MichaelD
Lifer
- Jan 16, 2001
- 31,528
- 3
- 76
Oh boy...hard drive speeds. You sure you want to get into that discussion? :evil: The bottom line is: Faster is always better. End of story.
However (there's always a "however") there's the benefit vs. cost to think about. Also known as "the point of diminishing returns." Put simply, do you want to spend 100% more to get 25% better performance? That choice is up to you and your wallet.
Speaking frankly and from experience, here goes.
All desktop and most workstation drives these days are SATA. They come in two speeds, 7200 and 10000rpm. The 10K rpm drives have a 33% faster rotational speed then their slower bretheren. But they also have basically a 100% price premium over the "slower" drives as well as a HUGE size limitation penalty.
I put "slower" in quotes b/c I remember back in the days of hard drives measured in megabytes that spun at 4200 rpm and they cost hundreds of dollars. Today you can get a fast, 1.5TB drive for $200. That's just ridiculously awesome.
You will notice a difference having a 10K rpm drive as your OS/Programs drive. It's not like night and day, but it is a faster. The system will be "snappier." I.E. you click and things pop open faster. Big files open faster too. 33% higher rotational speed=33% more data loaded from HD to memory in the same amount of time. Cool right? But....(always a "but")
You gotta remember that 95% of PC users out there don't build their own rigs and don't know a DVD drive from a stick of DDR2. They click. Program opens. Doesn't matter to them if the program takes 15 minutes to open. To them, that's normal. The other 5% of the DIY PC population are the enthusiasts, the programmers, media folks and gamers that know "this thing should pop open in 15 seconds or less, not 45 seconds!"
If "time" matters to you or your friend/client, then go for the 10K system drive. I have a 10K, 150GB system drive too. I would love to have the 300GB version of it, but the cost vs. benefit just didn't make sense to me. I have my music and movies on a big, normal 7200rpm SATA drive. For what that drive does, it doesn't NEED 10k rpm. But the OS and GAMES, I want snap, snap, snap performance. Those things reside on the fast, 10K drive.
For the rig you're building, I'd get a 150GB Velociraptor for the OS and programs. I have XP SP3, Office 2003 SP3 and about 12 programs loaded and it's only 11.2GB. Add Adobe Premier and a few other like it and you're still under 20GB used!
Then, get the 7200rpm, 500GB HD you've already picked out and use that for all the media files. The system will be very responsive and notably faster than with a 7200rpm system drive..
Yeah. I kind of like talking about this topic. Can you tell? Hope this helps.
However (there's always a "however") there's the benefit vs. cost to think about. Also known as "the point of diminishing returns." Put simply, do you want to spend 100% more to get 25% better performance? That choice is up to you and your wallet.
Speaking frankly and from experience, here goes.
All desktop and most workstation drives these days are SATA. They come in two speeds, 7200 and 10000rpm. The 10K rpm drives have a 33% faster rotational speed then their slower bretheren. But they also have basically a 100% price premium over the "slower" drives as well as a HUGE size limitation penalty.
I put "slower" in quotes b/c I remember back in the days of hard drives measured in megabytes that spun at 4200 rpm and they cost hundreds of dollars. Today you can get a fast, 1.5TB drive for $200. That's just ridiculously awesome.
You will notice a difference having a 10K rpm drive as your OS/Programs drive. It's not like night and day, but it is a faster. The system will be "snappier." I.E. you click and things pop open faster. Big files open faster too. 33% higher rotational speed=33% more data loaded from HD to memory in the same amount of time. Cool right? But....(always a "but")
You gotta remember that 95% of PC users out there don't build their own rigs and don't know a DVD drive from a stick of DDR2. They click. Program opens. Doesn't matter to them if the program takes 15 minutes to open. To them, that's normal. The other 5% of the DIY PC population are the enthusiasts, the programmers, media folks and gamers that know "this thing should pop open in 15 seconds or less, not 45 seconds!"
If "time" matters to you or your friend/client, then go for the 10K system drive. I have a 10K, 150GB system drive too. I would love to have the 300GB version of it, but the cost vs. benefit just didn't make sense to me. I have my music and movies on a big, normal 7200rpm SATA drive. For what that drive does, it doesn't NEED 10k rpm. But the OS and GAMES, I want snap, snap, snap performance. Those things reside on the fast, 10K drive.
For the rig you're building, I'd get a 150GB Velociraptor for the OS and programs. I have XP SP3, Office 2003 SP3 and about 12 programs loaded and it's only 11.2GB. Add Adobe Premier and a few other like it and you're still under 20GB used!
Then, get the 7200rpm, 500GB HD you've already picked out and use that for all the media files. The system will be very responsive and notably faster than with a 7200rpm system drive..
Yeah. I kind of like talking about this topic. Can you tell? Hope this helps.
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