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recommend 2TB desktop HD

S

shredz

Member
I'd like some recommendations for a 2TB desktop internal HD which will be used for storage and games. I have an SSD for a boot drive. I also have a second SSD for most of my steam games but its getting full.

I'm looking at the Seagate Firecuda 2TB (new model) and the WD Black 2TB. Any recommendations? People seem to question seagate reliability but that hybrid firecuda SSHD seems cool.
 
It seems like you're probably onto something with the choices you mentioned.

But I've taken a different approach to yours -- which is closer to what I used to do.

I don't need an especially "fast" spinner -- the 7200rpm units you're looking at. I've been experimenting with 2.5" drives -- usually touted for "laptop." This one seems to be more promoted as "internal drive:"

2.5" 2TB Barracuda

5,400 rpm. But! 128MB cache.

I don't see anything wrong with your 3.5" choices. You might also want to look at HGST drives.

As for the Seagate rumors, they've been circulating for a couple years, even for NAS drive comparisons. I have 6 Seagate NAS drives, 4 running 24/7 for the last 2.5 years and no problems. I think I had one Seagate 320GB SATA-II drive go south five years ago. It may have been a mistake that I made myself and not the drive.
 
Charlie98 said:
Meh.... whatever is on sale. Just back up whatever you have...
Click to expand...

I used exclusively Western Digital Black, and continued purchasing Blues when I was getting Seagate NAS drives for my server. The Barracuda 2.5" that I linked, like the Fire-Cuda (whatever it's called but that's close enough), is a recent entry in the market, and the 2.5"-er is targeted at both laptop and AiO desktop systems. Since I only need so much disk capacity in a workstation, I think it or any future Cuda disks of greater capacity -- 2.5" or 3.5" -- will have continued interest from me if this Barracuda proves out.

Let's say "I'm trying it out." there are other interesting 2TB drives (possibly greater) in the laptop or 2.5"-internal form-factor. There is an HGST Travelstar and an M9T Samsung-Seagate 2TB drive. We've been running another WD 500GB Blue laptop drive in another household desktop for about two years.

My storage strategy anticipates certain categories of usage, with a two-tiered caching scheme that makes the sustained throughput spec of an SATA-II or -III disk of any kind slightly less important than it otherwise might be. Otherwise, I'd probably buy WD Black or top-end HGST drives. But the way these lappie disks are planned in my usage, poses less wear and tear on them.

Enterprise drives such as those mentioned by Torn Mind would be good choices for fulfillment of a RAID option, but there are plenty of consumer drivers to choose from depending on your plans and usage patterns.
 
Hmm, not sure what to make of the posts so far. I don't know much about enterprise drives, but maybe I need to be more clear about my requirements.

My OS (and vital software) is on a 240gb SSD
My games are on a 500gb SSD which is now full
My Docs, Photos, videos and games overflow are on an old and almost FULL 1TB HDD <--- This is what I want to upgrade to a 2TB fast drive since it will house overflow games

Don't worry I also have a USB backup drive and a NAS drive that backup my stuff.
 
It doesn't seem to me that you need anything more than I would for that rig.

Keeping an eye on HDDs recently, it seems the price/GB doesn't vary all that much among the competition. Here's a quick return from Newegg searching on "2TB hard drive:"

Hard Drives at the Egg

You could simply throw in a WD Black drive and call it a day. You're not looking for the speed you have with the SSDs -- you wouldn't find it among spinners. If you want top-end HDD performance, you'll pay more. But you mostly seem to need and want 2TB of storage capacity. For me, I might just pick the WD Blue option.
 
denis280 said:
WD Black🙂
Click to expand...

And if he wants to pay a slight premium, HGST is also lookin' good these days.

Someone could differ in their opinion or inclination, but it seems to me that picking top-end performance in an HDD is now a lower priority than simply a comfort-level of tested reliability or the length of the warranty period. There was once a time some folks would invest a few Franklins in a hardware controller and hope for miracles with a RAID array. But you don't need a spinner for a boot disk or even an installation disk for additional programs. And even if you did, a small SSD and $30-worth of software might work wonders for your casual enthusiast workstation.
 
Wow, lots of different recommendations here. This is why I'm confused.

recommended above:
WD Black - $125
Seagate 2.5" barracuda 128 mb cache $100
Seagate Constellation ES
WD RE - enterprise drive?
HGST - which one?
Toshiba - which one?
Seagate firecuda SSHD - $105 newegg

This is why I don't know which one to get......sorry to be so indecisive here, I just don't have any strong knowledge of these drives. Googling it didn't help much. (the price is not a big factor, want the fastest most reliable one)
 
master_shake_ said:
Toshiba
Click to expand...

Which model? Toshiba had been mentioned several times in this forum recently, and I'm always searching for new options even if I haven't the need for them.

shredz said:
Wow, lots of different recommendations here. This is why I'm confused.

recommended above:
WD Black - $125
Seagate 2.5" barracuda 128 mb cache $100
Seagate Constellation ES
WD RE - enterprise drive?
HGST - which one?
Toshiba - which one?
Seagate firecuda SSHD - $105 newegg

This is why I don't know which one to get......sorry to be so indecisive here, I just don't have any strong knowledge of these drives. Googling it didn't help much. (the price is not a big factor, want the fastest most reliable one)
Click to expand...

Every now and then, some model-line of hard disks may get notoriety for "troublesome-ness." The last I remember, it was an IBM line later bought by Hitachi. The particular IBM model and the troubles appeared in tech news around 2004. I'd have to review old news, but I think Hitachi eventually became HGST.

The competitors are mostly "old hands" in the business. More recently, we'd seen prices for HDDs at a low level until the tsunami or monsoons hit southeast Asia, where drive-makers had manufacturing capability. Prices went up, because supply went down.

As I may have said before, your choice may depend on your usage requirements. It's just my current opinion that you could just flip a coin.
 
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shredz said:
Wow, lots of different recommendations here. This is why I'm confused.

recommended above:
WD Black - $125
Seagate 2.5" barracuda 128 mb cache $100
Seagate Constellation ES
WD RE - enterprise drive?
HGST - which one?
Toshiba - which one?
Seagate firecuda SSHD - $105 newegg

This is why I don't know which one to get......sorry to be so indecisive here, I just don't have any strong knowledge of these drives. Googling it didn't help much. (the price is not a big factor, want the fastest most reliable one)
Click to expand...
master_shake_ said:
there's the DT01ACA200 and HDKPC09

they're the same drive and they are great.
Click to expand...

I put that in my shoppin' list.

Generally, folks want an HDD that performs as well as any electro-mechanical drive. they want a drive that won't take a dump and die in a matter of two years or less. and they want a drive that is quiet.

I've used rubber noise-isolators for all HDDs and fans in my systems. My worst noise-problem comes from my server, which has an HDD hot-swap bay with a noisy 40mm fan.
 
I will give a +1 for the WD black. If not, then consider a WD blue or a hitachi. Stay away from < 7200 RPM drives (they are too slow IMO), and Seagate consumer drives since you value reliability.
 
WD black fan here. I have 2x2tb, 1.5tb, 1tb, 750gb....

The 1.5tb wa's a FASS model, died pretty quick, rMA got a new model and doing fine. almost all of them are out of warranty now...
 
Shmee said:
I will give a +1 for the WD black. If not, then consider a WD blue or a hitachi. Stay away from < 7200 RPM drives (they are too slow IMO), and Seagate consumer drives since you value reliability.
Click to expand...

It was once the case that I wouldn't touch a drive with an RPM spec less than 7200.

These days, whether a large capacity HDD is slower doesn't matter as much. With enough RAM and a spare SSD of between 60 and 120GB, I can cache the HDD so that its lackluster standalone performance matters much less. But the value of this type of configuration is relative to your usage.

As for Seagate consumer drives, I'm testing a 2.5" 2TB Barracuda on a new Skylake system. Only time will tell.
 
With 16x 2TB Seagate's running 24x7 and 4x4TB Seagate's only running for a few days at a time every few months, I've had a grand total of 2x 2TB drives fail. Over 50k hours on the drives at the time of failure.
 
shredz said:
Wow, lots of different recommendations here. This is why I'm confused.

recommended above:
WD Black - $125
Seagate 2.5" barracuda 128 mb cache $100
Seagate Constellation ES
WD RE - enterprise drive?
HGST - which one?
Toshiba - which one?
Seagate firecuda SSHD - $105 newegg

This is why I don't know which one to get......sorry to be so indecisive here, I just don't have any strong knowledge of these drives. Googling it didn't help much. (the price is not a big factor, want the fastest most reliable one)
Click to expand...

You forgot my 'whatever is on sale' recommendation. Seriously... for what your storage requirements are, get a 2- or 3TB consumer-level HDD... and make sure it's backed up. You are making this far more difficult than it needs to be.
 
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