Need your opinion on buying HardDisk: Smaller & fast or Big & slower

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E

err

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,121
0
76
I'd like to get the IBM new 30GB 7200Rpm hard drive. From all the reviews out there, it says this drive rocks.

However, for the same price, I can get a 45GB 5400rpm hard drive. This is where my dilemma comes to play.

I want to use this HD in my NT Server, serving huge content to the internet. While 45GB would certainly helps, 7200rpm is always nice to have.

What is your opinion?
Bigger but slower or Smaller but faster?

Thank you all. have to decide really soon, my 20GB HD is out of space :(

eRr
 
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Wizkid

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,728
0
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Faster is always better for a server. Anyways, if you have the kind of connection required to effectely serve more than 30 GB's to the internet (T3+) then you would probably have enough money to buy some 73 GB SCSI Drives :)

I had to make the same choice about have a year ago, and I chose to get the small but faster drive. I haven't regretted that decision. It's easy to add more space later by adding more drives, but if you buy a slow one now, then you have to get rid of it if you want to upgrade speed-wise.
 
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mpitts

Lifer
Jun 9, 2000
14,732
1
81
What will you be using it for? Are you going to install an OS on it or just store stuff on it? I personally would go for the faster drive if it is going to be a system drive, but if it is just for storing mp3's, etc, then I would go for the larger drive.
 
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Quickfingerz

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2000
3,176
0
0
It depends on how much serving you want to do. If you are talking about that maxtor 45 gb drive, those drives are actualy really fast. They are by far the fastest 5400 rpm drives out there and they can outperform most 7200 rpm drives.

I'm sure that the 5400 RPM drive is at most about %10 slower than the IBM drive overall.
 
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Dogbertatwork

Member
Jul 19, 2000
37
0
0
Don't waste money buying hard drive space that you won't need until your next upgrade. Extra hard drive space is pointless if it is unused before you buy your next hard drive. Buy smaller and faster now, but make sure you have enough space for a while. As capacities grow and speeds increase, you can upgrade later for less money per gigabyte.
 
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err

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,121
0
76
thank you all for the reply.

I will be using this HD for my OS on the main partition and storing big files on the other partition.

I guess I will have to go for the smaller & faster hard drive. I have used both 5400 & 7200 HD and boy... how different can it be.

I don't have a T3 ... so not enough money to get that 73GB SCSI
he..he ..

:)

Thx for the response. keep it coming

err
 
C

Crypticburn

Senior member
Jul 22, 2000
363
0
0
I have 2 30gig IBM 75GXPs, I say go faster. As stated before, if you dont need the space, then go the faster route. IF you are in desperate need of the space then you'll have to suffer with a slightly slower drive. Personally, I'm crazy and went RAID... but you can do as you like :)

I support your decision of the IBM 30giger :) enjoy
 
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Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
7,357
20
81
There are reasons for buying drives larger than you actually plan to use, even if stats wise it is slower than the smaller drive. The fuller a drive is, the slower it is. A completely full faster drive may be slower than a half empty slower drive. Also, the larger the drive, the more data you can fit into the faster parts of the drive. The middle part of a 5400RPM drive will almost always be faster than the inside of a 7200 drive.
 
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Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
7,357
20
81
If you're planning to boot off the drive, go 7200. Use the 20GB you have as the server drive. You will kill system performance running your server off your boot drive. Breaking the drive up into partitions to seperate data will make it even worse, since you force the drive heads to move around further.
 
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Prodigy^

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
4,044
1
0
I just copied around 8 gigs of files from a 5400 ATA33 drive to a 7200 rpm ATA66 drive today, and it took at least twice as long as it does copying from the fast drive to the slower one. I'd say 7200 rpm is worth it.
 
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linuxboy

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,577
6
76
get the smaller, faster drive

under heavy loads, my servers slow down because the drives can't keep up.

And I have a nice 3 mb pipe.
7200 rpm is definately worth it.
And so is RAID, maybe get 2 15 GB drives and a modded promise?


 
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err

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,121
0
76
I am mainly serving content for FTPs :)
the website are not that big or important ...

I;ve already placed an order for IBM 30GB 72k HD..
Hope I won't regret it soon...


Thx for all the reply ...

eRr
 
E

err

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,121
0
76
I feel so much better after reading Anand's review on IBM 75GXP :)

Can't wait to get my hand on it

Thx again

eRr
 
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Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
Pariah who cares if he has to boot off it, if tis a server he should only be rebooting it maybe once a year anyways. And i would go for the slower bigger drive, i mean unless you have a T3 you are not going to max out the drives throughput anyways, so why buy speed you cant use?
 
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Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
7,357
20
81
I got the impression his system was not going to be used exclusively as a server, but as his PC as well rifter. If I'm wrong, I would have chosen the slower larger drive as well.
 
E

err

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
2,121
0
76
Yep this is my second rig as well running celery 566@875 Mhz ..

So it's not a really mission critical server :)

Great input by everyone btw ...
oh yeah .. I never have to reboot my server unless if I am adding new hardware or installing software :)

eRr
 
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