Fastest cheap hard drive for and OS drive

[SirRob]

I am about to build a new system (core i7) and I am trying to find the best deal on a fast hard drive. I will use it as the operating system drive, so size is not as important as speed and price. Any recommendations? Budget is around $75. I have avoided SSD's because I have read too many problems about them as an OS drive. If my concern is unwarranted at this point, let me know. Otherwise, I would be happy to just get a very fast SATA drive that can be as small as 40 gig, although I know that most new drives are between 300 gig to 1.5 tb). I am willing to partition a larger drive so that the fastest portion is used for the OS.

Any recommendations?

 

[MisterDonut]

WD Caviar Black 640gb platter. Get it.

 

[SirRob]

I take it not much has changed in a year or so. That is what I am using on my old system! Thanks.

 

[alyarb]

if you're only going to do 320 GB per platter, get the samsung F1. its one terabyte and faster than the WD 640. doubling your budget for a 40GB intel SSD wouldn't really be worth it, but going to the much faster 80GB model would be.

 

[mfenn]

I am about to build a new system (core i7) and I am trying to find the best deal on a fast hard drive. I will use it as the operating system drive, so size is not as important as speed and price. Any recommendations? Budget is around $75. I have avoided SSD's because I have read too many problems about them as an OS drive. If my concern is unwarranted at this point, let me know. Otherwise, I would be happy to just get a very fast SATA drive that can be as small as 40 gig, although I know that most new drives are between 300 gig to 1.5 tb). I am willing to partition a larger drive so that the fastest portion is used for the OS.

Any recommendations?

I would say that your SSD concerns are unwarranted. Gen2 and later SSDs are designed to be used as OS drives. If you want the absolute fastest thing and size isn't an issue, get the Intel X25-V for ~$130 or so.

 

[bob4432]

ssd

 

[Rifter]

If going spindle nothing is going to be faster than the 500GB platter drives, both the samsung F3 and Seagate 7200.12 series should be faster than the WD 640GB, i believe some of the newer 1TB and larger WD black drives are also 500GB platter and should be pretty fast too but the F3 seems to be the king of spindle hill for now. Obviously a SSD would be your best bet though.

 

[Blain]

WD Caviar Black 640gb platter. Get it.

Good pick

 

[jaydee]

Price/Performance, space not important, you're definitely looking at the Samsung F3 500GB for $55 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-181-_-Product

 

[rudder]

I would say that your SSD concerns are unwarranted. Gen2 and later SSDs are designed to be used as OS drives. If you want the absolute fastest thing and size isn't an issue, get the Intel X25-V for ~$130 or so.

This. However, if you are looking for cheap, SSD is not the way to go. If you are running XP, you easily can swing it with a 40GB drive. Win7 of Vista 40GB would be way to small.

 

[MisterDonut]

If the speeds of Samsung F3 or a WD Black annoy you, perhaps your needs are a bit too high. SSD's are quick, yes, but 40 gb, etc. is NOT enough to hold my stuff, even if I'm not looking for space.

 

[SirRob]

I would only use this drive for the OS, and the computer will be used almost exclusively for video editing. Those files are saved on other hard drives. It will be running Windows 7.

 

[Fayd]

This. However, if you are looking for cheap, SSD is not the way to go. If you are running XP, you easily can swing it with a 40GB drive. Win7 of Vista 40GB would be way to small.

i've got most the stuff installed already, and my 7 install is like only 30 gigs. if i turn off volume shadow copy and other space hogs, then it'll go down more.

40 gigs is plenty for an OS.

 

[coolVariable]

I would say that your SSD concerns are unwarranted. Gen2 and later SSDs are designed to be used as OS drives. If you want the absolute fastest thing and size isn't an issue, get the Intel X25-V for ~$130 or so.

This.

I am waiting for (good) SSDs to come down to $50-$75 to upgrade all my secondary computers with SSDs for the OS.

 

[adairusmc]

I just got rid of my Raptor drive as my OS drive and replaced it with a $115 Intel X25-v SSD, and I could not not be happier. Very fast compared to the raptor, and there is plenty of space for Windows 7 and all of my other installed programs.

 

[mfenn]

If the speeds of Samsung F3 or a WD Black annoy you, perhaps your needs are a bit too high. SSD's are quick, yes, but 40 gb, etc. is NOT enough to hold my stuff, even if I'm not looking for space.

Basically, my advice is this:
If you want to continue believing that mechanical HDDs are fast enough, then don't get an SSD. Once you get used to using a system with an SSD OS drive, using anything else will infuriate you to no end. My work computer (Q9400 w/ 8GB RAM and WD RE3 HDD) feels soooo slow compared to my home computer (Q6600 w/ 8GB RAM and Agility 120).