WTB 2nd HDD- Need Suggestions.

[Irielle]

Hello!

I am looking to buy a second hdd for frapsing. My budget is no more than $200, however I’d like to spend around $150. Any suggestions? Size isn’t a huge factor.

Also, I prefer Newegg.com for purchasing.

Thanks!

[Voytrekk]

Any size that you are looking for in particular? You can also save some money if you can wait for a bit, as prices for hard drives are up right now, and should be coming down in a few months.

With your budget, This WD Caviar Black 1.5 TB Will do what you need fine. If you want to save some money, you can also get the WD Caviar Green 1.5 TB, which is cheaper, but it doesn't have the same performance.

[Irielle]

Um not really wanting to wait a few months. I think nothing smaller then 320gb probably. Thanks for the tip on pricing though.

[Deleted]

The floods in Taiwan has pushed up HD prices, lets hope they get better.

[Lemonlust]

Samsung Spinpoint F3 Is the most popular pick among everyone here on the forums.

[Irielle]

Will I notice a huge difference frapsing with the WD Caviar Green 1.5 TB over the WD Caviar Black 1.5 TB?

[Lemonlust]

All you need to look for in a harddrive is it's RPM, data transfer rate, and its size. 7200 RPM is what you want to look for, 6 gb transfer rate and like a 32 mb cache.

[Irielle]

Thanks Lemon thats really helpful. Now I have a guideline of why a HDD is good.

Also, if sold as a bare drive I understand it comes with no cables. All I need is a sata cable to run it correct?

---------- Post added 2012-01-09 at 12:49 PM ----------

Any opinion on http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148697 ?

[Lemonlust]

Yeah it doesn't come with it. When you buy a new motherboard it should be supplied with sata cables. Might need to buy another one

[Irielle]

Yea I think I have a few spare cables so that shouldnt be a problem. Any opinion on the above linked Seagate?

[Biernot]

All you need to look for in a harddrive is it's RPM, data transfer rate, and its size. 7200 RPM is what you want to look for, 6 gb transfer rate and like a 32 mb cache.

Yes and no.

• 7200rpm is always better because it has a higher transfer rate, but the difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm doesn'r really matter for frapsing.
• 6gb transfer rate (i think you mean the SATA 3.0 interface with 6 GBit/s or 600 MByte/s) is pointless for HDDs, because they can't even reach the limits of SATA 2.0 (3 GBit/s => 300 MByte/s transfer rate). Normal HDDs with 7200rpm reach only up to 150 MByte/s
• Cache can be important or not, that depends a little bit. But most HDDs with 1TB or more have at least 32MB cache, so it doesn't matter.

As far as my tests go, fraps at 1920x1080 with 30fps, produces about 30 MByte/s, which even the slower hdd's reach without problems.

My personal choice as a "fraps drive" would be a 2TB Samsung SpinPoint F4 Eco Green. They are among the cheaper drives, are very quiet, but also pretty fast for a 5400rpm drive.

[Irielle]

Smaller version of the Samsung Bier? I don't think I'll ever come close to 2 TB useage.

[Biernot]

Smaller version of the Samsung Bier? I don't think I'll ever come close to 2 TB useage.

This particular drive comes in 1.5TB (HD154UI) or 2TB (HD204UI). Although the 1.5TB version is from an older production line (F2), it is pretty equal to the F4. The F2 might be out of stock and not coming back.

There is also the 1TB SpinPoint F3 (HD103SJ) with 7200rpm. Which is a little bit faster (but not much), but also much louder. It produces a very noticable humming and even with rubber mounting sets your whole case in vibrations (depending on the case itself, naturally).

But the price difference on newegg is only $30 ($150 for the 103SJ, and $180 for the 204UI). It's even closer in other shops (here in germany it's 110 vs. 120 euros).

[Irielle]

Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated.

[Irielle]

Got an email for a newegg special this morning on: this. Since its a 2TB/7200/64MB for $130 it seems like a good deal?

[Voytrekk]

Considering the prices on hard drives right now, that is a pretty good deal, especially since its 2TB. Its actually pretty close to the prices of what it would have cost before prices got crazy high.

[vesseblah]

Just have to ask what's your current HDD situation?

Since the prices are what they are, getting a 120GB SSD instead and using your current HDD for frapsing might be the right move.

[Irielle]

Order placed!

Here's hoping I don't get a doa.

Edit: @ Vesseblah I have a SSD for my OS, (its not that large), and another HDD for all my junk. This one will either replace the other HDD or become my fraps drive. Haven't decided yet which will be which. I will more than likely use the new one for games, and the old one for recording.

[DeltrusDisc]

Got an email for a newegg special this morning on: this. Since its a 2TB/7200/64MB for $130 it seems like a good deal?

Great buy considering the first suggestions were some Western Digital HDDs, which have been the most inflated as of recent, though I'm amazed how much they have already come down in price - for me personally, I am avoiding suggesting people buy WD till their prices get down to Samsung Spinpoint, Seagate Barracuda, Hitachi Deskstar levels again. And definitely good you went with a 7200 RPM drive over any green type of drive, frapsing to a 7200 is much better than a slower drive.

[Voytrekk]

Now that I have been looking at that drive, was it $130 or $140 that you got that for? The promo code on the page has it saying its $30 off, which would bring it down to 140. I think I might pick it up at that price, as I need a fraps drive.