Smaller, faster HDD for my main box?

[oboeguy]

I'm looking at building a SFF number-cruncher at home. I'm looking for a smaller, faster HDD, i.e. I don't need a gigantic TB drive. I'd like a fast, reasonably quiet system drive that doesn't break the bank. Suggestions? As I stated in my CPU thread last week, I'm a bit out of the loop with respect to hardware these days. TIA!

 

[LOUISSSSS]

$130 for a 640gb SATA - FAST
$130 for a 750gb SATA - ALMOST AS FAST
$100 for a 500gb SATA - NOT AS FAST

^^ generalizations

 

[myocardia]

This is the cheapest, fast little drive around. It's not extremely fast, but it's awfully fast, for as cheap as it is, because it uses a single platter.

 

[oboeguy]

Thanks for the suggestions. Even 250MB seems big -- I have 120MB now and have over 60GB free!

 

[oboeguy]

What's the word on the WD "Raptor" series? Isn't that supposed to be the bee's knees when it comes to speed?

 

[T9D]

I was going to build a small system soon too. The raptors are to dang loud. I have one now and it drives me nuts (used to have two of them even). I'm going to pick up a 100 gig notebook drive. Very dense, quiet, run cool, very small drive. They have 7200 rpm notebook drives. I believe they are around $100 or so. Thought about something like that?

 

[oboeguy]

Originally posted by: v1001
I was going to build a small system soon too. The raptors are to dang loud. I have one now and it drives me nuts (used to have two of them even). I'm going to pick up a 100 gig notebook drive. Very dense, quiet, run cool, very small drive. They have 7200 rpm notebook drives. I believe they are around $100 or so. Thought about something like that?

That's a really interesting idea. Never occurred to me. Any idea on performance vs. a full sized drive?

 

[T9D]

Originally posted by: oboeguy
What's the word on the WD "Raptor" series? Isn't that supposed to be the bee's knees when it comes to speed?

Not really anymore. Other newer dense 7200 rpm drives have passed them up in many or most areas now.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: oboeguy

Originally posted by: v1001
I was going to build a small system soon too. The raptors are to dang loud. I have one now and it drives me nuts (used to have two of them even). I'm going to pick up a 100 gig notebook drive. Very dense, quiet, run cool, very small drive. They have 7200 rpm notebook drives. I believe they are around $100 or so. Thought about something like that?

That's a really interesting idea. Never occurred to me. Any idea on performance vs. a full sized drive?

Since they're aimed at low power systems (laptops), they will perform worse than a desktop drive. Even though the spindle speed is 7200 rpm.

The best performing desktop drives in the 7200 rpm range are the ones with the highest density platters. Also means you'll get a ton more storage than you want.

If you really want a faster drive than the new 640gb WD or the F1 Samsung drives, you're only option is 15k scsi/sas drives. Really not worth the cost though, unless you can get them really cheap.