Replacing old Hard Drives

stu.artd · 6 Feb 2021 at 19:54

I've recently built a new PC with a SSD boot drive. I have 4 old 3.5" SATA drives (no raid, just standard hard drives) from my old PC. They're all 6-8 years old and I'm looking to replace with a single 8TB drive, budget around £250. This will store my Steam library as well as my DSLR photo's and videos.

I've always went for 7200 RPM drives in the past and have been looking at the WD Black and WD Gold drives as I believe they offer a good combination of price/performance. However, I have read conflicting reports about them and wondered if there were other recommendations ?

Oh Ed not again. · 6 Feb 2021 at 20:02

I'd pick up a 1TB SSD for Steam library, then an external drive from WD or Seagate when they're on special and shuck the drive.

Should net you 8-10TB spinning storage, SSD for faster load times, an enclosure to throw an old HDD in for backups and all for 250 quid.

pp111 · 7 Feb 2021 at 11:34

It depends whether you want to choose your drive or just take one out of an external drive. External drives are much cheaper although it can be a lottery as to what's inside. Personally I would not consider the WD Gold because it has this nasty habit of ticking which can be really annoying. The WD Black is nice but expensive. My personal preference would be the Ironwolf 8TB. It's a NAS drive but it's perfectly fine for use in a PC, and it's 7200 rpm drive which makes it nice an fast, and it's within your budget.

Oh Ed not again. · 7 Feb 2021 at 11:38

WD Elements > 8TB should be white labelled HGST NAS drives, fortunately there's loads of shucking resources out there should you go down that route.

stu.artd · 8 Feb 2021 at 17:02

Thanks for the replies. I'd rather choose my drive than buy an external and shuck it.

So far I've been put off quite a few 8TB drives, mainly due to noise levels. These include 8TB versions of the WD Gold and Black (ticking), the Seagate Ironwolf / Ironwolf Pro being very loud. Looked at WD Red drives but also see reports of them being very loud as well.

I’m not looking for silent, just something that’s not audible at the other end of a room.

photoshop · 8 Feb 2021 at 20:03

stu.artd said:
Thanks for the replies. I'd rather choose my drive than buy an external and shuck it.

So far I've been put off quite a few 8TB drives, mainly due to noise levels. These include 8TB versions of the WD Gold and Black (ticking), the Seagate Ironwolf / Ironwolf Pro being very loud. Looked at WD Red drives but also see reports of them being very loud as well.

I’m not looking for silent, just something that’s not audible at the other end of a room.

I use to have two Red's and found them to be very quiet.
The Red's are quiet...the Red Pro's are not.
The WD Purple Drives are considered the quietest on the market

stu.artd · 13 Feb 2021 at 16:01

I ended up getting a WD Black 8TB. Seems quiet enough so far, although it was only installed today.

pp111 · 14 Feb 2021 at 11:59

photoshop said:
I use to have two Red's and found them to be very quiet.
The Red's are quiet...the Red Pro's are not.
The WD Purple Drives are considered the quietest on the market

You are right. The Reds are very quiet.