Is there a big difference between 2.5 and 3.5 HDD

[Frankie]

Hey I was thinking about what my next PC could be like and I really like Corsair Air 540 but I dislike the front mounted 3.5 HDD so I would be modding that to have flat clean floor (smoked plexi probably).

Thing is, I would have to either find a nice place for a 3.5 hdd in the back, or just use 2.5 HDD for storage (SSD for boot) Is there any real downside to this other then that (than that ? grammar nazi help) 2.5 is probably a little bit slower.

In my experience reliability is not very different, so is there any serious disadvantages, or it doesnt really matter. Any opinion is welcome

[Speedbird]

Hey I was thinking about what my next PC could be like and I really like Corsair Air 540 but I dislike the front mounted 3.5 HDD so I would be modding that to have flat clean floor (smoked plexi probably).

Thing is, I would have to either find a nice place for a 3.5 hdd in the back, or just use 2.5 HDD for storage (SSD for boot) Is there any real downside to this other then that (than that ? grammar nazi help) 2.5 is probably a little bit slower.

In my experience reliability is not very different, so is there any serious disadvantages, or it doesnt really matter. Any opinion is welcome

Not really. 2.5" HDDs are usually quieter.

[Psykomantis00]

1.0

[asim1999]

3.5 HDDs normally are faster due to faster rotation and larger cache, and are easier to mount in most cases due to there being tool-less drive brackets 

[Godlygamer23]

You shouldn't experience anything noticeable performance wise.

[Weepypostman]

Smaller is better, sometimes.

[marat569]

the smaller HDDs are usually made for laptops AFAIK, and most laptops come with 5200RPM hdds (2.5), and a average HDD is 7200RPM

[BurgerBum]

i'd say theres about a 5% preformance increase from 2.5 to 3.5... not really anything to worry over.

 

 

i will say that i've seen more 2.5 drives fail in my lifetime, however thats onlybecause ive only ever seen one 3.5 fail. xP

[AlexStriz]

Smaller is better, sometimes.

 

[KemoKa]

There's not really any performance hit from going to a 2.5. 2.5s tend to drive at 5400rpm because they're used in battery-powered computers, but you can get 7200rpm ones as well, I think. With how technology has advanced, there's no reason you can't get the performance of a 3.5 into a 2.5. 

I also find that 2.5s have lower fail rates. In Akihabara, every old hard 3.5 under the sun (or building) is dead or dying of SMART failure, but both 120GB Toshiba drives that i picked up there accessed, allocated and mounted flawlessly even on a shoddy USB-SATA interface. They're sitting in my rig now. I have a Sharp PC-GP1515 back home that has a 40GB HDD. It's still alive and kicking, it's outlived its battery by about eight years. every other 3.5HDD I have tested from that time has failed. so that could be something for 2.5 inch hard drives.

But I'm not sure how true their reliablility is, so just take it with a grain of salt.

[DildorTheDecent]

I think 2.5 only goes to 2TB. While 3.5 can currently go to 6TB.  With plans for up to 10TB due to joys of helium. 

[Frankie]

Thanks gang. You did confirmed what I thought, but hey, better safe than sorry

[marat569]

I think 2.5 only goes to 2TB. While 3.5 can currently go to 6TB.  With plans for up to 10TB due to joys of helium. 

 

What about price? I'm sure a 2tb 2.5 will not cost the same as a 2tb 3.5

[KemoKa]

What about price? I'm sure a 2tb 2.5 will not cost the same as a 2tb 3.5

no reason why it shouldn't other than marketing BS, which should fall apart because 2.5" hard drives have been around for years.

[DildorTheDecent]

What about price? I'm sure a 2tb 2.5 will not cost the same as a 2tb 3.5

The bigger 3.5 drives are usually cheaper since they are easily found.

2TB 2.5 drives exist but are near 100 GBP cos smaller sizes are more common for 2.5 drives.

[zombiepixel]

big difference. the speed at the rate the disk  is read. 2.5 normally found at 5400 while 3.5 is found at 7200 and also 3.5 are more reliable. (if u mean 2.5 hdd not ssd)

[Psykomantis00]

I think 2.5 only goes to 2TB. While 3.5 can currently go to 6TB.  With plans for up to 10TB due to joys of helium. 

You can buy drives bigger than 6tb already. 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145969&cm_re=8tb_hdd-_-22-145-969-_-Product

 

Once prices fall a bit I'll be picking up a couple of 8tb drives. 

[Frankie]

You can buy drives bigger than 6tb already. 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145969&cm_re=8tb_hdd-_-22-145-969-_-Product

 

Once prices fall a bit I'll be picking up a couple of 8tb drives. 

 

Yeah, right now you can either have a decent pc/htpc or a big HDD.

[Aniallation]

Hey I was thinking about what my next PC could be like and I really like Corsair Air 540 but I dislike the front mounted 3.5 HDD so I would be modding that to have flat clean floor (smoked plexi probably).

Thing is, I would have to either find a nice place for a 3.5 hdd in the back, or just use 2.5 HDD for storage (SSD for boot) Is there any real downside to this other then that (than that ? grammar nazi help) 2.5 is probably a little bit slower.

In my experience reliability is not very different, so is there any serious disadvantages, or it doesnt really matter. Any opinion is welcome

Most 2.5" drives are 5400RPM, which will be noticeably slower then a standard desktop drive, about on the level of a "green" 3.5" HDD. There are some 7200RPM 2.5" drives designed for higher performance laptops though, and those will give you pretty much the same performance as a standard desktop drive.

[Frankie]

Most 2.5" drives are 5400RPM, which will be noticeably slower then a standard desktop drive, about on the level of a "green" 3.5" HDD. There are some 7200RPM 2.5" drives designed for higher performance laptops though, and those will give you pretty much the same performance as a standard desktop drive.

 

Yeah, I was looking at it this way Forgot to mention RPMs in my post.

[DildorTheDecent]

You can buy drives bigger than 6tb already. 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145969&cm_re=8tb_hdd-_-22-145-969-_-Product

 

Once prices fall a bit I'll be picking up a couple of 8tb drives. 

$800 though. That's R9 295X2 money in the UK. 

[DirkW]

$800 though. That's R9 295X2 money in the UK. 

It's an Enterpreise drive. Wasn't there supposed to be an 8TB Seagate out soon with a much lower price (although not record breaking performance)?

 

Also, the advantage in performance for 3.5" drives do not only come from their higher RPMs but from the larger diameter as well. Remember, the fastest sectors are on the outside of the platters (and the outside of a 3.5" is way more outside than on a 2.5" - that plus higher RPMs) usually make 3.5" noticeably faster... well at least in benchmarks. Real life user experience could be less distinctive.