Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
1TB + SSD or 2 TB + SSD? Is the 2TB noisy?
- Thread starter Amnesiac1
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Here was my thinking when going for the 2TB drive instead of the 1TB. And I'll admit it's not all based on numbers. And these ideas may not appeal to you.
The performance difference is hard to assess because it depends on how much accessing you do to the HDD. When you read manufacturer drive specs, they tell you seek time, minimum, average and maximum, but in reality, seeks are shorter than the average due to clustering of accesses.
That said, if you buy a 2TB drive and "use it as you would a 1TB drive" ***, then:-
The seek times will come down by very close to 50%. Average*** seek time according to the spec is probably about 9ms, and that will come done to about 4.5 ms. But you'll save a bit less than this difference.
In reality, you might be looking at seeing your 2TB HDD perform about 15% to 30% faster than a 1TB drive. At times it will be more, at others, less.
What this translates into as far as your experience is concerned is hard to say, but you know it doesn't get any better than this!
*** Notes
"Average" seek distance is 1/3 of the maximum.
By "use it as you would a 1TB drive", I mean never fill it beyond about 80% (800 GBs). I know others will say you can push the envelope further, but no matter how hard you push it, you won't get over 1,000GBs
And that means that your 2TB drive will have more than 50% of its capacity unused.
PS Don't feel bad about underutilizing storage capacity that you paid for unless you are prepared to feel equally bad about underutilizing a drive's ability to deliver data. You paid for that too, and that's why the SSD is so expensive.
- I like performance, and since I invested in SSD for speed, why not get the best HDD as well?
- I can't predict how long a 1TB drive will last me, but I know 2TBs will last longer!
- If I need the additional storage capacity above what a 1TB can support, I have it all ready for me, sitting inside my iMac.
- If I don't need the additional capacity, I know I won't have to buy a defrag program like iDefrag and that saves me money (and the effort of running the program), and
- I want to avoid further splitting my data. It's enough of an effort to make decisions to place files on SSD vs internal HDD, without adding an external HDD choice as well. Storage management is such a non-productive task!
- I can't avoid having external drives (say for backup), but that doesn't make me like them. Even with the promises of Thunderbolt. It's just another bit of complexity and opportunity for tripping over cables and corrupting data.
The performance difference is hard to assess because it depends on how much accessing you do to the HDD. When you read manufacturer drive specs, they tell you seek time, minimum, average and maximum, but in reality, seeks are shorter than the average due to clustering of accesses.
That said, if you buy a 2TB drive and "use it as you would a 1TB drive" ***, then:-
The seek times will come down by very close to 50%. Average*** seek time according to the spec is probably about 9ms, and that will come done to about 4.5 ms. But you'll save a bit less than this difference.
In reality, you might be looking at seeing your 2TB HDD perform about 15% to 30% faster than a 1TB drive. At times it will be more, at others, less.
What this translates into as far as your experience is concerned is hard to say, but you know it doesn't get any better than this!
*** Notes
"Average" seek distance is 1/3 of the maximum.
By "use it as you would a 1TB drive", I mean never fill it beyond about 80% (800 GBs). I know others will say you can push the envelope further, but no matter how hard you push it, you won't get over 1,000GBs
And that means that your 2TB drive will have more than 50% of its capacity unused.PS Don't feel bad about underutilizing storage capacity that you paid for unless you are prepared to feel equally bad about underutilizing a drive's ability to deliver data. You paid for that too, and that's why the SSD is so expensive.
I really appreciate your input, johnfkitchen. I think I've made my decision, though: 1TB HD.
I mean, I've never had an HD bigger than 500GB so I'm not all that sure I would fill up a 1TB HD. If I do, then a portable HD will fix the problem for me. I know you mentioned you find the excess wires and whatnot cumbersome, but if I can put up with that, then why not go for the 1TB + possibility of adding a portable HD in the future, right?
My motivations are: saving money, not making an unnecessary purchase, my lack of confidence regarding whether or not I would fill up a 1TB HD all that quickly, the fact that I'm comfortable moving files from the internal to an external, the possibilities afforded by Thunderbolt, etc.
I just don't want a drastic speed decrease. But on an i7, 4GB machine with an SSD, do you think that I will be working with a sluggish machine?
I mean, I've never had an HD bigger than 500GB so I'm not all that sure I would fill up a 1TB HD. If I do, then a portable HD will fix the problem for me. I know you mentioned you find the excess wires and whatnot cumbersome, but if I can put up with that, then why not go for the 1TB + possibility of adding a portable HD in the future, right?
My motivations are: saving money, not making an unnecessary purchase, my lack of confidence regarding whether or not I would fill up a 1TB HD all that quickly, the fact that I'm comfortable moving files from the internal to an external, the possibilities afforded by Thunderbolt, etc.
I just don't want a drastic speed decrease. But on an i7, 4GB machine with an SSD, do you think that I will be working with a sluggish machine?
On noise. In this thread, only one person has experienced "noise". One has stated that the spec says it's noisier (but not by how much nor made an allowance for what happens when you put the drive into an aluminum box).
I and others have advised that our iMacs are quiet. This is the majority experience.
stick with the 1TB! its extra money in your pocket
That's what I was thinking... but it's also a slower HD. And the one thing I wanted to eliminate with the purchase of this machine (this is why I'm spending a little extra than I would normally) is slow-downs. I'm tired of working on a horribly slow MBP... I want speed and I don't want to compromise that by picking a slower HD.
UNLESS, of course, the 1TB isn't all that slow...
Plus, if I do get the 1TB and it fills up quickly, couldn't I just connect a 1TB HDD or SSD external via Thunderbolt and have that sitting on my desk and get the performance I missed out on by not getting the 2TB right from the get go?
both are fast hard drives (7200RPM, plenty of cache, sata II), but think of it this way - the ssd blows them both out of the water. i honestly feel no speed increase when i access my 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB drives through gigabit ethernet or firewire 800. all of my drives copy files back and forth at relatively the same time on both types of interfaces.2TB isnt a lot faster than the 1TB, its literally just more space.
of course you can (whenever the thunderbolt externals come out), and you are exactly right.
This is why I think I'm going to save some money from the get-go and get a 1TB drive. Unless john can convince me otherwise. His last post made me really reconsider things. But I'm still leaning toward the 1TB, especially after reading posts like these:
I realize not even has had this experience, but it seems to be a pretty ubiquitous problem. Sounds awful.
I realize not even has had this experience, but it seems to be a pretty ubiquitous problem. Sounds awful.
Got my iMac with 2TB and SSD last Monday, and I haven't heard any noise from this machine AT ALL. Other than what comes out of my speakers that is.
I'm also coming from a 2006 Mac Pro which, when you had it come out of sleep, it sounded like a plane was taking off.
So I think this thing is whisper quiet and I really haven't heard anything from my 2TB drive.
I'm also coming from a 2006 Mac Pro which, when you had it come out of sleep, it sounded like a plane was taking off.
So I think this thing is whisper quiet and I really haven't heard anything from my 2TB drive.
I'm not very keen on the SSD department, but I can say that noise from a HDD comes from the spinning disc. And the disc spins at a certain speed measured in RPM. The higher the RPM the more likely the HDD will be noisy, yet there are some perfectly silent 7200 RPM drives out there. I honestly don't think capacity has a big role on noise generated.
I'm delaying my purchase until I figure this out... I don't want to make a mistake. I suppose if I go the 2TB route, I can't go wrong, but if I can get the same performance out of a 1TB, then why not go that route? It's like buying a huge garage for a small car... I'm not entirely sure I'd store up to 1TB. But if I do, I might kick myself when my computer starts chugging because I have nearly 1TB of info on a 2TB drive...
Yes, but each time you want to store files, you have to choose which one of three places you'll put it. And if you are really worried about hard drive noise, you now have more drives to create noise
Almost. Reduce the 500GB to 400GB and then you are talking!
--------------------------------------------
Just a thought, what apps are you really expecting to use? This information will help us understand the need for performance and the potential for growth. The things that are blowing my storage capacity needs out the window are photos and dabbling with video.
There is a big jump from 1 TB to 2 TB. You could just go with 1 TB and buy an external HDD should the need arise.
I generally use my computer to browse the web, stream videos, watch HD content from iTunes (and store it, of course), word processing, PowerPoint presentations, Adobe Photoshop, and to store high-resolution photos. I want the possibility of video-editing open as this is something I'd like to get into.
You're over-thinking this: the difference in performance between a 1TB drive and a 2TB drive in terms of speed is below the level of perception. In theory, yes, the 2TB is faster, but in practice, you will not be able to tell that it is faster. Your perceptible speed increase will come from what you put on the SSD. The real question is how much storage do you need in the light of what you are doing with your computer? If you are doing a lot of video work or using your iMac to feed a home media network, then you will probably want a lot of storage. If you're doing emails, the occasional Pages document, and a few photos, 1TB is plenty.
Not the occasional Pages document. I have more .doc files on my computer than anything else. I'm not currently doing a lot of video work but I'd like to leave it open as a potential hobby in the future...
