TOP 5 Internal Hard Drives for Desktops and Laptops

Toshiba P300 is the cheapest single—terabyte 3.5-inch hard drive in east european retail, which replaced the model Toshiba DT01ACAxxx DT01ACA100 1 TB Price from 1 799 up to 1 983 ₴, which is gradually retiring. It is a classic HDD with a high rotation speed of 7200 rpm and a SATA III interface, backward compatible with old SATA and SATA II motherboards.

The sequential read and write speed of large files is 180 Mbps at the beginning of the disk, while it drops by about a third towards the end. Small files scattered over the entire surface of the disk are processed even slower. Partially eliminates this drawback by the standards of 64-MB hard disk cache from RAM. But for even greater acceleration of the PC disk subsystem, it is recommended to regularly perform software defragmentation.

Being cheap and at the same time fast enough, the Toshiba P300 is great for building an entry-level gaming PC (see the article "Building a gaming PC for $300 for WoT, CS:GO, Dota 2 and GTA V"). With an extremely limited low-cost that does not allow you to fork out for a separate SSD, the P300 is quite worthy to cope with the role of a disk on which both the operating system and games will be installed. And even its only drawback — relatively high power consumption — in the case of a desktop PC cannot be called critical.

After the recent upgrade of the Western Digital hard drive range, the role of the Blue series has changed. Now these are not fast HDDs with a rotation speed of 7200 rpm, although the model WD Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB 64/7200 Price from 1 562 up to 6 409 ₴ still found on the market, and quiet at 5400 rpm. That is, the new WD10EZRZ replaced the Green series, which was completely removed from the range. At the same time, the price remained consistently low.

On the one hand, the reduction in speed led to a decrease in the speed of sequential reading and writing from 180 to 150 Mbps. At least thanks to the 64 MB RAM cache, the access time to small files remained unchanged. On the other hand, the disk has become much quieter, which is especially important if you have a cheap thin-walled computer case without vibration-absorbing slides (see the article "TOP 5 best computer cases of 2017").

As a result, the updated WD Blue is no longer suitable for the role of a system disk. It is better to install the operating system and frequently launched applications and games on a fast SSD, whereas on a slow—speed HDD it is better to store music, photos and videos. Moreover, in idle time it will completely turn off the motor (an energy-saving feature of Windows 7, 8 and 10).

De jure, the WD Red hard drive is designed for NAS servers — special devices for reliable data storage and convenient access to them within a local network. But in fact, the role of the NAS may well be performed by an ordinary desktop PC, especially if you combine two HDDs into a mirror array (the data is completely duplicated). It is for building RAID arrays that WD Red is most often bought.

Thanks to the IntelliPower technology, the disk rotation speed is floating — from 4000 to 5400 rpm. This not only reduces noise and vibration to a minimum (two fast-rotating HDDs in one PC would buzz very loudly), but also saves electricity and also prolongs the life of the disk.

It costs WD Red about a third more expensive than, in principle, also quiet Blue, but for an additional fee you will receive an additional year of warranty. In addition, the extended warranty indicates that the manufacturer is firmly confident in the reliability and durability of the disk, which means that nothing threatens the safety of your data.

Seagate Firecuda 2.5" is a hybrid laptop hard drive with a rotation speed of 5400 rpm and a built—in SSD cache of 8 GB to speed up the loading of the operating system and launch frequently used applications. Also on the market is a 3.5-inch version of Seagate FireCuda ST1000DX002 1 TB at 7200 rpm. However, nothing prevents you from installing a 2.5-inch HDD in a desktop PC, because most modern computer cases are equipped with an appropriate mount.

The sequential read and write speed of Firecuda 2.5" is 120 Mbps, which is typical for laptop HDDs. Resource-intensive applications and especially AAA games start with a clear delay, but only at the first three launches. Starting from the fourth attempt, the smart controller transfers executable files to the SSD cache and the launch is instantaneous. The increased up to 128 MB RAM cache speeds up the processing of small files even more.

Hybrid Seagate Firecuda 2.5" is one and a half times more expensive than conventional laptop HDD. But even more expensive is a set of a separate HDD and SSD, which also will not fit together in every laptop. Therefore, Firecuda 2.5" is not only profitable (including due to a 5-year warranty), but often an alternative purchase.

After the 10,000 rpm WD Velociraptor was discontinued, the fastest hard drive on the market was the WD Black. Its rotation speed is the usual 7200 rpm, but at the same time the speed of sequential reading and writing is as much as 210 Mbps.

Record speed is achieved due to the high density of data storage. Inside the one-terabyte version of WD Black there is only one magnetic plate (in the common people, "damn") and one writing head. That is, all information is recorded on one side of the plate, which happens as quickly as possible. That is why the WD Black versions of a larger volume, which means with numerous "pancakes" and heads, work slower — less than 200 Mbps, which is still a lot relative to other models.

Not everyone needs WD Black, because it costs twice as much as conventional 3.5-inch HDDs, which are only 20 percent inferior to it in speed. Its target audience is avid gamers (especially lestplayers and streamers), as well as video editors. Both the first and the second need the maximum speed of reading and writing large volumes of data that do not fit on an SSD.