which hdd setup for a htpc?

[Godiwa]

I am building a HTPC and just stumpled over some nice 500GB 2½" HDD's that perform very well, use little power and are quiet.

but what do you folks think of 2x 500GB 2½" versus 1x 1000GB 3½" WD 2nd generation that has fewer platters then 1st generation and is less noisy and runs cool and uses less power.

which one would you use and why?

 

[aevm]

I think I'd pick whatever gives me more GB per dollar. I suspect WD6400AAKS (WD 640GB) would do better than both options you mentioned, so check it out. In particular, WD5000AAKS (WD 500GB) doesn't have PMR and you can easily see it's slower than WD6400AAKS.

I've been using all sorts of WD disks over years and they were all quiet enough for my taste. I wouldn't worry about this criterion too much.

The power consumption of a HDD is around 8W. Frankly I refuse to care if it's 6W for a model or 10W for another.

How cool a HDD runs: Google proved that the coolest of their jillions of hard disks weren't always the ones that lived longest. Disks that typically ran at 40 degrees seemed to last longer than disks running at 35 degrees, IIRC. I'm not saying 40 is better than 35, it's just that temperature mattered less in their results than other factors such as disk type, load, etc. So, again, this criterion is not very important.

 

[rwpritchett]

If you value silence, then the 2x500GB 2.5" drives would be ideal (~$440)
If you value bang-for-buck at the cost of silence, then either the 2x640GB or a single 1TB drive would be ideal (~$170)

Perhaps you should consider a hybrid plan with at 7200rpm 2.5" drive for OS/applications that would be silent with reasonable performance and then a 3.5" 1TB drive for media storage ($100+$170 = $270). That way you have silence and storage, plus you have physical separation of data which is a good idea in case a hard drive goes bad.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Large and quiet.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=388

@buy.com for $175.

 

[rwpritchett]

^That's the hard drive in my HTPC.
3.5" drive but it's 5400rpm to keep the noise down. It's not as quiet as a notebook hard drive though.

Here are my own HDTach benchies:
Average read = 69.8MB/s
Max read = 88MB/s
Burst = 218.6MB/s
Random access time = 15.3ms

Not bad for a 5400rpm drive. The access time is the only really lackluster stat.

 

[Godiwa]

thanks for some interesting answers, they are as scattered as my mind atm. but heat is always an issue if you want the htpc to be quiet, heat requires fans, and fans just can't shut up for some reason.

there is also the price issue with going 2x 2½" but if that will give me a better product satisfaction then I think that is the way to go.

the combo way with a 2½" system drive and a 3½" storage drive is very interesting and I will put some serious thought into that, thats for sure.

My main issues are:
1. noise
2. heat (which leads to issue 1)
3. storage space
4. price

in that order I think.