HDD for data

[romullus]

I'm looking to replace my old data HDD since i'm running out of space. I'm on a budget, so i'm looking at WD blue series (i'm not considering other manufacturers, since my two current WDs share combined age of 20 years between them and they're still in excellent condition - i find that fact more than enough to stick with WD). I'm slightly concerned about 5400RPM that blue series offers, but to my surprise internet benchmarks shows that it outperforms my current WD black in almost all areas except Avg. 4K Random Mixed IO Speed where it lags heavily behind 7200RPM contenders. So my question would be, how much that Avg. 4K Random Mixed IO Speed matters in everyday use and for work with CG? I have SSD for OS and i'm not very susceptible to mild change in PC performance (i barely noticed change between my old 10 000RPM raptor and the new SSD).

[Charlie Nicols]

I am surprised you don't see the difference when upgrading to an SSD.

I would recommend to install your OS and Core programs, max PS ect on the SSD and then have the HDD for all tertiary data that comes with them. With this situation most HDD's will perform perfectly fine. You will just have to put up with slightly longer loading times for your projects. 

WD Blue has higher data density than the black which will help also they are generally quieter. The higher Avg. 4K Random Mixed IO Speed of the black will helps a lot in OS/program loads ect but once again if you let the SSD deal with that you won't have a problem.

[Nejc Kilar]

I swapped a WD Black (its still top of the line afaik) for an SSD and the difference in speed is obviously amazing... C4D, 3ds Max whatever, its just way way quicker to work with. I use it for as an "OS" drive only.

But yeah, I'm not sure what a difference a WD Blue will make on your user experience compared to a WD Black or something but what I tend to do is I put the textures on a separate SSD and the model repository and general images (skies and stuff you use in post) on a HDD. My thinking behind it is that in that case the HDD doesn't need to transfer ALL of the textures because the SSD can chime in. I'd do the same if I had multiple HDDs and no SSDs.

Hope I am making sense here but overall I don't think you will notice a big difference between a WD Blue and WD Black. The transfer rate isn't THAT high when hitting render and like you mentioned the Blue outperforms your current Black in many areas too.

This post feels "ramblish" but I hope I've helped. :)

[romullus]

Thanks for your answers. I guess my main concern was about 5400 RPM, since i always thought that those drives are meant for laptops only. In fact i was pretty surprised to find that they are still very popular. Well i guess i have to buy one and see if it's any good :]

[Kalopsia]

We use a 3TB Barracuda over local network at the office. It runs at 7200rpm and has 3 platters with 6 headers.

In general there is not much difference with a 5400rpm HDD, unless you spend more money on a good hard drive, you won't see improvements.

We use the drive to store all the textures, assets are saved on a SSD so I can't tell you how fast the drive works with Max files on it.

The only thing that might get slower over time is when you fill up your drive and access information on the outer part of your platter, since the header has to move further out and the path is getting longer so with lower speeds this means longer read/write time. The WD Black fore example is not so great if you want lots of storage like 4TB or more. In that case there are better options out there.

If you get the chance buy a WD Gold, very good for 8TB storage and the best you can buy right now.

A few things you have to do once you get your HDD, make sure it is a GPT disk. This should be the case for any drive above 4TB since MBR does not work.
Also, if you can, use the new ReFS file system, it replaces the older NTFS.

[Juraj]

Do not get 5400rpm HDD unless it's purely for cold storage (backup, or files not actively accessed for regular random read), the slowness is not worth it :- ).

Good choice with WD, it is pretty much the most commonly accepted brand for reliability these days. You might have luck elsewhere too but why ? It's the same story as with Samsung with SSD.

Regarding tests between various drives, you have to account for density and model year. Blue or Red(rebranded Green for NAS) can achieve solid throughput and beat Black in sequential but it's largely irrelevant.
Black has higher and much better cache, more heads and the general performance will be much better for workstation tasks, esp. if you plan to store tons of small textures and models which you want to access as fast as possible.

Regarding suggestions to go for Gold: Gold and RedPro have the same underlying hardware as Black, just with added files storage features (error recovery for RAID, vibration support,etc..) that don't add to performance. When you can get good price for RedPro/Gold, get those, if not, get Black.

The only reason to not go Black, is accoustics. It's loud as hell. But in that case, I would still rather go for Red (not RedPro) which has higher cache.

Good suggestion by Ismael to use latest file systems. But Windows now do suggest GPT by default.

Regarding ReFS, that is something Microsoft will only support on Server Windows, Enterprise edition of 10 and upcoming Workstation edition. I would stay with NTFS.
Or you might find yourself having hard time to access files with one of the many 'seasonal' Windows upgrades.

[romullus]

Too late, i already ordered 5400RPM drive :] Price of black series is just too big for me. However i will have in mind recommendations about GPT and ReFS/NTFS. Thank you.