HD recommendations

[1415]

I'm planning to have built for me in a local computer shop the following system to be used by my wife for Photoshop. The primary HDD will be an Intel SSD. The other two HDs will be for data and or a Photoshop scratch disk.
One expert on another forum commented about my WD HD selection: "You have a moderate speed conventional HDD and what will be a rather slow HDD picked out right now which is going to ruin your experience with the 3930k. The 850 W PSU with the 550 Ti is also very disproportional."
Would you recommend different HDs?
Thanks, CMA

HAF 932 case COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced Blue Edition RC-932-KKN3-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case $160

Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator Cooler with PWM fans, LGA2011 $90.

Corsair 850W Powersupply $169.99 CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 $170

Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD). $280

ASUS Sabertooth X79 TUF Motherboard - ATX, Socket R (LGA2011) $340

Intel i7 3930K processor $599.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL $130


Western Digital Caviar Blue WDBAAX5000ENC-NRSN 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136784 $85 at Amazon.

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $80

Asus GTX550 video card $129.99
ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC/DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

DVD: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD $19.99

Koutech IO-RCM630 Multi-in-1 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Front Panel Internal Card Reader with USB 3.0 Port (3.5") $33

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM $100

A couple of experts on another forum commented: "Why such a cheap video card?"

What video card would the Anandtech experts recommend?

Thanks, CMA

 

[bryanW1995]

If you're not gaming then the only reason to get a better video card would be to accelerate photoshop cs5. In that case you must buy nvidia, cs5 uses cuda for video card acceleration. I've heard that a gtx 560 ti is typically enough of a card for photoshop, though I use elements so I'm currently sol.

As far as the hd's, you're better off with a smallish ssd instead of that 160 gb wd blue. I've seen lots of ssd's in the 60-160 gb size range for ~$1/gb recently, and you're already paying $.5/gb for that old/slow hs. Check newegg in the 60-128gb size range, you could probably get 2 for the price you're looking to pay for that elm crest drive.

 

[Blain]

SSD, WD Black or Samsung F3R

 

[1415]

As far as the hd's, you're better off with a smallish ssd instead of that 160 gb wd blue. I've seen lots of ssd's in the 60-160 gb size range for ~$1/gb recently, and you're already paying $.5/gb for that old/slow hs. Check newegg in the 60-128gb size range, you could probably get 2 for the price you're looking to pay for that elm crest drive.[/QUOTE]


My component list includes:

One SSD: Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5

plus two HDs.
Western Digital Caviar Blue WDBAAX5000ENC-NRSN 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136784 $85 at Amazon.

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $80

Which is the Elmcrest drive to which you were referring?

 

[bryanW1995]

Intel 510 "elm crest". 510 series is the sara III ssd from intel. My recommendation is that you take the money you would have spent on your one very fast ssd plus one very slow spindle drive (160 gb), and get two ssd's instead.

 

[1415]

Now I get it. So you suggest getting 2 of the Intel 120 GB SSDs (one for my primary drive; one for the Photoshop scratch disk); and get the Western Digital Caviar Blue WDBAAX5000ENC-NRSN 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive for data?
Is that what you are suggesting?
That involves substituting a $280 SSD for an $80 WD drive, an extra $200. I don't like to spend that kind of money on a Photoshop scratch disk.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Intel 510 "elm crest". 510 series is the sara III ssd from intel. My recommendation is that you take the money you would have spent on your one very fast ssd plus one very slow spindle drive (160 gb), and get two ssd's instead.

basicly he's suggesting that you buy 2 128 gb SSDs or 1 128 and 1 60 - 160 SSD that are cheaper than the intel 510, you could get Intel 320's instead if you want to stick with Intel or 2 Crucial M4 128 GB's ect... the 510 is overpriced for the space you get even if it is Intel.

 

[1415]

Arcane, thanks for the explanation. I know that the Intel SSDs are overpriced. I originally intended getting the Intel 320 Series but then I read about the problems with that series so I switched to the even more overpriced 510 series.
Why Intel SSD: because this will be the primary drive on my wife's system and I will pay up for (perceived) reliability. I have an Intel X25-M on another system.
The other reason it that it makes no sense to pay much for a HD which will be used as a Photoshop scratch drive.

 

[Belegost]

Hell, even just get 2 of the 500GB drives, partition what you want for your scratch disk and use the rest for storage. Seems silly to pay the same price for a smaller, slower drive.

Or, as suggested the Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 are both a lot cheaper, with similar performance and reliability. 128GB versions of those sit around 200-210, saving 80 on the SSD and 80 on that slow 160 WD, just about pays for two of those.

 

[bryanW1995]

I've been using my x25m g2 for over 2 years, I definitely like intel. I recently bought my wife a 320 series for her laptop. I was extremely concerned about the firmware issue, but since the update they have been rock solid. I'd definitely get get 2 x 320 series over 1 elm crest and 1 wd 160gb drive. Your overall user experience will be much much better.

 

[1415]

Hell, even just get 2 of the 500GB drives, partition what you want for your scratch disk and use the rest for storage. Seems silly to pay the same price for a smaller, slower drive.
That is a good point. So you would suggest get 2 of the WD 500 GB drives?
The only problem with that is that Photoshop suggests using one HD only for the scratch disk, not for anything else.

I don't want or need two SSDs. However, I'm open to suggestions for a replacement for the
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB.
Replacing an $80 HD with a $210 SSD will not save me anything but will cost me $130.

 

[1415]

The other problem with the 320 series is this from an 11/28 Newegg comment: "Update your firmware before installing your OS. Many issues in doing so but worth it to avoid the 8MB bug. To update firmware drives must be in IDE mode and must be connected to main SATA port #1 or #2 from onboard OEM controller in order for drives to be recognized. On Z68 chipset firmware will not update when connected to Marvell Controller."
So it looks like the 320 series still has huge problems.

I would get 2 X Intel 320 120 GB SSD if I thought that the firmware/hardware bug could be dealt with. I would love to have two identical SSDs, so that if my primary C: went bad, I could immediately swap the other one in as C: and reimage it.

 

[1415]

I've been using my x25m g2 for over 2 years, I definitely like intel. I recently bought my wife a 320 series for her laptop. I was extremely concerned about the firmware issue, but since the update they have been rock solid. I'd definitely get get 2 x 320 series over 1 elm crest and 1 wd 160gb drive. Your overall user experience will be much much better.

When did you buy the 320 series and how did you cope with the firmware/hardware problem?

 

[FAUguy]

I just got two WD Black 2TB drives as they perform better (and seem to have less issues) than the Blue or Green models.

 

[1415]

I just got two WD Black 2TB drives as they perform better (and seem to have less issues) than the Blue or Green models.

Have you read anywhere that the WD Caviar Black are any better (more reliable; longer warranty) than the WD Caviar Blue? The Black certainly cost more than the Blue.

 

[FAUguy]

Have you read anywhere that the WD Caviar Black are any better (more reliable; longer warranty) than the WD Caviar Blue? The Black certainly cost more than the Blue.

First off, the WD Black has a 5 year warranty, while the Blue and Green are 3 years. The Black and Blue drives are 7200RPM, while the Green is 5400RPM (or less depending on what it's doing). I've read user review on here, as well as NewEgg and Amazon. Some people have had general issue with the Green models, and RAID doesn't seem to work well on the Blue or Green. Even though I'm not doing RAID, I still wanted a drive that performed well and had the least amount of issues. After trying the Seagate Barracuda 3TB for a few days and having them crash, I went back to WD.

 

[1415]

Thanks for the summary. I will be getting a 1 TB drive instead of the 500 GB drive I originally chose. I'll take a look at the WD Caviar Black 1 TB drive.

 

[ronbo613]

1TB WD Black as the "work" drive on my photo/video editing rig. 120G SSD program drive using CS4.

 

[bryanW1995]

When did you buy the 320 series and how did you cope with the firmware/hardware problem?

Bought the 320 series on black Friday. It already had the latest firmware installed, the only coping I did was to install RST to verify that firmware was up to date. My wife is using it in her dv7t as her boot and primary use drive. She takes about 20k pictures/year, and does heavy photo editing in elements and tons of scrapbooking.

 

[1415]

I have settled on 1 Intel 510 series 120 GB SSD; 1 SAMSUNG 830 Series 64GB SSD.
However, the HD is tough to choose. I want a 750 GB- 1TB drive, reliable and reasonably quiet. After much research, I had settled on the Western Digital Caviar Black series but many reviewers say "too loud."
Thanks in advance to the experts.

 

[bryanW1995]

I've heard people talk about the noise on caviar blacks, but there are several things to keep in mind:

1. Noise is subjective unless it's measured with a sound level meter. Something that is loud to me could be quiet as a mouse to you.
2. Noise drops off drasically with distance and/or intervening materials. My 3 primary use computers are my home gaming rig, my office rig, and my daughter's "dora gaming" rig. My home gaming rig is in a very space-constrained area, so I have an antec 900 case on top of my desk and up against a wall, about a foot from my ears. Any change in noise levels on that rig is immediately noticeable to me. My other 2 rigs are either under a desk and off to the side of a desk, I can turn my case fans up quite loud on those rigs without really noticing a change at all.
3. Even specific hard drives from the same manufacturer often have different noise levels. I have 2 wd6400aaks drives (WD caviar blue 640gb). One is eerily silent no matter how hard I thrash it, the other makes pretty annoying clicking noises whenever I access it. I bought them at the same time several years ago, and they've always had a noise difference (though I'm much more apt to notice it now than in the past).

Generally speaking, I'd say that the WD black drive's bonuses (greater speed/reliability, 5yr warranty vs 2-3 years for other drives from WD or seagate) outweigh the potential for having a slightly louder drive.

 

[1415]

Bryan, your post was extremely helpful and will enable me to make the right decision (probably go with WD Caviar Black.)
Proposed system components to be built for me:

Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower ATX Case (RC-912-KKN1)

Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator Cooler with PWM fans, LGA2011 only

Corsair 850W Powersupply $169.99 CORSAIR Professional Series HX850

Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

SAMSUNG 830 Series F-MZ-7PC064DAM 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State
Drive (SSD)

ASUS Sabertooth X79 TUF Motherboard - ATX, Socket R (LGA2011)

Intel i7 3930K processor

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL

? Western Digital Caviar Blue WDBAAX5000ENC-NRSN 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked 1024 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI SLI Ready Limited Lifetime Warranty Graphics Card, 01G-P3-1567-AR

DVD: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD $19.99

Koutech IO-RCM630 Multi-in-1 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Front Panel Internal Card Reader with USB 3.0 Port (3.5")

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM $100 Amazon.