Hard drive recommendations

[MoonlightSylv]

So I don't know if/when I'm going to replace my weird 500GB and 750GB laptop drive setup but just in case I do eventually upgrade, what should I look for?

 

I'd like to have around 2TB or more for under $100, the lower the price, the better as long as it's not sacrificing too much performance.

[vanished]

Look for new drives, not used or refurbished.  If you're not doing RAID or anything else unusual, there's not really anything else big to look out for; there only are a few manufacturers, and the prices are pretty standard across the board.  Higher RPM and higher capacity should both help performance since they both result in more bits travelling under the needle per second, but by and large, the differences between drives as a result of those factors probably aren't all that significant either since any HDD is going to be crushed by an SSD.

[JacobFW]

This is my personal philosophy, you're welcome to disagree.  Performance wise, Hard drives stink.  Can't really get around that, it's just how they're built.  I stopped buying hard drives for speed years ago, now I get the ones I feel are the most reliable.  

 

My personal recommendation is to get a 2TB WD Red drive.  I've been using the WD Red's for a while now, and I really like them.  

 

Also, you say you have 2.5" laptop drives, is this for a laptop, or are you just using them with your desktop?

[seagate_surfer]

With your desire for performance and 2TB along with your price point in consideration, you may want to look into a 2TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD (Solid-State Hybrid Drive). These drives come in both 2.5" (model ST2000LX001) and 3.5" (model ST2000DX002).

The drive has a small SSD cache on which the drive intuitively places your most frequently accessed data for faster load-times and performance, then also has a larger spinning storage space so you still get solid bang for your buck.

Here is a spec sheet for the 2.5" and one for the 3.5" as well.

If you'd like to see how the drive stacks up performance-wise against other types, here are a couple charts to check out:

The first one compares startup times across several popular games across a traditional spinning 7200 RPM HDD, FireCuda, and an M.2 SSD (128GB). The white is for SSD, the orange for FireCuda, and the gray for the 7200 spinning HDD.
 

Startup Times
 

The next one compares the first 3 days of gaming storage utilization across several popular titles, and SYSmark ratings from various drive types and combinations. First of the grays is 7200 RPM 1TB spinning HDD, second (lightest gray) is FireCuda, third (darkest gray) is an SSD + 7200 RPM HDD combo, purple is SSD + FireCuda combo, and lastly blue is SSD.

First 3 Days Gaming Storage Utilization

Good luck with the new drive, regardless of which drive you determine is right for you in the end!

[vanished]

3 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

*snip*

So much background information that needs to go with those benchmarks is absent here, but as best I can recall, these are actually the first time I've seen someone attempt to give real numbers so still a huge step in the right direction... even if they are so low res it's impossible to read