Alternative to HDD for <64GB of quieter storage?

[Ulti]

Hey Hexites,

After building a few mini ITX systems, I realised how loud 2.5" drives were and I've been considering other mediums for storage. I'm becoming more and more of a low powered user and don't do many intensive things on my PC.

As it would only be storage for photos, music and a small amount of media, I reckon 32GB/64GB would be enough.

Now the question is, what form of medium would be best for that sort of storage? The only thing I can think of are SDHC cards, USB sticks or SSDs. External drives and NAS are out of the equation really as I don't have that much to store. I'm also not too keen on online storage as my internet isn't overly fast.

Of course, ideally I would get a 256GB SSD and simply stick with that, but USB sticks and SDHC cards are much more cheaper, but what would I need to consider? I assume SDHC cards and USB sticks have less max r/w cycles, meaning they have a shorter life span? Transfer speeds are not really a problem as if I do go either route I would ideally get a class 10 SDHC card or a USB3 USB stick. None of my data is really critical so I am willing to take a small risk.

Has anyone got any similar experiences that they would like to share?

[DanceswithUnix]

Have been considering the same myself, but not actually tried it yet.

Was looking at USB3 sticks, they seem the best price/performance. Mind you, 64GB SSDs are dropping in price quite nicely too.

[Ulti]

Hmm, actually I think just paying for the extra SSD storage would be the better idea. 120GB SSDs can be had for roughly £60 now for poorer spec ones. That works out at about £15 for 30GB whilst 32GB USB Sticks or SD Cards are roughly £10-20 for a decent 32GB one. The SSD will definitely have better speeds and probably better reliability too.

I guess getting two 128GB drives or a 128GB + a 64GB would be a good idea, one for OS + most used programs. The other for storage of photos etc.

I have just ordered a 5400RPM drive with a 500GB platter so I'll see how that goes as I had a friend who was really bothered from the vibrations and sound produced from a 7200RPM drive but wasn't overly so from a 5400RPM drive.

[Ulti]

Just wanted to ask, for storage of photos/media etc, what specs are most important? Would it simply be sequential read/writes? If so then would that mean SF drives for storage SSDs are the way to go?

Just received a Samsung M8 500GB too, will see how that gets on.

[DanceswithUnix]

Samsung drives are very quiet. If that is all you wanted, probably job done

If you care about vibrations, then perhaps a Western Digital RE4 series drive with its twin bearings would help.

I was considering a Sandforce SSD for offsite picture backup. They run the flash chips is a raid-5 fashion in case an entire chip fails as well as the usual forward error correction against corrupted bits which seemed better than a cheap usb stick or something that is known to rapidly degrade over time like magnetic or optical media. You need a 120GB drive to get the raid feature though (hence the missing 8GB).

[jimbouk]

I have just ordered a 5400RPM drive with a 500GB platter so I'll see how that goes as I had a friend who was really bothered from the vibrations and sound produced from a 7200RPM drive but wasn't overly so from a 5400RPM drive.

Slower speed seems to be a sensible solution. I've currently got just a single 2.5" HDD in my main computer, zip tied onto the rubber grommets for full sized HDDs and I struggle to tell when I've turned the computer on.

[Ulti]

Samsung drives are very quiet. If that is all you wanted, probably job done

If you care about vibrations, then perhaps a Western Digital RE4 series drive with its twin bearings would help.

Slower speed seems to be a sensible solution. I've currently got just a single 2.5" HDD in my main computer, zip tied onto the rubber grommets for full sized HDDs and I struggle to tell when I've turned the computer on.

It's the 2.5" drive though so it's going to be noisier than a 3.5" I reckon, still haven't installed yet though as my new ITX system isn't the most accessible (2.5" drives under motherboard).

Still, I think I'll go for an SSD just for the sake of silence as I've only got a very slow 140mm fan in my case and the current Scorpion Black 250GB 7200RPM is really loud!

Forgot to add that my system is a mini ITX system (so the case is about 20cm by 20cm) so there's definitely no way I would be able to put a 3.5" drive inside without wasting a lot of space. I've even thought about taking out the SSDs from their cases and sticking it to the wall of the case to save a bit of space but I think that's OTT!

I was considering a Sandforce SSD for offsite picture backup. They run the flash chips is a raid-5 fashion in case an entire chip fails as well as the usual forward error correction against corrupted bits which seemed better than a cheap usb stick or something that is known to rapidly degrade over time like magnetic or optical media. You need a 120GB drive to get the raid feature though (hence the missing 8GB).

Ah I see, so 128GB Crucial M4/Samsung 830 for the main drive + a 120GB SF drive would work for me. Just gotta wait till I can see them for £50-60 then I'll jump on them.

[Ulti]

Update: Installed the 500GB 5400RPM Samsung and speeds are actually pretty good. It's definitely quieter than the WD Scorpio Black but not quiet enough.

Also got a Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD now for super cheap (£99). Just gonna use a single SSD setup instead.

Just for anyone interested, some benchmarks of the two HDDs:

[RobBerry23]

Probably better to to SSD's. They are cheap and pretty damned fast

[Domestic_Ginger]

Was going to mention cloud storage. No experience mind.

[RobBerry23]

Was going to mention cloud storage. No experience mind.

Would require a good internet upload/download speeds, however doesn't require any physical storage medium You can get up to about 8GB on drop-box for free by recommending to others and uploading photo's. Not sure where else you can get that much free?