Best performance/capacity hard drive

[Samaritano 304]

I just had to uninstall FSX due to a FSUI.DLL that I've been troubleshooting for weeks and got frustrated.

I'm currently running W7 on an 256GB Toshiba 830 SSD and it only had 80GB left after FSX and all the addons.

I decided to get a hard drive just for FSX and addons and wanted to know what you guys recommend.

I'm looking at speed plus capacity. 

[dcgator29 37]

I use a 300GB WD raptor 10k rpm for FSX. They make larger raptors as well but 300 is the sweet spot I think. MSE photoscenery on a separate 2 TB WD 7200 rpm Black. You could use an ssd as well for FSX. I would have but had the raptor handy from a previous build.

[Samaritano 304]

How about these Hybrid drives. Any good?

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Solid-Hybrid-2-5-Inch-ST1000LM014/dp/B00B99JUBQ/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

[Samaritano 304]

Can anybody chime in on this?

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Why not move some of the scenery off to a regular 1 TB WD Caviar 7200 RPM drive?

 

Leave FSX on the SSD.   Not much money, and it gives you a ton of capacity.

[martin-w 3,235]

Personally, I would not recommend the WD Caviar Black.

 

I have one in my cupboard, doing nothing. I installed it and it was too damn noisy, despite not being defective.

 

They are noted for being noisy.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Personally, I would not recommend the WD Caviar Black.

 

I have one in my cupboard, doing nothing. I installed it and it was too damn noisy, despite not being defective.

 

They are noted for being noisy.

Hmmm... mine is quiet... strange...

[Adam T Lutley 12]

I would recommend the Samsung 840 series SSD's. The 830 series are better for write performance but FSX won't take advantage of that as its a read only application. I believe a 250 GB 840 runs around $180.

[martin-w 3,235]

Hmmm... mine is quiet... strange...

They are noted for it Bert...

 

 

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop-Portable-Drives/WD-Caviar-Black-is-a-loud-drive/td-p/6468

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1073026/wd-caviar-black-is-loud-help-me-reduce-vibs

 

I guess you were lucky if you got a quiet one. Having said that, perhaps you have a very good mounting system in your enclosure?

 

My first WD Black, I sent back, due to a suspected fault, the second one I received was just as noisy. Unless WD pulled a fast one and sent the same drive back to me.

 

I now favour Samsung F3 Spinpoint. Great drives, very quiet.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

If noise is an issue, I would also support going to a Samsung 840 SSD - very fast - very quiet.

[Adam T Lutley 12]

No defragging and the ability to load to 90% capacity with no performance loss is reason enough to opt for an SSD over a spinner drive IMO.

[Clutch Cargo 384]

I have an OCZ 128GB that I have had probably 2 years or so. Use it for Win7 only. I have a 256GB SSD for FSX and a 500GB for P3D from Samsung. All seem to run great, very fast. No complaints.

 

For drives holding photoreal and other sceneries I have (4) WD Velops. And for back-ups I now use my older WD SATA (black) drives in 1TB formats.  No issue with noise.

 

Only thing I can suggest is if you are considering an SSD buy the largest size you can afford because if you are into add-ons (especially photoreal scenery), you will eat that up fast. Also suggest have OS on one SSD and your flightsim on another SSD.

[Samaritano 304]

Thanks for the recommendations here. I will get another Samsung SSD just for FSX. 

One question, can the addon scenery folder or any other folder be moved out of the main FSX folder?

Also, there are some addons that do not give you a choice where to install it but forces you

to the main FSX folder. Anyway around this? TIA

[lcole98296 0]

I have a Samsung 500 GB SSD hard drive that I intended to use only as my System (C:) drive and for FSX. It soon became apparent that this drive was not large enough for my needs.
So I added a "normal", but fast, 2 TB hard drive (7200 RPM), and reinstalled FSX on it. My plan is to only install flight sim related software on it.
Have currently used 269 GB, and still have 1.55 TB available.
I'm thinking this will be adequate for the forseeable future.

 

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Thanks for the recommendations here. I will get another Samsung SSD just for FSX. 

One question, can the addon scenery folder or any other folder be moved out of the main FSX folder?

Also, there are some addons that do not give you a choice where to install it but forces you

to the main FSX folder. Anyway around this? TIA

The scenery.cfg file tells FSX where to look for scenery.  It can all be on any other drives.

 

You may have to move it there manually, but it does work.