[Johnny Brown]

Anyone any recommendations for good value internal hard drives for a windows pc?

Looking for a) 2TB for data, am i right in thinking these usually have more than one platter?

b) ~60Gb SSD for system.

Cheers y'all.

[benpritch]

for SSDs  - http://www.crucial.com/uk/?click=true

i bought some RAM off them a while back and their website takes the stress out of any decisions you make as it makes them for you. also it was cheap and has been totally reliable. 

[Jim]

Hard drive: samsung spinpoints are the bee's knees
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/SATA+%28Serial+ATA%29/Over+1TB/2TB+Samsung+HD204UI+Spinpoint+F4+SATA-II+3.5%22+Hard+Drive+?productId=41535

My SSD is an Intel one which was highly recomended at the time,
There has been plenty of advancments in ssd technology even in the short space of time I've had mine.
this one seems to come recomended and a good price:
http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-64gb-830-series-sata-6gb-s-2-5--solid-state-drive-desktop-accessory-kit---norton-ghost-15-7S2H.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product+search&utm_content=Q200
or if you've got more money to spare (which I assume you have since you bought a macbook ) this one:
http://www.ebuyer.com/280122-corsair-90gb-force-gt-ssd-2-5-sata-iii-read-555mb-s-write-cssd-f90gbgt-bk?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products

[slackline]

Traditional HDs are relatively expensive at the moment due to the recent floods in Thailand halting production which pushed prices up.  Supposedly set to decrease early this year as production in Japan was ramped up to compensate and the impact of the floods in Thailand hasn't been as severe as expected. (random news article from tech site).

Almost any HD you'll have used over the last however many years will have had multiple platters.

[Johnny Brown]

Cheers guys. I was aware of the problems with tech manufacture in Thailand, hence asking if there were any bargains around. Cameras have been pretty badly affected too, with the Japanese earthquake as well it put today's D4 launch back 6 months.

Didn't realise HDs typically had multiple platters.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

As a benchmark the Samsung F4 2TB spinpoints I got last May for £55 a piece,  have come down slightly. Amazon have them for £106, 'only' double the price last year. It has come down slightly, before Christmas they were £150+

[Johnny Brown]

Balls, didn't realise prices were that far to cock. Maybe I can wait a couple of months...

[Johnny Brown]

Back on this now, beginning to get performance issues...

Anyone got any opinions/ spotted any better deals than these:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Hard+Drives+-+SSD/100GB+-+260GB+SSD/Kingston+SSDNow+V%2B200+120GB+2.5%22+SATA-III+Solid+State+Hard+Drive+?productId=49445

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Hard+Drives+-+Internal/3.5+Inch+SATA+Drives/1.5TB+-+4TB/2TB+Seagate+Barracuda+Green+3.5%22+SATA+III+Internal+Hard+Drive+%5BST2000DL003%5D+?productId=43781

[slackline]

Don't keep an eye on HD prices so no better deals to suggest (although the Kingston SSD seems like a good £/Gb).


Seems the "crisis" may have been a ploy to bolster profits and I won't be expecting prices to drop to as low as they were.

[stevej]

Similar prices here for slightly different kit if you can be arsed looking for reviews scan today-only deals

[Johnny Brown]

Ah shit, just realised I don't know if I can use SATA III...

[stevej]

Yep, the drives are backwards compatible, they'll just work at the slower rate if mobo doesn't support it. If the drive isn't as fast as SATA II rate anyway (3Gbits/s) then there shouldn't be much in it afaik

edit, although the internet says real-world speed may vary a lot depending on settings etc... http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/2821-sata-iii-ssd-on-your-sata-ii-motherboard/

[Johnny Brown]

Genius, ta. Might upgrade mobo and processor in a year or so so it would be good to have forwards compatability too.

[slackline]

2Tb for £79.99

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

SSD prices seem to be steadily coming down to affordable. 120gb now around £80.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=33&cat=385

Whose got them and are they worth it? Other than a faster boot time have you noticed much difference in day to day use of your PCs?

[Jim]

Other benefits: silent, OS runs smoother

[Lund]

Whose got them and are they worth it? Other than a faster boot time have you noticed much difference in day to day use of your PCs?

[tomtom]

SSd really nice on a laptop - silent when no processor fan on....

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Lund, that's video great, saw it a while back, considering that is from 2009 all those drives would have cost a fortune at the time!

[tomtom]

Could be a new thread but this'll do...

I wanted an SSD for my new laptop - but needed more than 125GB and they were too much IMHO. So I took a punt at one of the seagate hybrid drives. Its basically a 500gb HDD with a 3GB SSD strapped on the side, and theres some fancy software that makes sure the files you use most often (e.g. boot/system files) get kept on the SSD... like a big cache I guess. It was £70 - theres a 750GB with 6GB SSD combo which was £110, but I went for the cheaper older one (older was SATAII newer was SATAIII and I dont think the new laptop does SATAIII so wouldnt be any point)..

Its only been in a few hours but first impressions are good - especially on boot times. From power on to first full screen with icons (W7) has cut from 1:10 to 0:25. Full ready screen (everything running) has plumetted from 3:00 to c.0:40... Looks like a good option if you want to give your older laptop some vim... installed fine etc...

TT

Update: No improvement on windows performance index (groan) but 7 seconds from login screen to fully loaded - impressive...

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

As a benchmark the Samsung F4 2TB spinpoints I got last May for £55 a piece,  have come down slightly. Amazon have them for £106, 'only' double the price last year. It has come down slightly, before Christmas they were £150+

Nice to see we are almost back to pre-flood prices for hard drives. Took a while. Amazon are still quite a bit higher.

http://www.ebuyer.com/237908-samsung-hd204ui-spinpoint-f4-2tb-hard-drive-sata-5400rpm-32mb-cache-hd204ui