WD Gold HDD?

[wdodge0912]

So looking at replacing my HDD since it is very slow to load things, and I can't run any application from it without it slowing my PC down a ton. I want to upgrade size anyways.

 

I was looking on PC Part picker and seen the WD Gold 2tb hard drive, 7200rpm and a 128mb cache. This one here @ newegg. 

 

Anyways I was wondering if It would be good for some games and general usage?I know it's a Datacenter drive, but would that work for a regular HDD?

 

I do plan to upgrade my SSD to a 500gb or better once I do build a new PC, but for now would like to get a new drive so I can play the games that are installed and don't fit on my 120gb, and don't have to keep moving them to the mechanical drive and back whenever I want to play a game. Which some of my games I can't move around, which stinks on the HDD I have now as it takes forever to load, but if I was to put them on the SSD, they wouldn't fit.

 

I have thought about picking up an interim SSD as well, just something to add to the mix to keep games on.

 

[LienusLateTips]

it's overpriced, just get a normal Toshiba P300 or a barracuda

[Mira Yurizaki]

It'll work as a regular hard drive.

 

Actually any of these hard drives will work fine for regular use. They're just tested or have their firmware designed for the application they're meant for.

[W-L]

1 minute ago, wdodge0912 said:

So looking at replacing my HDD since it is very slow to load things, and I can't run any application from it without it slowing my PC down a ton. I want to upgrade size anyways.

 

I was looking on PC Part picker and seen the WD Gold 2tb hard drive, 7200rpm and a 128mb cache. This one here @ newegg. 

 

Anyways I was wondering if It would be good for some games and general usage?I know it's a Datacenter drive, but would that work for a regular HDD?

 

I do plan to upgrade my SSD to a 500gb or better once I do build a new PC, but for now would like to get a new drive so I can play the games that are installed and don't fit on my 120gb, and don't have to keep moving them to the mechanical drive and back whenever I want to play a game, if it's a steam game.

You can use it as a regular drive, while it won't have the speeds of say an SSD it has certain design features for an Enterprise environment making it more expensive than a regular drive but it won't really encounter those in a regular system. 

[wdodge0912]

 

6 minutes ago, JDE said:

it's overpriced, just get a normal Toshiba P300 or a barracuda

as for the barracuda, I have the ST1000DM010 and it is slow. that's the drive I am replacing.  I can't play any games off of it or it takes forever to load into the game. I have had to quit playing some MMO games because by the time it loads in, the game is already in progress and I'm way too far behind to catch up. and I know it's not anything else because if I move the games to my SSD, it's fine and loads in a proper amount of time. I've even tried swapping sata cables and such, so I know it's the drive itself that is slow.

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, wdodge0912 said:

I was wondering if it would wear out faster being for something like that.

as for the barracuda, I have the ST1000DM010 and it is slow. that's the drive I am replacing.  I can't play any games off of it or it takes forever to load into the game. I have had to quit playing some MMO games because by the time it loads in, the game is already in progress and I'm way too far behind to catch up. and I know it's not anything else because if I move the games to my SSD, it's fine and loads in a proper amount of time. I've even tried swapping sata cables and such, so I know it's the drive itself that is slow.

Then this won't be any better. Get a SSD.

[wdodge0912]

5 minutes ago, W-L said:

You can use it as a regular drive, while it won't have the speeds of say an SSD it has certain design features for an Enterprise environment making it more expensive than a regular drive but it won't really encounter those in a regular system. 

 

5 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

It'll work as a regular hard drive.

 

Actually any of these hard drives will work fine for regular use. They're just tested or have their firmware designed for the application they're meant for.

 

I was wondering if it would wear out faster being for a datacenter. I figured the 128mb cache would also help load times

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, wdodge0912 said:

 

 

I was wondering if it would wear out faster being for a datacenter. I figured the 128mb cache would also help load times

no

[wdodge0912]

Just now, JDE said:

Then this won't be any better. Get a SSD.

it's specifically the drive though. My old Dell XPS with a 2310 i5 with a 1tb WD blue drive loads faster than anything on that HDD.

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, wdodge0912 said:

it's specifically the drive though. My old Dell XPS with a 2310 i5 with a 1tb WD blue drive loads faster than anything on that HDD.

I would still get an SSD though

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, wdodge0912 said:

I was wondering if it would wear out faster being for a datacenter. I figured the 128mb cache would also help load times

Well it would last even longer since your using a data center type drive in a less strenuous environment. If your wanting fast load times and snappy response an SSD is hands down still the best upgrade you can do. 

[wdodge0912]

Just now, JDE said:

I would still get an SSD though

that's the plan eventually, but I want to go bigger than what I have now, a 120gb SSD. I want to go to something that can hold my most played games and not have to move stuff around, with a mechanical drive for the older games I have. But in the mean time I am trying to find a solution that isn't gonna cost me an arm and a leg to get, as I'm also trying to upgrade from my FX 8300 machine

[AnonymousGuy]

There's really no need to buy a WD Gold drive.   Hitachi or WD Black would be more suitable if you can find at a lower price.  

 

Enterprise drives have features you don't really care about unless you're running RAID in a multi-drive enclosure.

[Mira Yurizaki]

59 minutes ago, wdodge0912 said:

I was wondering if it would wear out faster being for a datacenter. I figured the 128mb cache would also help load times

The point of it being made for a data center is to last longer. Unless you're moving around 550TB per year, it's not really going to be a problem.

[wdodge0912]

how would this Firecuda compare to the WD drive? would it be faster than a WD Black?

 

I should figure out my space needed though, and maybe clean up some of the games and apps and stuff I don't use.

 

When I do build my new machine I was thinking of leaving the 120gb SSD I have now with the OS, and any utilities I would need/want, have a 256gb WD black M2 drive for games. bet if I was to get say a 500gb 850 Evo SSD I might have enough room, and wouldn't need a mechanical drive. I'd have less space, but I could probably get away with it.

 

I could also get a WD 1tb blue ssd for less than the 850 Evo and 256gb WD black drives. would give me all SSD sata speeds, not sure how much of an improvement a M2 drive is over a SATA SSD.

[scottyseng]

31 minutes ago, wdodge0912 said:

-snip-

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend the Gold drive...it's way overkill for your needs. Also, enterprise drives don't really care about noise / heat. They're really designed to be in server. I personally usually opt for the WD Reds as desktop drives, but if you something a bit faster, the WD Black or the Firecuda would be similar. The cheaper option is a Barracuda drive.

 

I would really recommend a SSD for sure though. M.2 and SATA SSDs are the same, provided the M.2 is a sata drives (M.2 can be either PCIe (NVMe) or Sata...make sure you know which port you have before you buy it).

[cat1092]

Don't mean to bump an old Topic, just want to inform others who runs across this one while looking as I did.

 

I have two of the 2TB WD Gold HDD's, in separate computers, these are FAST drives, hitting just over 200MB/sec during ATTO tests around the 5th phase of the test, before dipping a bit near the end. As far as noise goes, there's none, much quieter than any WD Black I've owned. 

 

The reason as to why I purchased these, seems to have taken the place of the RE4. of which I have over 10 in usage. My Blacks are now demoted to backup duty in enclosures, as well as the Samsung Spinpoint F3 drives which were popular & performed just as good as the Black at the end of the SATA-2 era. 

 

That 128MB cache helps, any computer component with more of, the better. Of course, not as noticeable as the upgraded cache of recent CPU's, yet many of us remembers the 2MB cache of 1st gen SATA HDD's, as well as 8MB for budget WD Blue SATA-2 models. Going to 32MB made a huge difference, as does 64MB on (most) consumer HDD's of today. I enjoy my WD Gold's, has been a newer version released since. These has the same warranty as the WD Black & 2x the cache for only a few more dollars on promo (I paid $119 each on Newegg), so actually cost less then the 2TB Black at regular price. Many reviewers says these are noisy, why I stayed with enterprise type HDD's for data. 

 

As for my OS, run NVMe SSD's where able, even my two AMD AM3+ ASRock 970M Pro3 systems (PCIe 2.0) are running a 240GB MyDigitalSSD BPX each, write speed nearly the same as on a Z97 (PCIe 3.0) system, read is the more noticeable drop. Still, it's amazing to associate an FX system on NVMe, even dropped a AM3 Phenom II x4 965 in one & still booted. 

 

At any rate, don't be afraid of the WD Gold for your data, we get what we pay for. If these drives are rated for datacenter usage, will serve the Home user for much longer & after a decade still make an excellent backup drive in an aluminum enclosure.

 

Cat