Updated (7-6-15): 4TB-6TB HDD?

Drez · January 2015

Hey, so I have run out of disc space for my Steam games and I'm looking to upgrade to something I little bigger. I noticed that 4TB drives are out now and aren't that expensive. Western Digital has Green and Red, and even the 6TB is somewhat affordable.

Just wondering if there are any drawbacks to getting a 4TB-6TB HDD. I know sometimes, bigger isn't always better.

Jebus314 · January 2015

The only issue I remember off hand is that if you have an older motherboard that uses BIOS instead of UEFI, and you want to boot off of this drive (that is you want to install windows on it), then you have a slight problem in that you can only address 2TBs. So you would only be able to use 2 TB of the 4 or 6 TB disk in that situation. Solutions are 2 fold. Either you put windows on a different hdd and use this one as just a data disk, or you get a motherboard that uses UEFI and you install a 64 bit version of windows.

Almost every motherboard I've seen in the last few years is UEFI so it should be fine.

Gaslight · January 2015

Without looking at the specific drives you mention, I'm gonna guess most HDDs of that size are probably designed for media storage or for use in servers. I know the "Greens" are Western Digital's eco-friendly/low-power-consumption line (thus the name) and I think Reds are their server line though I'm not positive about that. Now that doesn't mean you couldn't use them for your games library but they are specced well lower than HDD's intended to be used for an OS or frequently-used programs. How much difference you'd be able to tell I'm not sure.

Drez · January 2015

I'm almost positive mine is UEFI. I just did a quick google search - I have the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H which is UEFI.

Also, this would strictly be for Steam/Origin/Uplay games. I've maxed out my 2TB and I only have 500/1200 games installed, apparently.

My Windows boot is on an SSD, so I think even if I didn't have UEFI, I would be OK. Right?

Drez · January 2015

Actually, what am I saying? I have a 3TB internal as well, that I keep all my other crap on (photography and such) so that already proves I should be good to go, yes?

Drez · January 2015

Gaslight wrote: »

Without looking at the specific drives you mention, I'm gonna guess most HDDs of that size are probably designed for media storage or for use in servers. I know the "Greens" are Western Digital's eco-friendly/low-power-consumption line (thus the name) and I think Reds are their server line though I'm not positive about that. Now that doesn't mean you couldn't use them for your games library but they are specced well lower than HDD's intended to be used for an OS or frequently-used programs. How much difference you'd be able to tell I'm not sure.

Well...if a game is really that intensive, I'll make some room on my SSD that Windows is on and install it there. I rotate about 4-5 of the envelope-pushing games on my SSD at any given time and just use the low RPM drives for the rest. I don't really notice any appreciable performance loss. I accidentally installed Far Cry 4 on my 5400 RPM 2TB HDD and I was still able to run it at Ultra settings, so I think I'll be OK. I hope.

I dunno, $240 for a 6TB drive with free 2 day shipping is kind of alluring.

Jebus314 · January 2015

Drez wrote: »

Gaslight wrote: »

Without looking at the specific drives you mention, I'm gonna guess most HDDs of that size are probably designed for media storage or for use in servers. I know the "Greens" are Western Digital's eco-friendly/low-power-consumption line (thus the name) and I think Reds are their server line though I'm not positive about that. Now that doesn't mean you couldn't use them for your games library but they are specced well lower than HDD's intended to be used for an OS or frequently-used programs. How much difference you'd be able to tell I'm not sure.

Well...if a game is really that intensive, I'll make some room on my SSD that Windows is on and install it there. I rotate about 4-5 of the envelope-pushing games on my SSD at any given time and just use the low RPM drives for the rest. I don't really notice any appreciable performance loss. I accidentally installed Far Cry 4 on my 5400 RPM 2TB HDD and I was still able to run it at Ultra settings, so I think I'll be OK. I hope.

I dunno, $240 for a 6TB drive with free 2 day shipping is kind of alluring.

Lower rpm's wont affect actual game play, just load times. The WD red line is for always on servers, so they are built to handle more or less continuous writing/reading and will be slightly more expensive. You'll probably be fine with anything so long as you don't mind the slightly longer waits.

Drez · January 2015

Thanks, that settles it then!

Ash of Yew · January 2015

Do you really need all those games installed? One of the nice parts about steam and even origins is they aren't going any where. Filling up even a terabyte of just games seems kinda silly to me, but maybe that's just me. I've got 61/153 games installed at about 400gb and I probably don't even play 80% of those installed. How in the world do you make time for 500 let alone 1200 =P

Eat it You Nasty Pig. · January 2015

if you do want to get a large HDD (or external) for media storage, you can use Steam Mover to lifeboat games back and forth from it to your proper HDD or SSD.

Drez · January 2015

Ash of Yew wrote: »

Do you really need all those games installed? One of the nice parts about steam and even origins is they aren't going any where. Filling up even a terabyte of just games seems kinda silly to me, but maybe that's just me. I've got 61/153 games installed at about 400gb and I probably don't even play 80% of those installed. How in the world do you make time for 500 let alone 1200 =P

What if I want to break the Guinness Book of World Records world record for most games played in 1 day??!!?!?!?!??!1111

djmitchella · January 2015

From the backblaze blog, they just put out another set of reliability figures. More details in that posting (with model numbers and whatnot), but summary:

backblaze blog wrote:

All hard drives will eventually fail, but based on our environment if you are looking for good drive at a good value, it’s hard to beat the current crop of 4 TB drives from HGST and Seagate. As we get more data on the 6 TB drives, we’ll let you know.

(HGST = new name for Hitachi)

Drez · January 2015

Cool, thanks.

Gaslight · January 2015

Man I used to have a 2TB Hitachi that started to give out after like a year and a half, and it was only a media drive.

Donovan Puppyfucker · January 2015

Yes that is how statistics work.

tinwhiskers · January 2015

If you have the case space...Raid 5 some 3tb or 4tb drives. Gets you faster read times and data redundancy.

Drez · July 2015

So I never did get a new HDD. I'm looking to buy one now.

Reviews specific to the 6GB ones are scant as far as I can tell. I'm surprised.

Again, this is for gaming primarily. I can live with some minor increase in load time.

I'm mainly looking at these three now:

1) $296 - HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5-Inch 6TB 7200RPM SATA III 128MB Cache Internal Hard Drive (0S03839)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00O0M5QK8/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1436209162&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&keywords=hgst+deskstar+6tb

2) $249 - Toshiba 6TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm, 128MB Cache, 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive (PH3600U-1I72)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s_ss_i_0_14?k=toshiba+ph3600u-1i72&sprefix=toshiba+ph3600

3) $249 - Western Digital Red 6TB NAS Hard Drive: 1 to 8-bay RAID Hard Drive: 3.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s, IntelliPower, 64MB Cache WD60EFRX

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LO3KR96/?tag=momsmags-20

I'm leaning toward one of the first two but I can't find any comparisons online.

Any thoughts?

Gaslight · July 2015

Anecdotal experience and somewhat dated anecdotal experience at that but I would never buy a Hitachi drive. I had a 2TB one in my system for media storage circa 2011-2012 and it started to die in about a year to a year and a half. First ominous whirs/clicks when accessing it, then Windows started intermittently not being able to find it. That was with very light use too, I would put some new music albums on it or watch a movie maybe once every 2-3 days.

Drez · July 2015

Sounds like a bad apple to me. Not trying to discredit your anecdote but Hitachi is a top rated drive manufacturer as far as I could tell from the web research I did today. Backblaze apparently considers HGST one of the most reliable HDD brands.

edit: Discredit was the wrong word. I don't mean to discount your anecdote, is what I meant. I had 2 clunkers from Western Digital but I still considered them one of the most reliable over the past couple of decades.

bowen · July 2015

I've had okay luck with Hitachi, but the best luck with WD, and the worst luck with seagate. Others are reverse and swear by seagate.

Really though, it's all about the luck of the draw. Most hard drives, if they're going to fail, will fail within the first X writes which usually corresponds to about a year of us.

All the rest will keep going until their estimated max lifetime.

Xaquin · July 2015

I've never had a WD HD go bad

(knock on wood)

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