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Will a larger HDD slow down more as it fills than a smaller one?

GamerBlake
By GamerBlake
in Storage Devices
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Hey guys,

 

My NVMe & SATA SSDs are starting to fill up fast and I’ve decided to move some of my Steam games to an HDD but I have a question:

 

Will a larger (say 4TB) drive slow down more as it fills up then a smaller (say 1TB) drive does?

 

Lets say you took 2 drives of the same model, like WD Blacks, both 7200rpm, the only difference being that one is 1TB and the other is 4TB. If you filled them up to 80% of their respective overall capacities and then launched the same game on both of them will the 4TB one take longer?

 

Here is why I’m asking: I know mechanical HDDs use an arm thingy to search through the drive and find the information it’s looking for. But with a larger drive does it take longer to find and access this data due to having to search through more data compared to a smaller one?

 

Any insight or answers are appreciated.

 

Thanks!

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6 minutes ago, GamerBlake said:

Here is why I’m asking: I know mechanical HDDs use an arm thingy to search through the drive and find the information it’s looking for. But with a larger drive does it take longer to find and access this data due to having to search through more data compared to a smaller one?

No, the size of the read/write-head, the armature or the platters don't change and as such the read-speeds don't change, either. If anything, read-speeds will be better in a bigger drive, simply due to the density of the data. Write-speeds will change as the drive fills up, however, if it is an SMR-drive, due to how shingled magnetic recording works.

Hand, n. A singular instrument worn at the end of the human arm and commonly thrust into somebody’s pocket.

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no the larger drives are faster to being with and should stay faster. My X300 5tb did about 200mb/s empty and now gets about 160-170

 

Good luck, Have fun, Build PC, and have a last gen console for use once a year. I should answer most of the time between 9 to 3 PST

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1 hour ago, GDRRiley said:

no the larger drives are faster to being with and should stay faster. My X300 5tb did about 200mb/s empty and now gets about 160-170

 

Oh ok thanks! I wasn’t sure because it just made sense to me that it would be slower.

 

Now I have no qualms with replacing my 1TB WD Blue with a 4TB WD Black.

CPU: i7 8700K (5.1 GHz OC). AIO: EVGA CLC 280 280mm. GPU: EVGA XC2 Ultra 2080Ti. PSU: Corsair RM850x 850W 80+ Gold Fully Modular. MB: MSI MEG Z390 ACE. RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB (3600 MHz OC). STORAGE: 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 NVMe, 2TB Samsung 860 EVO, 1TB Samsung 860 Evo, 1TB Samsung 860 QVO, 2TB Firecuda 7200rpm SSHD, 1TB WD Blue. CASE: NZXT H510 Elite. FANS: Corsair LL120 RGB 120mm x4. MONITOR: MSI Optix MAG271CQR 2560x1440 144hz. Headset: Steelseries Arctis 5 Gaming Headset. Keyboard: Razer Cynosa Chroma. Mouse: Razer Basilisk Ultimate (Wireless) Webcam: Logitech C922x Pro Stream Webcam.

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Read speeds are faster at the start of the drive, as there's physically more platter spinning under the head, then it tends to drop off gradually as you reach the end of the drive.

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2 hours ago, LunaP0n3 said:

Read speeds are faster at the start of the drive, as there's physically more platter spinning under the head, then it tends to drop off gradually as you reach the end of the drive.

Yeah I know that but is it slower at the end of a 4TB drive than a 1TB drive? Like if they are both 90% full?

CPU: i7 8700K (5.1 GHz OC). AIO: EVGA CLC 280 280mm. GPU: EVGA XC2 Ultra 2080Ti. PSU: Corsair RM850x 850W 80+ Gold Fully Modular. MB: MSI MEG Z390 ACE. RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB (3600 MHz OC). STORAGE: 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 NVMe, 2TB Samsung 860 EVO, 1TB Samsung 860 Evo, 1TB Samsung 860 QVO, 2TB Firecuda 7200rpm SSHD, 1TB WD Blue. CASE: NZXT H510 Elite. FANS: Corsair LL120 RGB 120mm x4. MONITOR: MSI Optix MAG271CQR 2560x1440 144hz. Headset: Steelseries Arctis 5 Gaming Headset. Keyboard: Razer Cynosa Chroma. Mouse: Razer Basilisk Ultimate (Wireless) Webcam: Logitech C922x Pro Stream Webcam.

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6 hours ago, GamerBlake said:

Oh ok thanks! I wasn’t sure because it just made sense to me that it would be slower.

 

Now I have no qualms with replacing my 1TB WD Blue with a 4TB WD Black.

my personal pick would be a toshiba X300 over a WD black,

3 hours ago, GamerBlake said:

Yeah I know that but is it slower at the end of a 4TB drive than a 1TB drive? Like if they are both 90% full?

no

Good luck, Have fun, Build PC, and have a last gen console for use once a year. I should answer most of the time between 9 to 3 PST

NightHawk 3.0: R7 5700x @, B550A vision D, H105, 2x32gb Oloy 3600, Sapphire RX 6700XT  Nitro+, Corsair RM750X, 500 gb 850 evo, 2tb rocket and 5tb Toshiba x300, 2x 6TB WD Black W10 all in a 750D airflow.
GF PC: (nighthawk 2.0): R7 2700x, B450m vision D, 4x8gb Geli 2933, Strix GTX970, CX650M RGB, Obsidian 350D

Skunkworks: R5 3500U, 16gb, 500gb Adata XPG 6000 lite, Vega 8. HP probook G455R G6 Ubuntu 20. LTS

Condor (MC server): 6600K, z170m plus, 16gb corsair vengeance LPX, samsung 750 evo, EVGA BR 450.

Spirt  (NAS) ASUS Z9PR-D12, 2x E5 2620V2, 8x4gb, 24 3tb HDD. F80 800gb cache, trueNAS, 2x12disk raid Z3 stripped

PSU Tier List      Motherboard Tier List     SSD Tier List     How to get PC parts cheap    HP probook 445R G6 review

 

"Stupidity is like trying to find a limit of a constant. You are never truly smart in something, just less stupid."

Camera Gear: X-S10, 16-80 F4, 60D, 24-105 F4, 50mm F1.4, Helios44-m, 2 Cos-11D lavs

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