The best inexpensive hard drives. The most reliable HDDs. Backblaze version

Choosing an SSD is an exciting experience, given the relative novelty of this type of drive, the variety of characteristics and performance test results, etc. For all their undoubted advantages, solid-state drives have (hopefully for now) one significant drawback - they are not cheap, especially high-capacity models. If you need somewhere to store accumulated collections of music, films, photographs and other information that requires space, then you cannot do without a regular hard drive.

Hard drive requirements

Now the Internet is full of comparative tests of SSD drives. About 5-10-15 years ago, a similar situation was with traditional hard drives, when the results of various models were compared, a certain rating was compiled, which drives were the fastest, which were the coolest, and which were the quietest.

Currently, the performance of hard drives has somehow faded into the background. The fact is that it’s already difficult to squeeze more out of this technology, and you still won’t be able to compete with solid-state drives. This means that you need to “take” with other qualities. Which ones? Capacity, and, most importantly, the cost of this capacity. There is such a concept - price per gigabyte, i.e. how much does one gigabyte of the capacity of a particular disk cost.

For example, the cheapest 4 TB HDD with a 3.5-inch form factor will cost approximately 7,500 rubles, i.e. 1 GB costs 1.88 rubles. SSD drives of this capacity are only in the plans for now, and of those that exist, the most capacious models are 2 TB. Moreover, their cost is (the cheapest) about 50,000 rubles. How much does 1 GB cost in this case? Calculate for yourself.

Hence the conclusion - if you need to store a large amount of data, and do it for reasonable money, then the choice is definitely for HDD. But how to choose a hard drive, what size should you prefer, and at what rotation speed?

HDD parameters

Still, we cannot ignore the basic parameters of hard drives. This:

Form factor. Available in 3.5 and 2.5 inches. The first are for stationary PCs, the second are for laptops, all-in-one PCs, etc. In this case, the larger physical size of the drives can provide greater capacity. Among the 2.5-inch models there are both 4 and 5 TB models, but their thickness does not allow them to be installed in laptops, but they are suitable for stationary PCs, network storage, etc. At the same time, their cost is higher than that of larger ones 3.5-inch brothers. There are also 1.8-inch models, but their prevalence tends to zero.
Capacity. Actually, it shows how much of everything necessary and important can be stored on the disk.
Interface. Everything is simple here. SATA-3, practically no options. Server drives with a SAS interface are usually not used at home.
Rotational speed. There are two main options - 5400 and 7200 rpm. There are also options with 5900 rpm or, as is the case with some drive models, for example, Western Digital, the speed is not indicated at all, and the specifications contain the word “IntelliPower”, i.e. the drive somehow controls the speed itself. Well, God bless him, let him rule. Naturally, the higher the rotation speed, the faster the drive should be.
Buffer memory size. It’s similar here, the more, the faster (in theory) the disk should work. In my opinion, this parameter should be the last thing you look at. At home, it does not have a significant effect on the “rate of fire” of the drive.

What else?

Agree, it’s unpleasant when some component in the computer suddenly fails. Just now (yesterday, an hour ago, etc.) everything worked, but now it doesn’t. The soul, if it could be in the motherboard, memory module, power supply, etc., can fly off to its computer paradise quietly, or with special effects such as sparks, smoke, or a burning smell.

Trouble? No, this is a disappointment. The motherboard, memory module, power supply, video card can be repaired, in the end, replaced with a new one, even better than it was, and after minor manipulations continue to work.

And if the hard drive fails, is it a disappointment? But in some situations this may well lead to trouble. Especially if this drive contained a home photo archive, the results of many days of work, an almost written diploma and something else important that existed in a single copy.

Now I don’t mean options with a faulty interface wire, problems with the power supply, “loss” of the disk by the operating system, etc. We are talking about the failure of the disk itself, be it a mechanical failure or an electronics failure. Restoring information from such a disk can be expensive, and it may not be possible to recover the data.

This raises another requirement for a disk – reliability. A parameter such as “mean time between failures,” which every drive has, is not empirical, but is based on some kind of calculations. I wouldn't recommend looking at it. It is better to pay attention to the warranty period for a specific hard drive model and the possibility of exchange if a breakdown occurs during this period.

Reliability

How to determine which drive is more reliable and which is not? To be honest, almost nothing. Verbal battles on forums and in comments in the style of “Seagate sucks, WD rules” only confuse, without providing any useful information. For some, one thing works, and another breaks, and for others, it’s exactly the opposite.

Personally, I have my own preferences, and for many years I have been using Hitachi drives (now it is more correct to call them HGST), which have never let me down, but this is a purely subjective opinion. Although I also have several WD Green drives (one of which is already dying) and an 8-terabyte Seagate.

More or less adequate statistics on disk reliability can only be shown by comparative testing, which requires the nth number of disks of each model and a lot of time. Who is doing this? Almost no one, unfortunately. Although you can still find some information.

Thus, interesting reports on the number of hard drives used and detailed failure statistics are published by Backblaze, a company that provides cloud storage services. Reports are regularly issued on the number of drives used, models, and the number of failures.

They have been keeping their statistics since the beginning of 2015. I will not present graphs and calculations here; they can be easily found on the Internet. According to the information they publish, HGST drives have the fewest failures. Seagate is doing worse, but there is a trend toward fewer failures and longer drive life.

How to treat this information? How to “food for thought”. In this case, the question is not when the drive will fail (sooner or later “all dogs hard drives go to heaven”), but what is the likelihood of this sad event occurring. Any manufacturer has successful and not so successful models, some last a long time, others have many complaints.

No one can guarantee one hundred percent failure-free operation. Therefore, you need to take care of the safety of information yourself. Really important files should be stored on several different physical media, or backed up to cloud storage. In the end, assemble a RAID array from several disks.

Hard drive series

For each manufacturer, all produced models are in one way or another divided into several series, each of which is positioned for a specific application. So, Hitachi... sorry, HGST, divides its drives into the Deskstar and Ultrastar series. The former are aimed at use in home/office computers, the latter - for use with more serious loads and are designed for round-the-clock operation.

Other brands do much the same. Seagate has several series:

Barracuda and Barracuda Pro - for everyday use. The capacity range is from 1 to 10 TB. In general, may fans of the brand forgive me, this is consumer goods for all occasions. This is also evidenced by such an interesting parameter indicated in the characteristics as “Workload limit, TB/year”. For all modifications of the Barracuda series it is 55 TB, and for Barracuda Pro it is 300 TB. For heavier loads, it is recommended to choose enterprise-class drives. Warranty – 2 years and 5 years respectively.
FireCuda is a hybrid model (with a small 8 GB cache on an MLC NAND memory chip). Focused on productive computers, workstations or gaming stations. Only 2 capacities are offered – 1 and 2 TB. There are no workload restrictions.
IronWolf and IronWolf Pro are a special series for working in network-attached storage (NAS). Available capacities range from 1 to 10 TB. The annual load is limited for IronWolf to 180 TB, and for the IronWolf Pro version to 300 TB. The number of head parking operations is 600,000 times. Warranty – 3 years and 5 years respectively.
SkyHawk - designed for use in video surveillance systems and can receive streaming data from a large number of video cameras at once at high speed. The capacity range is from 1 to 10 TB. The load limit is the same 300 TB/year.

WD usually divides drives into the following series:

Blue – disks for office or home computers that are not critical to the speed of the disk subsystem. Capacities up to 6 TB are available. The rotation speed of almost all models is 5400 rpm. Warranty – 2 years. About the same as Seagate's Barracuda series.
Black – more powerful drives for demanding users. Capacities – up to 6 TB, rotation speed – 7200 rpm. Warranty – 5 years.
Purple – models for video surveillance. Capacities up to 10 TB are available, rotation speed is 5400 rpm. Workload limits: 180 TB/year. Warranty - 3 years.
Red – for network attached storage (NAS). Capacities – up to 10 TB, rotation speed – 5400 rpm. Warranty – 3 years. The declared number of head parking operations is 600,000 times.
Gold is a corporate series of drives for servers and data centers. Capacities – up to 10 TB, rotation speed – 7200 rpm. Productive models with a 5-year warranty.

Models for use in network storage and servers usually incorporate systems that are not used in devices intended for general use. This includes, for example, rotational vibration sensors, optimization for use in RAID arrays, etc.

At the same time, it often happens that such drives can operate louder, and the heating can be higher, so cooling will definitely not be superfluous for them. At the same time, consumer-class drives (such as Seagate Barracuda or WD Blue) are less “fast”, but operate quieter and heat up less, although they are not equipped with any additional sensors or optimizations. But they are cheaper.

Which hard drive to choose.

I will express my thoughts, which do not necessarily have to coincide with yours. As for laptops, the optimal solution is a 1 TB hard drive, preferably with a rotation speed of 7200 rpm. Manufacturer? Choose which one you like. Personally, I prefer HGST. My laptop currently has a 1TB HGST HTE721010A9E630, purchased a few months ago.

For stationary PCs, that is, when choosing a 3.5-inch hard drive, there are much more opportunities to rack your brains. In any case, I would not consider hard drives smaller than 1 TB. Judge for yourself, the cheapest 500 GB drive (Toshiba DT01ACA050) costs about 2,500 rubles. The cheapest terabyte Seagate Barracuda (ST1000DM010) is only 300-400 rubles more expensive. Does it make sense to save?

It makes sense to take a terabyte if this is the only drive on which the system will be installed, and a lot of space is not required, since all that is needed is office work, surfing the Internet, etc. 7200 rpm model (any HGST, WD Black, Seagate Barracuda or, if you don’t mind the money, Seagate FireCuda will do).

If the drive is needed just to have it, if it serves as an add-on to the system SSD drive, then you can save a little and go with the Seagate Barracuda or WD Blue. Moreover, pay attention to capacities of about 4 TB. I'll explain why.

For example, let's choose the Seagate Barracuda series. To calculate the optimal costs per unit of disk capacity, let us recall the already mentioned “price per gigabyte”. Let's look at the price list:

1TB, model ST1000DM010 – price approximately 2800 rubles, each 1 GB “costs” 2.80 rubles.
2 TB, model ST2000DM006 – price approximately 4200 rubles, 1 GB “costs” 2.10 rubles.
3 TB, model ST3000DM008 – price approximately 5,700 rubles, 1 GB “costs” 1.90 rubles.
4 TB, model ST4000DM004 – price approximately 7,500 rubles, 1 GB “costs” 1.88 rubles.
6 TB, model ST6000DM004 – price approximately 14,500 rubles, 1 GB “costs” 2.42 rubles.
8 TB, model ST8000DM005 – price approximately 18,500 rubles, 1 GB “costs” 2.31 rubles.

As you can see, for this parameter, the optimal solution is a 4 TB disk, and the most unprofitable, if you do not take into account the model with the already “ridiculous” capacity of 1 TB, is the ST6000DM004 model. True, these are all calculations from the perspective of the cost of a data unit. If you just need a capacious disk with 6-8, or even more, TB, then it makes no difference how much 1 GB costs now. Although 2 ST4000DM004 drives will be cheaper than one ST8000DM005. Why not think about it?

The HGST disks stand somewhat separately. The company generally does not produce 3.5-inch models with rotation speeds less than 7200 rpm. True, their cost is higher. 1 TB Ultrastar 7K2 disk has a price of more than 5,000 rubles. True, as the name implies, this is not a “desktop” series, but the Ultrastar series positioned above.

But models with larger capacities have a more reasonable price tag. Thus, the Ultrastar 7K6000 6 TB model costs about 13,000 rubles, which is quite consistent with the cost of competitors. And let's not forget about 7200 rpm and the Ultrastar series.

Naturally, the choice should be based on how much capacity you need and how much you are willing to spend on the drive.

If we are talking about the need to store large amounts of data (a collection of movies, music, photos, etc.), then I would not consider the cheapest options. Ideally, these should be series aimed at working in network storage, Seagate IronWolf (Pro) or WD Red. Even if you don’t have a NAS and don’t plan to build a RAID, these drives are still the best choice. Moreover, where is the guarantee that you will not decide to buy storage in the foreseeable future? Among HGST discs, it is better to give preference to the Ultrastar series.

Let's look at a few specific models for specific use cases.

System disk

Let's assume it will be a terabyte disk. I would highlight the following models:

Seagate Barracuda (ST1000DM010) is the cheapest, approximately 2800 rubles. The only thing to consider is the warranty – only 2 years. Typical budget option.
Western Digital Caviar Blue (WD10EZEX) is one of the few models in the “blue” series with 7200 rpm. A direct competitor to the Barracuda. Same 2 year warranty. Of these two drives, I would choose WD.
Seagate FireCuda SSHD (ST1000DX002) – hybrid, the cost is already 5100 rubles. The warranty is the same - 2 years. Belonging to the FireCuda family means higher performance than the Barracuda.
Western Digital Black (WD1003FZEX) – price is about the same as FireCuda. They are generally direct competitors.
HGST Ultrastar 7K2 (1W10001) - cost approximately 5200. There is a 7200 rpm, Ultrastar series, 128 MB cache (the rest have 64 MB each).

If you have to overpay, then I would take the Ultrastar 7K2 model (as an alternative - WD Black), if not, then WD Blue.

Data storage disk

If everything has already been decided with the system disk, and you need a drive, or maybe several, to store everything you need and important, then I would prefer to consider models starting with a capacity of 4 TB. If there are no serious requirements for the speed of disk operation, then it is quite possible to limit yourself to models with a rotation speed of 5400-5900 rpm.

I will highlight the following:

Seagate Barracuda (ST4000DM004) is the cheapest of the 4 TB drives. The cost is about 7700 rubles.
Western Digital Blue (WD40EZRZ) – slightly more expensive than the previous one, about 400-500 rubles. In my opinion, this model is preferable.
HGST Deskstar NAS (0S04005) – costs about 8,500 rubles. Unlike the previous ones, it has a speed of 7200 rpm. A desktop series designed for use in NAS as well.
Seagate IronWolf (ST4000VN008) – cost about 8900 rubles. RPM speed – 7200. Belonging to a series capable of working in disk storage means the presence of vibration protection systems, additional balancing and other “improvers”.
Western Digital Red (WD40EFRX) – cost approximately 9,700 rubles. The exact number of revolutions is not indicated; it is managed by the IntelliPower system. A specialized series for storage, which does not negate the possibility of using them as a single disk. If it weren't for the price, it would be a great option.
HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 (0F23025) – cost about 10,500 rubles. Ultrastar series, large buffer, 7200 rpm, good performance, 5-year warranty. But the price is rather high. It’s probably too good for a home “file dump.”

If the main purpose is data storage with a light load, mainly reading, then why not also opt for models for video surveillance systems. Provided, of course, that no RAID will be built on them.

Of the above, WD Blue, HGST Deskstar NAS and Seagate IronWolf seem to be the best choices. The price difference between them is no more than 800 rubles, and the last 2 are also ready to work in disk storage and RAID. If you increase the amount a little, then a good solution is WD Red.

If you need a larger capacity, then there is option 2 - either take a drive of the appropriate volume, or take 2 (3, 4...) with a smaller volume, but in total you will get what you need. And you can even save money. Above we already compared the cost of an 8 TB disk with the cost of 2 4 TB disks. The question is how much space do you have in your case for drives and what are the prospects for further increasing disk space.

Conclusion. How to choose a hard drive

So how can we summarize all of the above? Let's start with the fact that there is no fundamental difference between manufacturers. Yes, some statistics show that HGST is somewhat more reliable and durable than Seagate, and WD is somewhere in the middle. However, this does not mean that Seagate should definitely be removed from the list of candidates for purchase. Let's not forget about the number of drives sold by this manufacturer, and if everything was so bad, who would buy them?

The choice may be influenced by personal preferences (like mine, for example), as well as some other, at first glance, insignificant characteristics. Thus, HGST hard drives are traditionally considered noisier, which does not prevent them from being considered more reliable.

You should also pay attention to the warranty period for the hard drive. Moreover, it is important to know where to go if problems arise. The ideal option is the possibility of exchanging a failed drive under the RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) program from the manufacturer itself. Unfortunately, in Russia this program is available only from Western Digital. Discs from other manufacturers will have to be exchanged through the store that sold you the product.

And the warranty period itself indirectly speaks about the “survivability” of the disk. It is probably clear that a 5 year warranty is better than 2 years. In the first case, it is assumed that the disk will not die in the next couple of years. But in the second case, anything can happen; it can die a week after the warranty expires, or it can last for many years.

It would be nice to be able to return or exchange a purchased hard drive if, when you first turn it on, you don’t like something about its operation. This could be a noticeable vibration or an excessively loud knock. It is also useful to check the disk, for example, with the HDTune program, including checking the surface of the disk for the presence of bad blocks.

Most importantly, do not forget that only timely and correct backup, i.e. backup, can guarantee the safety of important information. Storing the necessary data on different physical (namely different physical, and not on different partitions of the same disk) media is a guarantee that no problems with disks will lead to large expenses, loss of important files, time and nerves.

Happy shopping and safe storage!

A hard drive is needed to install the operating system, programs and store various user files (documents, photos, music, movies, etc.).

Hard drives differ in capacity, which determines the amount of data it can store, speed, which determines the performance of the entire computer, and reliability, which depends on its manufacturer.

Conventional hard drives (HDD) have a large capacity, low speed and cost. The fastest are solid state drives (SSD), but they have a small capacity and are much more expensive. An intermediate option between them are hybrid disks (SSHD), which have sufficient capacity, are faster than conventional HDDs and are slightly more expensive.

Western Digital (WD) hard drives are considered the most reliable. The best SSD drives are produced by: Samsung, Intel, Crucial, SanDisk, Plextor. More budget options can be considered: A-DATA, Corsair, GoodRAM, WD, HyperX, since they have the least problems. And hybrid drives (SSHD) are mainly produced by Seagate.

For an office computer that is used primarily for working with documents and the Internet, a regular hard drive from the inexpensive WD Blue series with a capacity of up to 500 GB is sufficient. But 1 TB disks are optimal today, since they are not much more expensive.

For a multimedia computer (video, simple games), it is better to use a 1 TB WD Blue drive as an additional one for storing files, and install a 120-128 GB SSD as the main one, which will significantly speed up the operation of the system and programs.

For a gaming computer, it is advisable to take an SSD with a capacity of 240-256 GB; you can install several games on it.
Hard drive A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB

As a more economical option for a multimedia or gaming PC, you can purchase one Seagate hybrid drive (SSHD) with a capacity of 1 TB; it is not as fast as an SSD, but still slightly faster than a regular HDD drive.
Hard drive Seagate FireCuda ST1000DX002 1TB

Well, for a powerful professional PC, in addition to the SSD (120-512 GB), you can take a fast and reliable WD Black hard drive of the required volume (1-4 GB).

I also recommend purchasing a high-quality Transcend external drive with a USB 3.0 interface for 1-2 TB for the system and files that are important to you (documents, photos, videos, projects).
Hard drive Transcend StoreJet 25M3 1 TB

2. Disk types

Modern computers use both classic hard drives on magnetic platters (HDD) and faster solid-state drives based on memory chips (SSD). There are also hybrid drives (SSHD), which are a symbiosis of HDD and SSD.

The hard drive (HDD) has a large capacity (1000-8000 GB), but low speed (120-140 MB/s). It can be used both to install the system and store user files, which is the most economical option.

Solid state drives (SSD) have a relatively small volume (120-960 GB), but very high speed (450-550 MB/s). They cost significantly more and are used to install the operating system and some programs to increase the speed of the computer.

A hybrid drive (SSHD) is simply a hard drive with a small amount of faster memory added to it. For example, this might look like 1TB HDD + 8GB SSD.

3. Application of HDD, SSD and SSHD drives

For an office computer (documents, Internet), it is enough to install one regular hard drive (HDD).

For a multimedia computer (movies, simple games), you can add a small SSD drive in addition to the HDD, which will make the system work much faster and more responsive. As a compromise between speed and capacity, you can consider installing one SSHD drive, which will be much cheaper.

For a powerful gaming or professional computer, the best option is to install two drives - an SSD for the operating system, programs, games, and a regular hard drive for storing user files.

4. Physical sizes of disks

Hard drives for desktop computers are 3.5 inches in size.

Solid state drives are 2.5 inches in size, just like laptop hard drives.

An SSD drive is installed into a regular computer using a special mount in the case or an additional adapter.

Don't forget to purchase it if it is not included with the drive and your case does not have special mounts for 2.5″ drives. But now almost all modern cases have mounts for SSD drives, which are indicated in the description as internal 2.5″ bays.

5. Hard drive connectors

All hard drives have an interface connector and a power connector.

5.1. Interface connector

An interface connector is a connector for connecting a drive to the motherboard using a special cable (cable).

Modern hard drives (HDD) have a SATA3 connector, which is fully compatible with older versions of SATA2 and SATA1. If your motherboard has old connectors, don't worry, a new hard drive can be connected to them and it will work.

But for an SSD drive, it is desirable that the motherboard have SATA3 connectors. If your motherboard has SATA2 connectors, then the SSD drive will operate at half its speed (about 280 MB/s), which, however, is still significantly faster than a regular HDD.

5.2. Power connector

Modern hard drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD) have the same 15-pin SATA power connectors. If the disk is installed in a desktop computer, its power supply must have such a connector. If it is not there, then you can use a Molex-SATA power adapter.

6. Hard drive capacities

For each type of hard drive, depending on its purpose, the amount of data it can hold will be different.

6.1. Hard disk capacity (HDD) for a computer

For a computer intended for typing and accessing the Internet, the smallest modern hard drive – 320-500 GB – is sufficient.

For a multimedia computer (video, music, photos, simple games), it is advisable to have a hard drive with a capacity of 1000 GB (1 TB).

A powerful gaming or professional computer may require a 2-4 TB drive (use your needs).

It is necessary to take into account that the computer motherboard must support UEFI, otherwise the operating system will not see the entire disk capacity of more than 2 TB.

If you want to increase the speed of the system, but are not ready to spend money on an additional SSD drive, then as an alternative option you can consider purchasing a hybrid SSHD drive with a capacity of 1-2 TB.

6.2. Hard disk capacity (HDD) for a laptop

If a laptop is used as an addition to the main computer, then a hard drive with a capacity of 320-500 GB will be sufficient. If a laptop is used as a main computer, then it may require a hard drive with a capacity of 750-1000 GB (depending on the use of the laptop).
Hard drive Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E680 500GB

You can also install an SSD drive in the laptop, which will significantly increase its speed and system responsiveness, or a hybrid SSHD drive, which is slightly faster than a regular HDD.
Hard drive Seagate Laptop SSHD ST500LM021 500GB

It is important to consider what thickness of disks your laptop supports. Discs with a thickness of 7 mm will fit into any model, but those with a thickness of 9 mm may not fit everywhere, although not many of them are produced anymore.

6.3. Solid State Drive (SSD) Capacity

Since SSD drives are not used for storing data, when determining their required capacity, you need to proceed from how much space the operating system installed on it will take up and whether you will install any other large programs and games on it.

Modern operating systems (Windows 7,8,10) require about 40 GB of space to operate and grow with updates. In addition, you need to install at least the basic programs on the SSD, otherwise it won’t be of much use. Well, for normal operation, there should always be 15-30% free space on the SSD.

For a multimedia computer (movies, simple games), the best option would be an SSD with a capacity of 120-128 GB, which will allow, in addition to the system and basic programs, to install several simple games on it. Since an SSD is required not only to quickly open folders, it makes sense to install the most powerful programs and games on it, which will speed up the speed of their work.

Heavy modern games take up a huge amount of space. Therefore, a powerful gaming computer requires a 240-512 GB SSD, depending on your budget.

For professional tasks, such as editing video in high quality, or installing a dozen modern games, you need an SSD with a capacity of 480-1024 GB, again depending on the budget.

6.4. Data backup

When choosing disk space, it is advisable to also take into account the need to create a backup copy of user files (videos, photos, etc.) that will be stored on it. Otherwise, you risk instantly losing everything you have accumulated over the years. Therefore, it is often more advisable to purchase not one huge disk, but two smaller disks - one for work, the other (possibly external) for a backup copy of files.

7. Basic disk parameters

The main parameters of disks, which are often indicated in price lists, include spindle speed and memory buffer size.

7.1. Spindle speed

The spindle has hard and hybrid disks based on magnetic platters (HDD, SSHD). Since SSD drives are built on memory chips, they do not have a spindle. The speed of the hard drive's spindle determines its operating speed.

The spindle of hard drives for desktop computers generally has a rotation speed of 7200 rpm. Sometimes there are models with a spindle speed of 5400 rpm, which work slower.

Laptop hard drives generally have a spindle speed of 5400 rpm, which allows them to be quieter, run cooler, and consume less power.

7.2. Memory Buffer Size

A buffer is a cache memory of a hard drive based on memory chips. This buffer is intended to speed up the hard drive, but it does not have a big impact (about 5-10%).

Modern hard drives (HDD) have a buffer size of 32-128 MB. In principle, 32 MB is enough, but if the price difference is not significant, then you can take a hard drive with a larger buffer size. Optimal for today is 64 MB.

8. Disk speed characteristics

Speed characteristics common to HDD, SSHD and SSD drives include linear read/write speed and random access time.

8.1. Linear reading speed

Linear read speed is the main parameter for any disk and dramatically affects its operating speed.

For modern hard and hybrid drives (HDD, SSHD), an average read speed of closer to 150 MB/s is a good value. You should not purchase hard drives with a speed of 100 MB/s or less.

Solid state drives (SSD) are much faster and their read speed, depending on the model, is 160-560 MB/s. The optimal price/speed ratio is SSD drives with a read speed of 450-500 MB/s.

As for HDD drives, sellers in price lists usually do not indicate their speed parameters, but only the volume. Later in this article I will tell you how to find out these characteristics. With SSD drives everything is simpler, since their speed characteristics are always indicated in the price lists.

8.2. Linear write speed

This is a secondary parameter after reading speed, which is usually indicated in tandem with it. For hard and hybrid drives (HDD, SSHD), the write speed is usually somewhat lower than the read speed and is not considered when choosing a disk, since they are mainly focused on the read speed.

For SSD drives, the write speed can be either less than or equal to the read speed. In price lists, these parameters are indicated through a slash (for example, 510/430), where a larger number means read speed, a smaller number means write speed.

For good fast SSDs it is about 550/550 MB/s. But in general, write speed has a much smaller effect on the speed of a computer than read speed. As a budget option, a slightly lower speed is allowed, but not lower than 450/350 Mb/s.

8.3. Access time

Access time is the second most important disk parameter after read/write speed. Access time has a particularly strong effect on the speed of reading/copying small files. The lower this parameter, the better. In addition, low access time indirectly indicates a higher quality hard disk drive (HDD).

A good access time for a hard disk drive (HDD) is 13-15 milliseconds. Values within 16-20 ms are considered a bad indicator. I will also tell you how to determine this parameter in this article.

As for SSD drives, their access time is 100 times less than that of HDD drives, so this parameter is not indicated anywhere and is not paid attention to.

Hybrid disks (SSHD), due to additional built-in flash memory, achieve lower access times than HDDs, which are comparable to SSDs. But due to the limited capacity of flash memory, lower access times are only achieved when accessing the most frequently accessed files that end up in that flash memory. Usually these are system files, which provide higher computer boot speed and high system responsiveness, but do not fundamentally affect the operation of large programs and games, since they simply will not fit in the limited amount of fast memory of an SSHD disk.

9. Manufacturers of hard drives (HDD, SSHD)

The most popular hard drive manufacturers are the following:

Seagate- produces some of the fastest drives today, but they are not considered the most reliable.

Western Digital (WD)— are considered the most reliable and have a convenient classification by color.

WD Blue– budget general purpose drives
W.D. Green– quiet and economical (frequently switched off)
WD Black– fast and reliable
WD Red– for data storage systems (NAS)
WD Purple– for video surveillance systems
W.D. Gold– for servers
W.D. Re– for RAID arrays
W.D.Se– for scalable corporate systems

Blue ones are the most common drives, suitable for inexpensive office and multimedia PCs. Black ones combine high speed and reliability; I recommend using them in powerful systems. The rest are intended for specific tasks.

In general, if you want cheaper and faster, then choose Seagate. If it's cheap and reliable - Hitachi. Fast and reliable - Western Digital from the black series.

Hybrid SSHD drives are now mainly produced by Seagete and they are of good quality.

There are discs from other manufacturers on sale, but I recommend limiting yourself to the indicated brands, as there are fewer problems with them.

10. Manufacturers of solid state drives (SSD)

Among the manufacturers of SSD drives, the following have proven themselves well:

Samsung
Intel
Crucial
SanDisk
Plextor

More budget options can be considered:

Corsair
GoodRAM
A-DATA (Premier Pro)
Kingston (HyperX)

11. Memory type SSD

SSD drives can be built on different types of memory:

3 D NAND– fast and durable
MLC– good resource
V-NAND– average resource
TLC– low resource

12. Hard drive speed (HDD, SSHD)

We can find out all the parameters of SSD drives we need, such as capacity, speed and manufacturer, from the seller’s price list and then compare them by price.

The parameters of HDD drives can be found out by the model or batch number on the manufacturers' websites, but in fact this is quite difficult, since these catalogs are huge, have a lot of incomprehensible parameters, which are called differently for each manufacturer, also in English. Therefore, I offer you another method that I use myself.

There is a program for testing hard drives HDTune. It allows you to determine parameters such as linear reading speed and access time. There are many enthusiasts who conduct these tests and post the results on the Internet. In order to find the test results of a particular hard drive model, just enter its model number in the Google or Yandex image search, which is indicated in the seller’s price list or on the drive itself in the store.

This is what the disk test image from the search looks like.

As you can see, this picture shows the average linear read speed and random access time, which are what interests us. Just make sure that the model number in the picture matches the model number of your drive.

In addition, the graph can be used to roughly determine the quality of the disc. An uneven graph with large jumps and high access times indirectly indicate imprecise, low-quality disk mechanics.

A beautiful cyclical or simply uniform graph without large jumps, combined with low access time, indicates precise, high-quality disk mechanics.

Such a disk will work better, faster and last longer.

13. Optimal disk

So, which disk or disk configuration to choose for your computer, depending on its purpose. In my opinion, the following configurations will be the most optimal.

office PC – HDD (320-500 GB)
entry-level multimedia PC – HDD (1 TB)
mid-level multimedia PC – SSD (120-128 GB) + HDD (1 TB) or SSHD (1 TB)
Entry-level gaming PC – HDD (1 TB)
Mid-range gaming PC – SSHD (1 TB)
High-end gaming PC – SSD (240-512 GB) + HDD (1-2 TB)
professional PC – SSD (480-1024 GB) + HDD/SSHD (2-4 TB)

14. Cost of HDD and SSD drives

In conclusion, I want to talk a little about the general principles of choosing between more or less expensive disk models.

The price of HDD disks depends most on the disk capacity and slightly on the manufacturer (by 5-10%). Therefore, it is not advisable to skimp on the quality of HDDs. Buy models from recommended manufacturers, even if they are a little more expensive, as they will last longer.

The price of SSD drives, in addition to capacity and speed, also greatly depends on the manufacturer. Here I can give a simple recommendation - choose the cheapest SSD drive from the list of recommended manufacturers that suits you in terms of capacity and speed.

15. Links

Hard drive Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB
Hard drive Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB
Hard drive A-Data Ultimate SU650 120GB

The purpose of a hard drive is to store data. Its functions include providing storage space and quick access to any information. Therefore, before you start looking for a new HDD, you need to understand what tasks the hard drive will be used for.

If you need to access information on different computers, then it is better to buy. This option can also be purchased if you need an additional source of information storage. If you want to use the disk as the main one for your PC, then you need to choose among the internal HDDs.

Form factor

Today, there are internal hard drives that have a standard form factor of 3.5" or 2.5". Both types can be placed in the system unit. If you are choosing a laptop drive, 2.5″ drives are suitable for you.

Advantages of 3.5”:

Cheaper in price;
The maximum volume is larger;
Thanks to the same recording, more information is placed on the plate.

Advantages of 2.5”:

Increased resistance to mechanical stress;
Consumes 2 times less energy, therefore, this affects heat dissipation and cooling costs;
They work quietly.

Hard disk capacity

The main parameter is the storage capacity. Measured in gigabytes and terabytes.

Important detail. When manufacturers calculate HDD capacity, they cheat a little, since their calculations occur in the decimal system, and the computer performs the same actions in binary. Most newbies don't know about this. For example, the manufacturer claims a capacity of 1 terabyte, but its actual size available to the operating system is about 931 gigabytes. This is explained by a difference of 5-10% between the actual and declared volume.

Everyone needs their own individual volume - 320 GB may be enough for some, while 12 TB may not be enough for others. As the disk capacity increases, so does its cost, so it is better to think in advance how much data you need.

If you have an old computer, check if the BIOS supports EFI, otherwise you should not choose disks larger than 2 TB. And in the 32-bit version of Windows, a disk larger than 2TB cannot be used to boot the operating system.

Connection interface

Hard drives differ from each other not only in volume, but also in connection interface. There are several types, among which SATA and IDE are the main ones for desktops.

The SATA interface is most often used to connect hard drives in computers. There are 3 standards: SATAI, II, III. They differ in data transfer speed: SATA I – up to 1.5 Gbit/s, SATA 2 – about 3 Gbit/s, and SATAIII – about 6 Gbit/s. The first 2 are outdated options, so it is better to use SATAIII. Since the standard is backwards compatible, the new drives will work even on old motherboards.

For a while, the IDE was a common connection interface, but now almost no one uses it. And the SCSI interface was replaced by SAS (Serial Attached SCSI). The SAS connector is universal and compatible with SATA. Both SAS and SATA devices can be connected to SAS connectors, but only SATA devices can be connected to SATA connectors.

Buffer capacity

The buffer or cache acts as the built-in RAM on the hard drive, which by default is responsible for storing information. Thanks to it, the process of working on a PC becomes many times faster, since part of the data, instead of reading from a magnetic disk, is immediately transferred from the cache. The buffer size ranges from 16 to 256 MB. Thus, the speed of the hard drive is directly proportional to the cache size.

Spindle speed

To compare disk reliability in the table, pay attention to “Drive Days”. If the sample is less than 50,000, then it is too early to draw conclusions.

The overall bounce rate in the first quarter of 2018 was 1.84%, the lowest on record. This indirectly means that drives become more reliable overall.

Total

Despite numerous advice, the choice in practice always turns out to be more difficult. When purchasing, you have to choose between speed and memory capacity. But the main thing is to set priorities. This mini-instruction will help you:

Decide on the purpose of the disk, this is a key factor when choosing a drive
How much hard drive size do you need?
Select manufacturer

We know for sure that. No drive is completely reliable, so always make a backup copy of your data.

Last November, backup provider Backblaze published . The company uses standard consumer HDDs, rather than enterprise-level models with increased reliability. It turned out that after five years of operation, 74% of all hard drives purchased continue to work. Only 26% of disks failed, with the peak of failures occurring in the fourth year of operation. Experts believe that this is a very high figure, which indicates that HDDs are actually more reliable than is commonly believed.

However, during the last Backblaze study they did not report the main thing: which specific manufacturer makes the most reliable hard drives? A new portion of statistics answers this question.

Backblaze data centers operate more than 28 thousand hard drives, including 12,956 Hitachi drives, 12,765 Seagate drives, 2,838 Western Digital drives, 58 Toshiba drives and 18 Samsung drives. Thus, it is possible to assess with relatively high reliability the reliability of HDDs from three manufacturers: Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital.

In terms of the number of failures for different models, the undisputed leader in reliability is Hitachi (1-1.5% of drives fail annually), and the outsider is Seagate (3-13%). Western Digital drives are quite reliable (2.5-3% failures annually).

The table shows reliability for specific HDD models.

Model	Volume	Qty disks	Average Term of the work in years	Annual level failures
Seagate Desktop HDD.15 (ST4000DM000)	4.0 TB	5199	0.3	3.8%
Hitachi GST Deskstar 7K2000 (HDS722020ALA330)	2.0 TB	4716	2.9	1.1%
Hitachi GST Deskstar 5K3000 (HDS5C3030ALA630)	3.0 TB	4592	1.7	0.9%
Seagate Barracuda (ST3000DM001)	3.0 TB	4252	1.4	9.8%
Hitachi Deskstar 5K4000 (HDS5C4040ALE630)	4.0 TB	2587	0.8	1.5%
Seagate Barracuda LP (ST31500541AS)	1.5 TB	1929	3.8	9.9%
Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 (HDS723030ALA640)	3.0 TB	1027	2.1	0.9%
Seagate Barracuda 7200 (ST31500341AS)	1.5 TB	539	3.8	25.4%
Western Digital Green (WD10EADS)	1.0 TB	474	4.4	3.6%
Western Digital Red (WD30EFRX)	3.0 TB	346	0.5	3.2%
Seagate Barracuda XT (ST33000651AS)	3.0 TB	293	2.0	7.3%
Seagate Barracuda LP (ST32000542AS)	2.0 TB	288	2.0	7.2%
Seagate Barracuda XT (ST4000DX000)	4.0 TB	179	0.7	n/a
Western Digital Green (WD10EACS)	1.0 TB	84	5.0	n/a
Seagate Barracuda Green (ST1500DL003)	1.5 TB	51	0.8	120.0%

Seagate Barracuda Green drives, which were received under warranty from Seagate to replace failed drives, have terrible reliability indicators. Their average lifespan is only 9-10 months. Experts suggest that these are not new disks, but updated/repaired models that are sent only for replacement under warranty.

The “survival” graph shows that Western Digital drives fail more often in the first months of operation, but then Seagate confidently takes the lead in this unenviable category.

HDD, HDD or Winchester– a storage device for permanent storage of information based on the principle of magnetic recording. HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive, hence the name - hard: inside the device body there are disks made of metal or glass, on which magnetic coating is applied. It is on this layer that the data is written.

On the market today HDD format 3.5 inches are presented very widely, and there is a variety not only in the volume of hard drives, but also in the speed of their operation, internal structure, and type. It’s worth understanding these parameters to understand which hard drive is better to purchase.

Device and types of hard drives

As mentioned above, a hard drive is designed for permanent storage of information, and the difference between its memory and RAM is that it is non-volatile - that is, it is stored on the media when the power is turned off. A hard drive is an electromechanical device, meaning it has moving parts, and consists of several main parts.

This is an integrated circuit that controls the write/read processes and operation of the disk. It is installed on top of the main drive body. The heart of the hard drive is hidden in the case itself, consisting of a spindle (electric motor) that rotates the disk; the reading head (rocker arm), which is movable and reads information directly from the surface of the media, and the magnetic memory disks themselves (there can be a different number of them, they are located one above the other, in layers).

There are three types of hard drives currently common on the market:

Expensive HDD models may differ from cheap ones with the same volume precisely in the data transfer speed; it will be noticeably higher due to many factors: the cache memory may be better optimized, the electro-mechanical unit is organized differently, a different number of magnetic disks for the same volume. Also, expensive disks are often more reliable and resistant to external influences.

Data transfer speed is the combined result of all other parameters and technologies used in the disk, therefore, if your choice depends mainly on the disk speed, then it is convenient to navigate according to it. The faster the drive, the more expensive it will be.

What volume should I choose?

· 250 - 500 GB– it’s worth choosing as a budget option, or for an office PC when you don’t need a large amount of storage space for media files. However, there is enough space to install programs and systems. Also, a small volume, in the case of a high-speed model, can be used exclusively for installing the operating system, and the data can be stored on a slower disk with a larger capacity.
· 1 TB - 4 TB– this volume is suitable for a home computer, enough to store a large collection of films in HD resolution. A minimum of 1 TB is now standard for the average user.
· 5 - 10 TB– the maximum capacity for hard magnetic disks for today. It will cost you quite a lot, and is most likely necessary when working with large volumes of files, for example, during professional editing. An alternative is to create a RAID array of the same size from 1-2 TB disks, which will increase the speed.

What else should you pay attention to?

· Optimization for RAID array. You will need it if you want to create an array of several disks. The point is that instead of several separate disks, the system begins to see one united one, which increases speed or reliability in different types of array. Definitely worth choosing if you need maximum reliability or maximum speed in an array.