which hard drive to buy?

[bumpyme]

I think that I need to buy a larger hard drive, as things seem to be slowing down no matter how much I cler and clean up. I have at the moment a WD Caviar Blue 500GB drive, and thought that I would get a 1TB one. I have lookad at these ones - Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache at ebuyer,
Samsung 1Tb Spinpoint F3 Hard Drive - HDD

1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9ms, NCQ at scan.co.uk,

and was wondering if they were the same, and if they are any good, or has anyone got any other suggestions? I would appreciate any help as the choice out there seems to be never ending. My motherboard is ASUS P5L-Mx , do not know if that makes a difference or not

 

[ripbox]

well you say the problem seems to be speed so getting a 1TB drive just doesn't seem logical unless you actually need that extra space
Unfortunate what you are experiencing happens will all Mechanical drives as the become over used and fragmented... a simple format and reinstall would bring it back up to speed
However if you looking for a speed/performance boost then i would forget the mechanical drives and go for a solid state drive
Many will look at these drive and think well they are only small ect ect but always over look the performance (ssd id the best upgrade you can buy)
What im suggesting here is for few purples extra on price of a 1TB HDD you could get a 120GB SSD, using the SSD for the OS and the 500GB HDD as a storage and installs drive
Dont be fooled over the size... bigger doesn't mean better performance

Look at my system, i run a 40GB SSD for the OS, a 150GB HDD for installs and a 500GB HDD for storage
with that selection i no longer have to go bake a cake while waiting for my pc to boot... not i hit the button sit down and surf

SSD is the way to go IMO and the prices are coming down steadily and the same for size

 

[whs]

Here are some tests in a reputable German computer mag from last week. The first in the list (Hitachi Ultrastar) seems to be very, very fast - but not cheap. I am sure you can figure it out. Use Google translate if you cannot read German.
Testsieger 2011: Die besten internen SATA-Festplatten - CHIP Online

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The Samsung 103SJ is an excellent choice. It is among the fastest drives in its class and is usually among the least expensive as well---as low as $50 when on sale in the USA.

The only thing preferable would be an SSD, but they are much more expensive per gigabyte.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I have one in an eSATA carrier as my backup drive, and it works great. It's cool, quiet, and fast.

 

[whs]

Regarding the Samsung drive you may want to read the user feedback here. It is mostly positive, but not completly.

 

[essenbe]

I have 5 Samsung Drives. They have not caused one bit of problem and are fast and cool running.

 

[pparks1]

Regarding the Samsung drive you may want to read the user feedback here. It is mostly positive, but not completly.

Unfortunately, with any hard drive brand, make or model, with reviews at NewEgg you will see people who claim "It's the best hard drive ever made" and somebody else will claim "it's absolute garbage"

Some people seem to have nothing but DoA harddrives, and I've never had a single 1 from NewEgg come DoA and I've probably bought 50 of them between home and work projects.

 

[bumpyme]

I think that I do need the space, as my hard drive is practically 3/4 full, and I regularly defrag and reinstall.

Would mu motherbaord take a SSD?

Not really sure what the diference between SSd and my Sata hard drive is

 

[whs]

1. If your HDD is so full, you may want to consider an external disk (or if you have a desktop an additional internal disk). Those can be had for about $50 for a 500GB model. Then you can split your data.

2. An SSD is a normal Sata disk and any mobo with Sata ports will accept it. The main difference to a normal HDD is that they are unbelivably fast (access time is 150 times faster). Because of their high price, we use them only for the OS to get the performance kick. For that, a 60 GB model for around $100 should suffice.

 

[essenbe]

If your mother board has sata hard drives then yes it can accept one. You will just need to have a 2.5' to 3.5' adapter. Many of the SSds will come with one, but if you had to buy one they are extremely cheap. SSDs are for speed not for storage. You run your OS and apps from the SSD and your user files from the mechanical hard drive. As WHS said, you can run it that way with a $100 60GB SSD. I am right now. But, my computer boots in less than 30 seconds and apps open instantly.

 

[Britton30]

Not really sure what the diference between SSd and my Sata hard drive is

SSD is Solid State Drive, it has no moving parts as a normal HDD does. A SSD is composed of memory (MLC or SLC) and is nearly as fast as the RAM in a system.

 

[whs]

and is nearly as fast as the RAM in a system

Gary, that is "slightly" optimistic - LOL.

 

[FisseDanny]

I can recommend the SSD drive too, even its low in GB its a joy to work with. And then get a regular hard drive for storage and backups.

 

[bumpyme]

Thanks, but I already have several external hard drives for storage and backups. If I got a SSD, then would I need another drive also in the MB, and I take it that I would have to re install windows or could I just clone?

At the moment I have 286GB used on my hard drive, and it needs space to work, does a SSD need space to work?

How big does it need to be to just install windows?

Would I put all the other programs on a second drive that I connect to the MB?

Would all the other programs work fast as well?

Sorry for all the questions, but if I am going to spend out on a SSD, then I want to be sure of things first

 

[essenbe]

As I recall Windows takes up 16-17GB. You should install the OS and programs on the SSD and move all user files to a mechanical hard drive. On my current install I have 25GB on the SSD. Most programs need to be installed on the SSD as they write entries into the registry. If you are a gamer, many games can be installed to a mechanical HD.

 

[pparks1]

If I got a SSD, then would I need another drive also in the MB, and I take it that I would have to re install windows or could I just clone?

You can clone, however you might run into trouble since your current windows partitions are probably going to be larger than your new SSD. Honestly, when moving to an SSD, I suggest a format and reinstall. This way you can be a bit more critical of what you actually install onto your rig and you can ensure the best performance by not installing a bunch of stuff you don't use.

At the moment I have 286GB used on my hard drive, and it needs space to work, does a SSD need space to work?

Of the 286GB on your hard drive, how much can be attributed to things like music, internet downloads, videos, isos, games, etc. It's surprising when you look at Windows and the majority of apps that you install and use...aside from games...they usually aren't huge. Even with a game or 2, my SSD usually has about 40GB installed at any point in time.

How big does it need to be to just install windows?

20GB of so for the install, and plan space for updates and such. Honestly, I would earmark no less than 40GB.

Would I put all the other programs on a second drive that I connect to the MB?

You could, but for best performance, you want to install the applications themselves directly on the SSD. This way you benefit from the speed increase. Unless you buy and run a ton of commercial software and games, the amount of space used by programs probably isn't that huge.

As I recall Windows takes up 16-17GB. You should install the OS and programs on the SSD and move all user files to a mechanical hard drive.

I'm unsure why everybody suggests moving their user files to the mechanical hard drive. In most cases, I would think things like word doc, excel spreadsheets, text files and the like are all going to be pretty small and not amount to a lot of used space. The things which take up the most space are music files, picture files, videos and downloads. You can easily just save these to your mechanical drive and set your browser default download location to your mechanical drive.

Most programs need to be installed on the SSD as they write entries into the registry.

Actually you can install these programs usually on any drive you like. Writing files into the registry has no bearing on what drives you can install software to. If you install a piece of software onto your mechanical drive, the registry keys for that software will simply point to the drive letter of the mechanical drive.

 

[seth500]

When you get an SSD the best thing to do and what I always follow is this guide by whs:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

An SSD doesn't get slower as it fills up with data like a normal HDD you don't need to defrag it and it doesn't require superfetch to run as well it actually hates these types of operations as they will cause media wear out.

I use an 80gb SSD for my windows partition which is sufficient but you can even get by with 60gb. What I do and have done in the past , is I own 2 ssd both of which are 80gb but I have a lot of programs I split up the programs when setting up large program like office and adobe products. I just change the drive letter to my secondary SSD during a customized setup of the programs. Or you can put them on a mechanical drive.

Also a 1tb drive that your looking at isn't a bad choice my wife has one in her computer and it's surprising fast for a mechanical drive if you need the space. What I did was make 3 partitions on the drive the operating system resides on a partition of 160gb and the other 2 are divided up equally and are used for her music and all kinds of other stuff like pictures and such. The main thing is if you use a HDD for an operating system always keep it small enough so access times can be somewhat short an SSD you don't have to worry about that.

Also in answer to you last question I have put my programs on a HDD like you were wondering and had been quite happy with how the system worked the main thing is to keep the operating system on something fast like an SSD or a fast small HDD which in themselves can be quite expensive if you get into 10000rpm drives and the better choice IMO would be an ssd over that.

 

[whs]

You may want to reaf my little tutorial on how to move the OS from your HDD to the SSD. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/149969-ssd-install-transfer-operating-system.html