Today Newegg has the Seagate ST500LM030 for $39.99 delivered, but is it any good? I don't mind the 5400 RPM speed, I just want decent reliability (plus low cost). I have several new 500 gb Seagate laptop hard drives with 16 mb cache, should I prefer the barracuda model with 128 mb cache? What does extra hard drive cache do for me?
I always have hesitation about shoving 7200rpm drives into laptops hard drives are jammed inside laptops in an exactly-hard-disk-sized recess with no "breathing room" around them at all add to that laptops have crappy cooling right out of the factory and get worse as they age but maybe im just crabby and contrary today because haven't eaten any tourists today WOW I think I just invented myself a sig...
Well, that's a lot of great help, THANK YOU ALL. I did try popping in a 500 gb 5400 rpm hard drive and it takes about 50% longer to fully load Windows than my 7200 rpm 320 gb hard drive, which is a tad annoying. lol RE: Short stroking: Dang, I never heard the term. I've always known that the outside of the platter is the fast part, but never considered the implications. May I ask, when I install Windows and use the installation media's partition creating utility, is the first partition I make going to be on the outside of the platter or the inside? A quick look in go0gle was NOT helpful...
I hate to say it, but you get what you pay for in this case. I would agree with wazzock, go for a WD black. As far as a SSD goes, I agree with LatinMcG on grabbing a Samsung. But those do get pricey. Refurbed HD?
I tried using refurbs before, they were Seagate drives and everyone of them screamed like a wild banshee, They were all returned. If your finances can afford, there are some SK Hynix SSD's priced much less than the Samsung SSD's and they get very good ratings from independent on line reviews
I can't answer the specific question, only comment that I personally have question marks about reliability of Seagate drives.
Just my 2 cents. @ 7200 RPM - Yes, that's the way to go. The performance improvement is noticeable (without software). The heat concern mentioned is a non-issue in the real world. (They are rated for it.) If the drives ever reached their temperature limits their label would melt, and that doesn't happen. @ Cache size. - Past 16 MB I don't 'notice' any difference on sub-1TB drives. Software might detect some, but I don't 'see' it. @ Refurbished - No way. You're more likely to get a good drive buying used ones on Ebay. @ Seagate reliability. - It went south 5 to 10 years ago. Before that they were my favorite for laptop drives. @ WD Blacks - My choice for laptops too. You did not mention what it's going into. Make sure whatever it is can handle Advanced Format drives. .
Want an honest opinion? I went to ssd to change old slow hhds of some laptops and netbooks and I'll never go back to magnetic technology, now I use that just for full disk backups.
Want a quick drive go for a ssd today! But the only problem ssd's right now are because there expensive so.
fun fact: all is not size, to GB. not. the size, quantity, volume. there is something so important in the disk storage, your buffer, cache, MB. all this is based on the speed reading and writing, <transfer>
