What hard drive speed is good. How to choose a hard drive and which one is better to buy for a computer: HDD or SSD. Which company to choose a hard drive for a laptop

There is a rule - the higher the skill of using a PC, the more it needs a hard drive in terms of volume. Various collections of movies, games, pictures and home videos take up a lot of space in the PC memory, so users try to increase its capacity as much as possible. However, many people do not know what an ideal hard drive should be, which would have a lot of space, and be suitable in configuration, and work quickly. That is why further data will be given on what parameters it is worth choosing a drive, which one is more reliable and how to choose a device “for yourself”.

Hard drive selection rules

It is worth immediately warning that "hard drives" (as hard drives are sometimes called) are different, and their choice is fraught with some difficulties. First of all, you need to rely on the following basic parameters of the hard drive (hard drive):

1. Volume. Figuratively speaking, how much data the hard drive can contain before the “hard drive full” warning lights up in front of you depends on the volume. Currently, you can buy hard drives with a capacity of 1TB, which is enough for any collection (within reasonable limits) of the most "heavy" games or films.
2. Company manufacturer. Currently, several large companies share the title of "best railway manufacturer", but there is still no clear leader. From what firms create a hard drive, its reliability, performance and a good dozen other parameters directly depend.
3. Cache sizes. The cache memory sets the data processing speed of the device, simply put, the better this indicator is, the faster the computer will boot, the data will be loaded more quickly, and some queries will be executed.
4. Connector type. It depends on the connector whether the “hard” is suitable for your computer or laptop. Also, this parameter affects the quality of the device bandwidth.
5. Spindle speed. This indicator also affects the speed of data processing, and accordingly, a faster hard drive will record information faster.

Needless to say, the best hard drives will have all the maximum characteristics, and, accordingly, their purchase will cost a pretty penny. However, combining the performance of the device with your actual needs will allow you to buy a good and inexpensive (comparatively) option that will ideally cover the user's needs. QwertyShop experts described the information on choosing a hard drive http://qwertyshop.com.ua/zhestkie-disk as clearly and usefully as possible so that everyone chooses the option correctly and to their taste.

With the development of computer technology, all devices from this category began to rapidly decrease in size, gradually “growing” to pocket options. The same situation happened with hard drives, as a result, external drives appeared, which are distinguished by ease of use and miniature size. The price, of course, has also gone up. However, it is not at all necessary to buy such device options, it all depends on the ultimate goal of the “upgrade”:

1. Increasing the amount of memory. If the user's goal is simply to increase the available memory, then there is no need to spend money on external device options. Simply select the appropriate hard disk format for your computer configuration, and then simply connect it as a secondary storage platform.
2. The main "hard drive" for the computer. In this option, you also do not need to waste money on mobile types of hard drives, but purchase an internal hard drive with good write speed and volume.
3. Mobile data storage. If the user needs a bulky drive that is easy to carry and use, then you should pay attention to an external hard drive. As a rule, such devices have a USB connector, which allows you to connect them to any PC without opening the system unit and “digging” in the wires. In addition, external hard drives can be connected to other equipment - video players, laptops, TVs, and then read data from them.

As for internal devices, it is worth choosing them according to the following parameters.

Hard disk capacity

If you wish, you can purchase devices with different sizes, starting from 250 GB and ending with "terabytes", but practice shows that too large amounts of memory are unnecessary for most users. With the spread of the Internet, all data is stored not on the hard drive, but on the Internet, with the exception of games and programs. If the user considers himself to be among the “average”, then the HDD volume of 500 GB is enough for him. More capacious devices require more resources for manufacturers, so they cost much more. 1TB is worth buying only for those people who like to collect collections of movies, pictures and other data, and such hard drives are also needed for games.

Cache

In fact, the disk cache plays the role of a working space where data of primary importance is loaded. The higher the setting, the faster tasks will run on the computer. A standard hard drive has clipboard sizes (another name for this section of memory) from 8 to 32 MB. This is quite enough for the average user who does not do programming, does not like powerful and productive games, but simply surfs the Internet and watches videos. The most productive HDD will be a device with an indicator of 64 MB.

Spindle speed

The hard drive itself looks like a big disk spinning while it's running. The spindle drives it, and the head, which has direct contact with the disk, is responsible for reading and writing data. The faster the spindle rotates, the sooner the hard drive performs its task - information processing. The average hard drive has a rotation speed of 5400 rpm, more expensive and productive models have a frequency of 5900 or 7200 units. Again, if the user wants a drive "faster", then it is worth looking at a HDD with a speed of 10,000 units - one of the most functional options for today.

Important information: you should also not forget about new types of devices that are gradually taking over the market - SSD drives. This option differs from the standard by the type of device - SSD drives work on solid media. No disks, no spindles, just storage chips. Such hard drives have a much faster speed, they do not make noise (more on that later), but the cost and reliability of these HDDs is much less. The cost is understandable, but the reliability needs to be dealt with. The thing is that it is impossible to recover data from an SSD - if the voltage jumps to the upper bar, then a similar version of the technique “burns out tightly”.

Interface

With the development of computer technology, hard drives have changed several times the connector through which it connects to the PC. The modern version has a SATA connector (for external - USB), it is used in almost all models of computers and drives. However, another interface, the IDE, has not yet completely gone out of use. The SATA version has much more bandwidth, so such a hard drive will process data faster, but if the user has an old PC, he should be careful - these two interfaces are incompatible.

Manufacturer

As for the manufacturer of this equipment, then the opinions of experts diverge greatly. Most of them believe that Western Digital and Hitachi are the leading firms involved in the development of railways. It is these companies that create the most reliable devices - their temperature is always at the level, breakdowns occur infrequently, and functionality is at its best. Some analysts oppose WD (Western Digital) to Seagate. The most unreliable, but popular HDDs are Samsung drives (editor's opinion).

The claims of unreliability of Samsung drives are made based on:
1. the number of warranty returns in the QwertyShop retail chain;
2. analysis of reviews in the Yandex.Market service;
3. Personal experience of editing short-life discs from this manufacturer.

Industry leaders, Western Digital, have special color codes for the reliability and quality of devices.

Noise level

Some users are annoyed by the noise that the hard drive makes during operation. It can crackle, buzz, rattle, and all this cacophony begins with the power supply to the computer, and ends with its shutdown. It is believed that Western Digital devices emit the least noise during operation, but this is a subjective opinion of the company's fans, so it is a stretch to take this into account. There are no other parameters for choosing a disk, in terms of the level of noise emitted by it, so you have to hope for luck.

If the hard disk works in "difficult" conditions for it, then it will quickly fail. To delay this moment as far as possible, it is worth considering the following expert advice.

1. Use UPS. A high-quality "uninterruptible" will protect the HDD from power surges - the main killer of technical equipment.
2. Apply control programs. There are a number of programs that regularly scan the state of the hard drive - temperature, spindle speed. If you look into them from time to time, you can catch the moment when the disk began to “hack” and give it in time for repair.
3. Provide cooling. The HDD generates a lot of heat during operation, sometimes so much that the regular PC cooling system cannot cope with the load. If this situation is observed by the user, it is worth adding a couple of fans to the system unit.
4. Choose the right power supply. If the user has an uneven power supply installed, he can apply high voltage to the hard drive, which is guaranteed to “kill” the device.

With this article, our site continues a whole cycle of useful materials, the purpose of which will be to facilitate the choice of any product from the thousands of options offered on the market. Agree, the choice of a specific model of a device always takes a lot of time, which can be spent usefully. In today's material, we will talk about choosing a hard drive for a desktop PC.

Introduction

Not a single personal computer or laptop can do without a hard drive - it is on it that both the operating system and user data and programs are stored. The general feeling of working at a computer depends on its volume and speed - if your OS loads slowly, and games and heavy software “barely toss and turn”, then you need a faster disk.

At the same time, the choice of HDD is often reduced to the choice of the number of gigabytes, and this is wrong. Each model has its pros and cons, including its own percentage of marriage. Yes, unfortunately, some batches of hard drives are less reliable than others - this is the nature of the production of such precise and complex electronics. Before buying a hard drive, we recommend that you make sure that it is reliable, using reviews on the network - both from other users and from specialists. At the moment, Seagate and Western Digital products have the lowest percentage of defects.

Basically, modern HDDs are designed to store large amounts of data - solid state drives (SSDs) are increasingly being used to install the OS, which are characterized by a much higher cost and much higher speed. We will most likely talk about SSD later.

In the next section, we will talk about the main characteristics of internal hard drives, and then we will advise you to purchase several excellent models that are recognized leaders in their class. They definitely will not let you down at a crucial moment.

Key Features of Hard Drives

Purpose

According to this parameter, hard drives are divided into those designed for a desktop PC, designed for a laptop, external, and also designed for servers. In this article, we will focus on the first two categories - we will talk about external HDDs in a separate article later.

By type, data storage drives are divided into HDD (hard), SSD (solid state) and hybrid. In this article, we will look at HDDs and hybrid drives - SSDs deserve their own material, as they use a completely different storage technology.

For reference: HDDs are characterized by the presence of several round disks (as in the photo above), data on which is written and read by a special head. This principle of information storage allows you to achieve high capacity (due to the use of several "pancake" disks at the same time) at a low cost, but HDDs are limited by the speed of their mechanics and are vulnerable to physical damage due to vibration or shock.

Hybrid drives are HDDs that use SSD solid state technology for part of their storage capacity. They are not as expensive as full-fledged SSDs, but they allow you to achieve good speeds, especially when loading the operating system.

Form factor

HDDs are available in 2.5" or 3.5" wide enclosures. The former are generally intended for use in laptops, the latter for use in desktop PCs. Strictly limiting the size of disks allows you to standardize the places for their installation. It is worth noting that the popularity of 2.5-inch mechanical drives has greatly decreased in recent years - now laptops mostly use SSDs, which we will discuss separately.

Volume, GB

The main parameter of any data storage device. Buying a drive with a capacity of less than 500 GB or even 1 TB in 2015 cannot be justified by anything - the cost of one gigabyte in $ is now lower than ever. And since HDDs are now increasingly being used to store large games and high-quality movies, it doesn’t hurt to take a closer look at 2, 3 or even 4 TB drives.

Buffer size, MB

The larger this volume, the more information is placed in a special HDD section, which is accessed much faster than other data. At least 16 MB is considered an acceptable indicator of buffer size today, 32 or 64 MB is better.

SATA standard

Most modern hard drives support the SATA standard, which means data transfer at speeds up to 6 gigabits per second - buying an HDD that supports older standards (3 gigabits per second and 1.5 gigabits per second) does not make sense.

Spindle speed, rpm

The speed at which the read and write heads access data depends on the spindle speed. Most consumer desktop HDDs run at 7200 rpm, most notebook HDDs run at 5400 rpm. Server drives with SCSI interface support reach speeds of 10000-15000 rpm, but we are not talking about them now.

Read / write speed, MB / s

Not a very important parameter at the moment - most of the disks provide comfortable data writing and reading speeds, but you can rise above a certain threshold only by switching to an SSD. However, if for some reason this parameter is important to you (for example, you work with recording high-resolution video streams), you can always check the tests on the network and choose a specific model based on them.

Noise level, dB

Once upon a time, hard drives were quite noisy - when writing and reading information, they made a loud crackling sound. Fortunately, by 2015, HDD noise was almost eliminated, and special couplings can be used to further reduce the noise level. The acceptable noise level for a desktop PC is 25-30 dB. For obvious reasons, laptop drives make even less noise.

10 best hard drives

An excellent representative of hybrid 3.5-inch drives - not too expensive, productive and capacious enough.

The 2TB 3.5" model from Seagate is for those who need more space for not too much money. It is also hybrid - 8 GB of flash memory will seriously speed up the PC.

Budget option from Seagate: very low cost, only 500 GB of memory, 16 MB buffer and enough speed for comfortable work.

The range of hard drives is so huge that it can be very difficult to figure out which hard drive to choose for a particular task. Therefore, I tried to write a kind of short guide to the world of hard drives, in which I will talk about the directions of development of the “screw” industry and give examples of the use of certain models.

I will not go into history particularly deeply and tell about everything that has been invented and implemented over more than half a century of history, but I will talk mainly about what a modern user may encounter when he comes to the store or looks into the system unit.

Much has changed since the creation of the first HDD (Hard Disk Drive). Let me remind you that for such a long time only the principle of operation has remained unchanged - rotating magnetized plates and heads reading information from them - this is what unites all models.

The number of hard drive manufacturers is constantly decreasing - constant acquisitions and mergers have led to the fact that only three manufacturers remain - Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba, with the first two accounting for more than 90% of the market share. On the other hand, the number of models that differ in size and technical characteristics is constantly growing.

Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba - all who managed to survive in the tough competition

And all because the scope is becoming wider, and the requirements are becoming more stringent. Special-purpose modifications appear for operation in different devices besides a computer.

Form factor 3.5 and 2.5 inches.

The whole variety of hard drives can be divided into two large categories, determined by the size (width) of the device in inches. In other words, there are so-called "large" hard drives - 3.5 inches, and small - 2.5 inches. The larger the drive, the larger the size of each plate in it, and the more information fits on the device.

The maximum volume of "large" hard drives reached 10 TB, while most of the "small" hard drives were limited to one terabyte (you can also find models for 2 TB on sale - they are too expensive).

Comparison of two - and three-inch HDD.
The difference in size and weight is visible to the naked eye.
Heat dissipation, noise level and power consumption are also different.

The first group (3.5 inches) is used in conventional desktop computers. In any desktop, there is just such a device on which both the operating system and user files are stored - images, videos, music and documents.

"Kids" are installed mainly in laptops. Due to their size, they do not take up much space, do not add much weight to a portable PC, and, in addition, consume little power, extending battery life.

However, “small hard drives” also have an additional use - they are often used in home media players, allowing you to record a huge amount of video and audio materials, in external hard drives connected directly to a computer (DAS), as well as in network file storage (NAS).

NAS is a typical example of using a hard drive.
This file storage is connected over the network and carries 4 hard drives

Here we come to the second important difference between these groups - energy efficiency. If tiny two-inch devices under load consume in the range of 2-2.5 watts (and at idle generally less than a watt), then the older ones are more voracious and can eat about 7-10 watts.

This quality allows small brothers to do without an external power source, they are powered directly from the USB port of a computer or even a smartphone (as well as a tablet). Let me remind you that a USB 2.0 port at a voltage of 5 Volts produces a current of 0.5 Amperes, that is, the power output by the port is 2.5 watts (or 4.5 watts for USB 3.0).

An example of an external hard drive.
The USB port is used for connection.
Inside is a 2.5" hard drive.

It is for this reason that “babies” are very often used in external hard drives - the power of the USB port is enough to feed the device. That is, such a drive is a self-sufficient device - it only needs a short cord to connect to a computer.

But when using three-inch drives, external power is required. Therefore, they are not suitable for convenient transportation - not only can you not put it in your pocket, you will also need to carry an external power supply with you, and in fact it sometimes takes up more space than the device itself. This explains the popularity of using laptop hard drives as portable drives.

External HDD 3.5 inches.
The power supply is comparable in size to the device itself.
There can be no talk of any compactness

Media players use both classes. But at the same time, compact models contain 2.5-inch hard drives - this not only significantly reduces the size, but also reduces power consumption, noise and vibration, which is important when watching movies or listening to music. If you need a silent media player or storage, then such hard drives are the most suitable choice.

Media player - allows you to watch videos and listen to music.
Connects to a TV and has a remote control.
But inside the same hard drive 3.5 inches

The third important quality is weight. “Adult” models weigh quite a lot, so their use is excluded in portable devices, hard drives, cameras, laptops, etc., while “kids” do not pull the pocket and do not make equipment too heavy.

Midgets 1.8 inches.

There are also tiny models of the 1.8-inch form factor. Their capacity is even smaller, but the price is quite high. Therefore, they were used only where exceptional compactness is required. For example, in portable mp4 players. True, in connection with the rapid development of flash-memory, they are less and less in demand. And at the moment they are almost superseded by flash.

Tiny 1.8" hard drive (second from top).
Couldn't stand the competition and was forced out by flash.
Bottom HDD 3.5 inch, HDD 2.5 inch on it

SATA and IDE interfaces

In simple terms, the interface is the connectors with which you connect to the computer motherboard or to another device.

IDE Interface

Quite an ancient means of connecting hard drives. You can no longer find such HDDs on sale - they have long been discontinued, however, on some not the newest computer models, you can still find such hard drives.

They differ in that two devices are connected through one cable (loop). Moreover, on the HDDs themselves, jumpers (jumpers) were required to set which device would be the primary and which auxiliary. Old-timers remember very well how much nerves were spent on the correct installation of jumpers.

Cable for connecting two IDE hard drives to the motherboard

The maximum throughput is 133 MB / s - modern models have long exceeded this mark. How to connect such a device to modern boards that do not have the appropriate connector can be found in the article How to connect an old IDE hard drive to a new computer

SATA interface

Modern connection interface. Each hard drive is connected by a separate cable, which eliminates the hassle of setting up (as in an IDE). In addition, the bandwidth of the interface is much higher. There are several versions of SATA, differing only in speed.

Detailed information on what the connectors look like is in the article " How to connect a hard drive to a computer".

Moreover, if 2-inch and 3-inch IDE hard drives had different connectors that were not compatible with each other, then both classes of devices in SATA use identical plugs.

Hard disk thickness

While the thickness of 3.5-inch hard drives does not play an important role, it is important for younger brothers. Nominally, its value for laptop hard drives is 9.5 mm.

The thickness of the HDD is determined by the number of magnetic platters. The more plates, the greater the capacity of the hard drive, but the thicker the end device will turn out.

Portable drives typically carry one to three platters (“Large Drives” are three to five platters). Therefore, their thickness can vary from 7 mm (with one plate) to 12.5 mm (with three plates).

The standard and most common option is 9.5 mm with two plates. They are used in most laptops. When buying a thicker (and more capacious) model, you may encounter the impossibility of installing it in a laptop - the hard drive simply does not fit in the corresponding compartment.

Comparison of models with a thickness of 12.5 and 9.5 mm.
The first has one plate more.
The rest of the models are the same.

Therefore, when buying a replacement device in a laptop, you must definitely look at the thickness. What's more, Ultrabooks, which are compact, use discs that are only 7mm thick.

But the industry does not stand still, and manufacturers have already introduced hard drives with a thickness of only 5 mm (with one plate). But they are just appearing on the market and are quite expensive.

On the other hand, in portable external hard drives there is no point in chasing thickness, so 12.5 mm hard drives are sometimes installed in them. In this case, the capacity can reach up to one and a half and even up to two terabytes.

The speed of rotation of the hard drives.

Another important point that you need to pay attention to when buying a hard drive is the speed of rotation of the spindle (and plates). For "slow" models, it is in the range of 5200-5900 rpm (standard - 5400 rpm).

Such models do not get very hot, do not make noise, almost do not have vibration, however, their performance is relatively low. The main purpose is computers and devices with weak or no cooling, as well as systems, the main requirement for which is silence, such as media centers and players.

A higher speed group with a frequency of 7200 rpm has a higher performance, but it heats up and makes much more noise. But the main problem with the home use of such models is vibration, which is discussed below. Previously, an operating system was installed on such hard drives - a high rotation speed ensured a low access time to information, which had a positive effect on the system's responsiveness.

The next group of hard drives - 10,000 rpm and more - is an extreme line of hard drives with extremely high performance. The heat dissipation is so high that such drives require a separate heatsink.

But with the advent of SSDs, the need for high-speed hard drives in the home sector has practically disappeared. The system is placed on a solid state drive, and the data is stored on a traditional disk. The use of fast drives is justified only in the corporate segment, where the requirements for noise and vibration are low, where they are still in great demand.

It should be noted that the models of the last group are being superseded especially quickly by SSDs. The speed of hard drives is incommensurably higher, even compared to the fastest hard drive samples - you can read about this in the article Comparison of SSD and HDD speeds. At the same time, they are completely silent, consume less electricity and almost do not heat up, and the price for them is often even lower than “fast HDDs”.

Test results for SSD Vertex 3 and HDD Seagate 3 TB.
SSD performance is significantly higher

Thanks to the development of technologies and the increase in the recording density on the plates, the reading speed of "low-speed models" has exceeded 150-160 MB / s, which is higher than that of the most frisky specimens of 1 or 2 years ago. So they can be called slow only conditionally.

HDD capacity

The peculiarity of the current situation in the market lies in the fact that due to technological difficulties, the growth rate of storage capacity is constantly slowing down, so you should not expect a huge increase in the near future, as it was before.

At the moment, 3.5-inch hard drives have a maximum of 10 TB, but five-terabyte models are the most optimal in terms of price per gigabyte.

With laptop hard drives, everything is much simpler. If we discard exotic models, then the optimal volume is 1 TB, and it is also the maximum in a standard 9.5 mm case. For most purposes, such a disk is more than enough.

Noise level and vibration

Often one of the main requirements for the operation of the house is comfort. No matter how strange it may sound, the low noise level emitted by drives comes first in importance.

Models with low spindle speeds are usually much quieter than their fast counterparts, which emit a constant low-frequency whistle. In addition, the vibration is transmitted to the case of a computer (or other device), so when two or more devices operate at a high frequency in the same case, the vibration is greatly amplified.

You must have heard the annoying low-frequency hum emitted by the case. The culprit is precisely the fast HDDs working in pairs (and more). The best solution is to use economical low-speed models.

Temperature and stable power

Modern drives are very complex electronic devices, their durability is highly dependent on operating conditions. First, disks (especially 3.5-inch ones) need to be properly cooled. A dusty heatsink in a laptop or improper airflow in a desktop can cause it to operate at elevated temperatures, which will significantly shorten the life of the HDD.

Additional cooling from Zalman.
Allows you to reduce the temperature by 5-7 degrees.
Very effective product in cases with poor ventilation

Comfortable temperature for the drive is below 40 degrees. The range of 40-45 is still tolerable, although undesirable. It is highly recommended not to use the disc at higher temperatures.

You can view the temperature with regular utilities or third-party programs, such as HD Tune or CrystalDiskInfo (both free).

The second important point - stable power supply - is more relevant for desktop computers. An old power supply with dried up elements that does not smooth out power surges can be the cause of the failure of the hard drive.

Many times I have heard many unflattering reviews from buyers about HDD manufacturers, for example, when two drives purchased in a row “die”, but the reason ultimately turned out to be a low-quality or old power supply, after replacing which everything returned to normal.

hybrids

The story would be incomplete without mention of hybrids. This is a type of HDD in which a traditional disk is supplemented by a small-capacity flash-memory drive (due to which the price is higher, but not by much). The flash drive contains the most frequently used files (or blocks) of the hard drive, improving performance. The capacity of the hybrid is the same as that of conventional HDDs, and much larger than that of SSDs.

But, in my opinion, hybrids have not really taken root. If you need to save money, it’s better to do without an SSD altogether, and if you need performance, it’s better to buy a full-fledged solid state.

The only place where the use of hybrids is justified is in laptops, they have only one drive bay and it will not work to install two devices at once.

When using 3.5-inch hard drives, I recommend using Western Digital's Green series drives, which operate almost silently, and for NAS (and media players), as well as when using two or more drives together, I recommend choosing Red series from the same manufacturer.

Western Digital Red series.
A wonderful representative of silent hard drives.

Vibration in the Red line is minimized, so that even with four copies running at the same time, vibration and annoying low-frequency hum will be imperceptible.

Among laptop hard drives Hitachi of the Travelstar series and WD of the Scorpio Blue series are quite good. It is only important not to forget about the thickness of the devices in case of replacing the HDD with a similar one with a larger capacity.

Seagate devices are also good, but they are usually a little more expensive (for 3.5-inch models), and they have a slightly higher noise level.

And do not forget about the correct operation of any HDD, do not let the hard drive overheat, otherwise its life will be too fleeting.