somewhat faster HDD, you should look for a SSHD.

Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, and More - Newegg.com

This one looks promising. I own the Seagate that is out of stock.

Seagate Solid State Hybrid ST1000LM014 1TB Laptop Hard Drive - Newegg.com

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Keep in mind no HDD or SSD will increase your FPS. An SSD will dramatically increase boot speed and will reduce the time it takes for a program or game to load but that pretty much is all.

 

[whs]

LF, would you like to live without an SSD ??

 

[RoasterMen]

SSD would be your best bet and to be honest Athlon 620 is Ancient and probably struggles and would recommend new cpu board and ram if you want to get rid of the bottleneck because it's really the CPU

Only thing to waste money for SSD if you want the games to load faster. HDD vs SSD while playing games doesn't make a difference but in loading times

 

[AndarielHalo]

I never asked about SSDs to begin with


My current gaming config is such that FPS is almost never an issue for me on any game. My main concern is extra space now, but I'd also any slight boost in speed that a Black might offer over a Green.


All I want to know is whether upgrading the secondary hard drive would see a slight increase in gaming speed or if it's bottlenecked by the main hard drive, and also upgrading the main drive from Green to Black would see a slight increase in system speed for the main drive.


As well, I use my OS drive for mass storage.

 

[whs]

The short answer is NO

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

LF, would you like to live without an SSD ??

Absolutely not! But you appear to be comparing apples and kumquats. An SSD is an upgrade I highly recommend but not for the purpose the OP is wanting. The OP is concerned about increasing system speed and, since a SSD won't speed it up (neither will a faster HDD), I didn't want the OP to have any misconceptions about what an SSD does. His games will still run at the same speed. The only things a SSD or faster HDD will do is speed up boot, read, and write times. There will some apparent speed increase if a program or game frequently reads from or writes to a drive but that is all.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I never asked about SSDs to begin with


My current gaming config is such that FPS is almost never an issue for me on any game. My main concern is extra space now, but I'd also any slight boost in speed that a Black might offer over a Green.


All I want to know is whether upgrading the secondary hard drive would see a slight increase in gaming speed or if it's bottlenecked by the main hard drive, and also upgrading the main drive from Green to Black would see a slight increase in system speed for the main drive.


As well, I use my OS drive for mass storage.

A Black will give you better read and write speeds than a Green and will probably be far more reliable. I will only use Blacks in my desktop machine mostly because of the longer warranty, which suggest improved reliability, and the snappier reads and writes on larger files and use Greens only for backup drives; since they run for only a short time per day, there is no significant need for a more expensive drive.

If you are using the same drive for your OS, programs (including games) and mass storage, I strongly suggest that you put the OS and programs on a separate partition from your data storage. This will simplify and speed up backups (you do make backups, right?). Because for their size, many people prefer to also put their games on their own separate partition; that's an individual choice although doing so would allow them to put their OS and smaller programs on a smaller, more affordable SSD to speed up boot times, etc.

 

[Golden]

a gaming drive. I'm looking to upgrade the gaming drive to a Caviar Black, while keeping my main drive as it is.

I faced a similar situation where I need large high-speed volume on a secondary drive and an SSD solution was just too expensive. I ended up RAID'ing 2 disks into a RAID0 array, and the read and write performance was noticeably improved.

Perhaps the same configuration might work for you. Just be aware that if one disk in the RAID malfunctions, then you loose everything on the RAID. A lot of people are scared off by this, sometimes to the point of being frightened to death of the risk without being able to look at the rewards objectively. Of course, its simple to mitigate against risk with backups and imaging

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Anymore now, by the time the OP gets two HDDs and, possibly, a controller card, setting up RAID 0 may not be all that much less expensive than a SSD and may even be more expensive. Using his existing Greens in any kind of RAID is not recommended by WD.

Going back to the OP's original question, replacing your gaming Green with a Blue or a Black (I personally prefer the Blacks for their longer warranty and larger available sizes; I no longer buy 3.55" HDDs smaller than 4TB) will most likely increase reliability and will make writing and reading to and from the disk noticeably snappier, especially with larger files but, otherwise, will not improve gaming performance. I would suggest you replace both of your Greens with Blues or Blacks. Either drive is better suited for use in a computer while the Greens are better suited for light usage, such as for backup drives or static external storage that will be accessed only occasionally; they aren't well suited for heavy or continuous usage. I especially do not recommend them for installing one's OS on. If one's budget is tight, a Blue would be much better for that and will not cost all that much more.

If you replace both of your Greens, they can be used in enclosures or a dock for backup drives.

 

[Golden]

Anymore now, by the time the OP gets two HDDs and, possibly, a controller card, setting up RAID 0 may not be all that much less expensive than a SSD and may even be more expensive. Using his existing Greens in any kind of RAID is not recommended by WD.

No controller card required - the motherboard natively supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.

The cost of 2 or more WD 1TB Greens is far less than the same size SSD.

Have a proper read about WD's stance on RAID arrays - you are confusing desktop and enterprise scenarios:
Support for WD desktop drives in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration

 

[boogieboy]

Right now I have two hard drives, my main OS drive and a gaming drive. I'm looking to upgrade the gaming drive to a Caviar Black, while keeping my main drive as it is.


Will this help improve gaming or is it bottlenecked by the OS drive?


Additionally, would upgrading my main drive to a Caviar Blue or Black see any significant increase in speed in terms of loading programs, performing system maintenance, etc? (My main drive is a 2 TB Green that is 85% full)

Hello AndarielHalo

First you must change your main OS drive if you can get your hands on a Samsung or Intel SSD that would be the best thing to do if not then you should upgrade your OS drive from Green to Blue or Black or even get Seagate 7200rpm drives. The Caviar Greens are made for storage and I personally have used all colors from WD and the Greens are the worst one's coz they are slow most likely they run @ 5400rpm or so as WD use InteliPower technology in them and they have this weird Head Parking Mechanism which is lets say they are actually just used for Storage drives and are not recommended for OS or Gaming. The Blue one's are great and the Black one's are best but honestly I didn't feel any difference between Blue and Blacks :huh:

Yes even if you just upgrade the secondary drive which you use for Games that will make a little bit difference due to the better RPM speed but just upgrade your OS drive first and then go for the second I also noticed slight minor stuttering during texture loading and gameplay on the Greens it's best to stay away from them unless you just want to store data in them.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Anymore now, by the time the OP gets two HDDs and, possibly, a controller card, setting up RAID 0 may not be all that much less expensive than a SSD and may even be more expensive. Using his existing Greens in any kind of RAID is not recommended by WD.

No controller card required - the motherboard natively supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.

The cost of 2 or more WD 1TB Greens is far less than the same size SSD.

Have a proper read about WD's stance on RAID arrays - you are confusing desktop and enterprise scenarios:
Support for WD desktop drives in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration

Curious. In WD's own description of their Greens, at the bottom of the page, they say this:

"Desktop drives are not recommended for use in RAID environments, please consider using WD Red hard drives for desktop RAID environments or WD datacenter hard drives for rackmount or large RAID configurations."

My own experience with Greens is they are not all that suitable for use as an OS drive (variable speed and excessive head parking when used as an OS drive although the head parking can be turned off). If a computer racks up very many run hours in a given period of time, the Greens are more likely to fail sooner. I personally do not recommend them for use as internal drives (again, based on my own experience; the Blues and Blacks are much better) but they are ideal for external backup and cold storage drives as long as they are connected only when in actual use.

 

[AndarielHalo]

Having gone over everything here and with some other people, I've decided to get an SSD for my OS. And for the gaming drive, I'm going with a WD Red rather than Black, as I hear that Red is more suited for continuous operation, and my comp is usually running most of the day. As well, since my primary concern was space rather than performance, the cost of a 3 TB red was better than that of a 2-3 TB black.


Thanks for your help, everyone (and for making me spend more than I intended)

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Having gone over everything here and with some other people, I've decided to get an SSD for my OS. And for the gaming drive, I'm going with a WD Red rather than Black, as I hear that Red is more suited for continuous operation, and my comp is usually running most of the day. As well, since my primary concern was space rather than performance, the cost of a 3 TB red was better than that of a 2-3 TB black.


Thanks for your help, everyone (and for making me spend more than I intended)

I disagree about the WD Reds. They have been getting poor reviews. If you need only 1TB and are on a tight budget, the Blue would be a better choice. Otherwise, the Blacks would be better (plus there is that five year warranty). I run the three in my rig (two 2TB and one 4TB) 24/7.