I need a new OS drive, SSDs wont fit the 300gb+ of games (that I never play) etc, so where are we at these days with quiet and low vibration 7200rpms?
Obviously Ill be going for the bigger platter sizes, are only Seagate doing 1tb platters so far? The fewer platters the less vibration noise and heat I guess, plus faster of course.
My requirements are quiet at idle, I dont really care about seeks as my PC only has to be "silent" at idle.
My current OS drive is a WD Blue EALX, are there any newer drives quieter than this?
Whats the best SPCR 7200rpm these days
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Re: Whats the best SPCR 7200rpm these days
You might want to re-calibrate your thinking.
I have a 120GB SSD, its not really big enough for everything, a 240GB SSD would o me fine for some time. Whenever I install a new game I "cut + paste" and old game that I dont play very often to my 500GB HDD, when I want to play it I cut and paste it back.
It means that everything is lightning fast on the SSD, and it takes a minute or two to play an old game when you have to copy it over very fer months or so.
I would choose to do that with a 120GB SSD over the fastest 1TB HDD on the planet.
Now that super fast 240GB SSD's are not that expensive, that's the route I would suggest that you go down, if you want storage get a 3TB 5400rpm drive.
PS: Feel free to ask lots of questions about, how, and why, and where do you put your extra stuff, answers are available for all of these questions.
Andy
I have a 120GB SSD, its not really big enough for everything, a 240GB SSD would o me fine for some time. Whenever I install a new game I "cut + paste" and old game that I dont play very often to my 500GB HDD, when I want to play it I cut and paste it back.
It means that everything is lightning fast on the SSD, and it takes a minute or two to play an old game when you have to copy it over very fer months or so.
I would choose to do that with a 120GB SSD over the fastest 1TB HDD on the planet.
Now that super fast 240GB SSD's are not that expensive, that's the route I would suggest that you go down, if you want storage get a 3TB 5400rpm drive.
PS: Feel free to ask lots of questions about, how, and why, and where do you put your extra stuff, answers are available for all of these questions.
Andy
Re: Whats the best SPCR 7200rpm these days
Western Digital has released a newer version of the Blue EALX, this one has a 1TB single platter drive, the EZEX:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1297633/wd10 ... tter-drive
As they say in the review, it's should be quiet and fast sequential speeds. From the specifications it should be 30dB instead of 33dB in seek mode.
I also discussed the difference between the EALX and the EZEX in that topic, because I'm looking for a secondary drive.
I'm thinking about the EALX as primary drive (which I already use at the moment) because of the lower access times and the EZEX as secondary drive because the faster sequential speeds (writing large video files).
http://www.overclock.net/t/1297633/wd10 ... tter-drive
Specifications from WDCPerks:
-Tuned for low noise levels. May be quieter than Greens.
-High sequential speeds matching the new Seagates.
-No idle noise or chirping; no other 'Seagate strangeness'. wink.gif
-Better firmware and NCQ algorithms.
Cons:
-With higher full-drive access times, performance will degrade more if you fill the drive to the brim.
-Not the best candidate for a lone OS-drive.
As they say in the review, it's should be quiet and fast sequential speeds. From the specifications it should be 30dB instead of 33dB in seek mode.
I also discussed the difference between the EALX and the EZEX in that topic, because I'm looking for a secondary drive.
I'm thinking about the EALX as primary drive (which I already use at the moment) because of the lower access times and the EZEX as secondary drive because the faster sequential speeds (writing large video files).