Support NeoGAF

[nkarafo]

I was looking to buy a 2TB mechanical HDD and i found these:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/surveillance-hard-drive-performance,3831.html

Never knew these existed. They seem to be made for a specific use but i was wondering, how do these perform in a regular/gaming PC? I'm asking this because i found a 2TB WD Purple HDD (the surveillance) at a good price, plus it has 3 years of warranty instead of only 2. I also assume they are more reliable since they are made to operate 24/7?

 

[yatesl]

More reliable, but slower.

 

[nkarafo]

More reliable, but slower.

So only better for backups and media files storage then?

 

[laxu]

They are mostly meant just for storing media. With games you generally need something that can read small files fast and that's where any mechanical drive struggles.

You'd be better off investing in a 1 TB SSD. Expensive but it makes a huge difference in loading times.

 

[K.Jack]

Why the fuck are you even looking at a 5400rpm HDD, in the year of our Lord, 2016?!

 

[nkarafo]

Unfortunately, i can't afford an SSD unless it's something with much smaller space, like 250GB maximum.

 

[benny_a]

This is what a WD rep says about the WD Purple:

WD Purple has optimized writing speeds, special error correction features and is generally developed and tuned for DVR and other surveillance systems. It can work, but there may be some data corruption due to the error correction feature of the drive that is designed to record videos with no frame losses.
As it was suggested, I would look into WD Blue and WD Black drives as they are more appropriate for what you are looking for.

It's basically set up for constant low rate of writing and rarely reading, which is not the use case that you find yourself in when playing games.

If it's an amazing deal and you just want the storage that's probably fine but I wouldn't buy it if it's just a bit cheaper. It's just not tuned for the game playing scenario.

 

[nkarafo]

This is what a WD rep says about the WD Purple:


It's basically set up for constant low rate of writing and rarely reading, which is not the use case that you find yourself in when playing games.

If it's an amazing deal and you just want the storage that's probably fine but I wouldn't buy it if it's just a bit cheaper. It's just not tuned for the game playing scenario.

Thank you for the explanation.

I'm passing it then.

 

[Diablohead]

I have a 2.5" WD black in my desktop as my second drive and it's pretty good, I can say that it's worth getting one.

 

[Rats Off To Ya]

Unfortunately, i can't afford an SSD unless it's something with much smaller space, like 250GB maximum.

This is what I was rocking for a few years, and honestly, even a small SSD like that is better than a huge HDD. It's a bit of an annoyance having to more carefully manage how many games you have installed at once, but that minor headache pales in comparison to how amazing it feels when every game you own pretty much loads instantaneously. Seriously, just try gaming off an SSD and you'll never even consider going back to mechanical drives.

 

[Drazgul]

More reliable, but slower.

Wonder if these'd be sufficient for shadowplay recording? At 1440p, 60 FPS and 50 Mbps it requires a decent write speed capability.