Are big hard drives slower/louder/less reliable?

Mar 11, 2004
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I believe the larger drives typically outperform the smaller ones. I'm not sure if this has something to do with their capacity, or the fact that most companies put their best technology in their top of the line large drives (WD Caviar SE, Barracuda 7200.7, etc.). Also, its usually enthusiasts and companies that would buy the bigger drives and so if they aren't happy, you can bet people will learn about it, so it would be more damaging to their reputations.
 

iwantanewcomputer

Diamond Member
Apr 4, 2004
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i think it has something to do with the density of the platters. if you have a 200 GB drive i think they generally have 2 platters at 100 GB per platter with the new ones. therefore a 100 GB drive with two platters has 1/2 the data density per area of the platter. this obviously means that the platter won't have to spin as fast to read a bunch of data at the same speed. don't know if this logic applies to writing. spinning slower is always a good thing in terms of noise and reliability, so i like to go with bigger drives instead of smaller, evemn if i don't need the storage right away.

on another note, if you get a bigger drive the chances of you wanting to get a second in the future are less. 1 drive always has less niose than two and is more reliable. and big drives usually provide lower cost/GB
 

PhoenixOrion

Diamond Member
May 4, 2004
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Size/capacity has nothing to do with how slow (seek times), loud (dba measurements) and reliability (statistical failure of a certain model number).
 
Nov 7, 2000
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no/no/no

generally speaking new hdds at 7200 RPM will be louder than older ones at 5400, but relatively the same as old 7200.
 

JavaMomma

Senior member
Oct 19, 2000
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Larger drives usually have a higher bit density which will make them perform a bit better compared to another drive that has the same rotational speed and buffer size.
 

Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
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Larger drives within the same family of drives are louder and hotter, it's an unavoidable physical fact. Will the differences be huge? No, not usually. Certainly nothing to affect a buying decision. All drives in a certain family from one manufacturer usually have the same data density throughout, the only thing that changes, is the surface/platter count.

The additional surface count will improve disc performance for a set amount of data. For the simple reason that the more surfaces that are written to, the less distance the read heads have to travel to find the same piece of data. It takes less time to switch read/write heads than it does to perform head seeks. Again, the differences won't be huge, but they will be there.
 

clicknext

Banned
Mar 27, 2002
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Thanks a bunch, guys. What brand would you recommend? I've only heard good things about Seagate in general, but I have no idea about the large drives. I currently have very loud WDC SE.