20 best hard drives

An ultra-reliable model from a Japanese brand with increased shock resistance: 70 G is the level of hard drives with a much higher price tag. Not bad HDD Toshiba P300 and other parameters: rotation speed of 7200 rpm, maximum data exchange rate - 196 MB / sec, noise level is not more than 26 dB, power consumption is not higher than 6.4 W. The design of the disk allows heating up to 65 degrees, which adds operational reliability, especially in poorly ventilated cases of old computers.

Now a little about the weaknesses. Firstly, the mass of the device reaches 450 grams, which is quite a lot by today's standards. Secondly, the official warranty is only 2 years, which does not inspire confidence in the good durability of the media. Thirdly, the price for 1 TB is a bit high.

A popular model of WD hard drive with a capacity of 2 terabytes, which stands out with its own cache increased to 256 MB, while this parameter is limited to 64 MB for most competitors. In practice, this means a slight increase in the speed of data exchange, especially for the most frequently requested, for example, OS files. The spindle speed here is 7200 rpm, the passport data transfer rate is 215 MB / s. Connection to a PC is via SATA III interface, the maximum power consumption is 5.6 W.

This HDD is very reliable in operation, has a shock resistance of up to 30 G, but at the same time it is somewhat noisy - it “accelerates” up to 27-30 dB in the working cycle, and “calms down” only up to 25 dB in idle. On the other hand, there is no obvious tendency to overheat, so pasting with soundproofing materials is acceptable.

Inexpensive model Western Digital WD10EZRZ takes the third place in the ranking of HDD hard drives for personal computers. The drive has a capacity of 1 TB and a reasonable price, which makes it quite popular on the market. Thanks to the support of 4 KB sectors, the disk uses its usable space as efficiently as possible. The read speed and write speed are the same and are 150 Mbps.

Among the advantages in the reviews, buyers indicate fast operation, low noise level and low operating temperature. The device consumes a little, only 3.3 W, so there will be no need to replace the power supply when installing a disk.An important parameter of the drive is the jump time between different tracks, which is 0.4 seconds, which ensures high speed. The disadvantages include only some difficulties with the setting.

The silver medalist of the rating is a very affordable model from Seagate. In terms of its characteristics, it is close to competitors, but at a slightly lower cost it offers higher performance. Volume - 1 TB - the best option for most home users. Claimed read and write speeds are 156 Mbps, but user reviews speak of even higher numbers - up to 200 Mbps for sequential reading.

Also, the advantages include a relatively low noise level and minimal heating: under load, the disk heats up to 41 degrees, although the maximum allowable is almost a third higher. The only complaint about Seagate is that it controls power savings too strict. Yes, the hard drive consumes 5.3 watts, but due to factory settings, the drive goes to sleep very quickly, which causes a noticeable delay when switching music tracks, for example.

The Toshiba model with a capacity of 2 terabytes and a SATA III interface might have seemed redundant and expensive a few years ago, but today, due to increasing amounts of information and cheaper technology, it becomes quite relevant. The device is made in 3.5' form factor. The disk rotation speed is 7200 rpm, which provides an acceptable speed of 150 MB / s for writing and reading.The manufacturer claims that during operation, the disk produces only 28 dB of noise, which is confirmed by users in the reviews. Among the shortcomings - high heating. Temperatures easily reach 50 degrees, with a critical level of 65 C. Of the pleasant features, we note the self-diagnosis function of the disk, which is designed to extend the life and maintain the speed at the initial level.

The manufacturer offers only a two-year warranty, but users talk about trouble-free operation for 4-5 years, and therefore there is no doubt about reliability. And this drive is very energy efficient and consumes no more than 7.3 watts under load.

A model with a minimum cost of memory: for 10 TB you will have to pay only 25-27 thousand rubles. Scope of application - storage and processing of high quality video materials. Of course, you can look at options for larger capacities - other manufacturers offer hard drives up to 14 TB for home use - but the cost of one terabyte of memory in this case will be much higher.

In addition, Toshiba HDWR11AUZSVA boasts not only quantitative but also qualitative indicators.The disk rotates at a speed of 7200 rpm, the cache size is 256 MB - the read and write speeds are kept at 200 MB / s. The model undoubtedly belongs to the noisy - even in idle noise level reaches 34 dB. The manufacturer provides a 730-day warranty and claims 600,000 hours of MTBF, but judging by the reviews, defective batches periodically enter the market and disks fail very quickly. Another fly in the ointment is a tendency to heat up, so a good study of the PC cooling system will be required.

A time-tested hard drive from the WD Blue Desktop line from the notorious Western Digital. The official HDD capacity is 4 TB, in reality, users complain about the availability of only 3.63 TB. On the other hand, the average cost allows you to forgive many shortcomings.

Disk rotation speed is 5400 rpm, cache size is only 64 MB. Because of this, the overall speed is low - with sequential write / read it is kept at the level of 149-155 MB / s. But such modesty made it possible to make the WD Blue Desktop 4 Tb as quiet and cold as possible. During operation, the noise level does not exceed 28 dB, vibrations are almost completely absent, and the temperature, even at maximum load, does not step over 40 degrees. This allows you to assemble very quiet reliable computers with several disks at once - you have assembled a couple of such HDDs in RAID 1 and you don’t have to worry about data safety.

The top three HDDs for desktop computers include the model of the BarraCuda line from Seagate.The price per terabyte is higher than most of the participants, but ordinary users will probably be more interested in the bronze medalist. The capacity of a 3.5 'disc is 3 TB, this is more than enough to store a personal archive of photos, music and TV shows. The disk rotation speed is only 5400 rpm, but due to the large cache - 256 MB - good read / write speeds are provided - about 180-185 MB / s. Also, users will be pleased with the low noise level: 27 dB during operation and only 22 dB in idle time - it will not even interfere with sleep! Heating is also extremely negligible - users talk about 26-28 C under load. Finally, it consumes only 3.7 watts of disk power during operation.

The officially declared service life is 1800 days (5 years), the warranty is 720 days. According to reviews, buyers have no serious complaints about the reliability of this HDD, except that under Linux OS, diagnostic programs can display a large number of errors, but this is due to inconsistencies in data encoding features, and not real problems.

If Western Digital's "Blue" line is intended for home use, then "WD Black" is positioned as a tool for professionals. The capacity of the model is 6TB. Such volumes will be useful, for example, to operators and editors who have to deal with "source files" of several tens or even hundreds of gigabytes. The disk rotates at 7200 rpm, which, in combination with a 256 MB buffer, provides write and read speeds of 225-230 MB / s - these are almost record-breaking figures in the class.

In this case, you will have to put up with a fairly high noise level: during operation, the disk produces 36 dB, in idle mode - 29 dB.Also, the user will need to ensure good ventilation in the PC case, because the operating temperature range is small (from 5 to 55 degrees), and the heating level is high due to the high speed of operation. Power consumption - 9.1 W. In addition to high speed, the manufacturer guarantees maximum storage reliability: the official guarantee is 1800 days. What are the disadvantages? The high cost, due to which 1 TB of memory on this drive costs about one and a half times more than competitors.

A demanded hard drive with an excellent balance of characteristics, which allows the model to be used for any purpose. The nominal volume of this HDD is 6 terabytes, it is made in a convenient 3.5-inch form factor, has a 256 MB cache and a spindle speed of 5400 rpm. The possible maximum data transfer rate is 185 Mb / s, the average delay time does not exceed 6 ms, the recording is carried out using SMR technology.

Note that the drive is quite quiet and in the operating mode its noise does not exceed 26 dB, and in idle mode it drops to 23 dB. At a high level and shock resistance - ST6000DM003 can withstand loads up to 70 G. Cherry on the cake - power consumption reduced to 5.3 W. There are no negative reviews in the reviews, on the contrary, the HDD is praised for its good price / volume / quality ratio, very quiet operation and an acceptable level of data exchange speed.

The Western Digital WD5000LPLX is a reliable hard drive for an office notebook. The storage capacity is 500 GB, which is quite enough to store a large amount of documentation. When creating this HDD, a number of unique technologies were used that increase the service life of the media and allow it to be used for more than 5-7 years without resorting to replacement.

The advantages of this model in the reviews of buyers include a good data exchange rate, a 5-year warranty and an acceptable amount of cache. The external data transfer rate is about 600 Mbps, which allows you to promptly display the requested documents. Among the weaknesses are heating during intensive work and a fairly high noise level when reading from the drive.

The silver medal of the category will be given to models from Seagate. Winchester is located approximately in the middle between competitors both in terms of cost and performance. The capacity of a 2.5' drive is 1TB, which is the optimal solution for most users. Spindle speed 5400 rpm. Together with a cache of 128 MB, this provides a sequential read speed of 125 MB / s, writes - 88 MB / s.

Temperature and noise indicators, which are important for mobile computers, deserve special attention. If you believe the reviews, the disk heats up to a maximum of 27-28 degrees. It should be borne in mind that this indicator can vary greatly depending on the model of the laptop, namely, on its ventilation. Noise is just as good.During operation, the volume does not exceed 22 dB - hear only in the quietest room. Finally, shock resistance during operation - ST1000LM048 can withstand overloads up to 400G!

For those who like to store all their files on a hard drive, the Blue model from Western Digital with a capacity of 2 TB is suitable. This is a series of mid-range drives. The WD20SPZX version is made in a 2.5” form factor and has a minimum thickness of only 7 mm. Due to this, it can be installed even in the most compact laptops or monoblocks, not to mention huge desktop PCs. Spindle speed 5400 rpm. Maximum performance is not achieved this way, but power consumption (1.8 W) and noise (up to 24 dB during operation) do not bother.

In terms of technical characteristics, nothing outstanding. For reading and writing, the disk gives out about 125-130 MB / s. When the space is completely filled, the speed drops by half, as it should be in theory. As a result, we have a simple, but high-quality, quiet and very large hard drive for any task, especially in the format of an office laptop.

How big is your flash drive? What about computer storage? Whatever you answer, almost certainly all the information from them will fit on a single external hard drive from Seagate. The capacity of this monster is almost 5 TB, which is a record for our selection. With devices, this HDD communicates via USB 3.0 with a maximum bandwidth of 500 Mb / s. The real figures will be kept at the level of 120-140 Mb/s.

The design of the device is minimalistic - a rectangle with rounded corners dilutes only the embossed pattern on the upper edge. We note a rather large thickness of the disk, almost 15 mm, but there is no other way with such a capacious storage. Also, users in the reviews complain about the thin bending plastic of the case. Perhaps this is a consequence of the pursuit of weight reduction.

The third place in the ranking of the best external hard drives is Toshiba Canvio Ready 1TB. This model has the lowest cost among competitors in the TOP, but in terms of characteristics it is in no way inferior to them. As a drive, a 1TB HDD is used, which does an excellent job of storing large files. Thanks to the USB 3.0 interface, a good data transfer rate is achieved - up to 500 Mbps. The practical plastic case perfectly tolerates mechanical stress and securely stores the contents.

The advantages of this model in the reviews of users include small dimensions, light weight and high reliability. In addition, the drive has sufficient protection against bumps and falls. Competent software allows you to pair the media with a variety of multimedia devices.Among the shortcomings are a short cord and a non-standard connector for connecting it from the side of the hard drive.

Stylish and reliable external HDD with a capacity of 2 TB. It is made in a plastic 2.5-inch case, connects via a USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A cable and receives a 3-year warranty. Comes with WD Backup software, which will allow you to quickly back up your data. The disk rotation speed is 5400 rpm, an encryption option is available that will not allow you to download information on another PC without a password. As for the write speed, independent tests show 70-100 Mb / s with large amounts of data (more than 250 GB at a time).

According to reviews, this model connects perfectly to Windows and Mac computers, provides an acceptable level of data exchange speed, but at the same time it is prone to noticeable overheating during long work cycles.

This 1TB drive is one of the most popular drives on the market today. The USB 3.1 connection provides data transfer speeds up to 500 Mbps. The standard 2.5” form factor makes the drive quite compact (weight is only 201 grams). Among the strengths of this model in the reviews, users point out a nice appearance, good performance and a shock-resistant case. Engineers paid special attention to the strength of the device, as external drives are often subject to physical impact.

The drive is compatible with most modern devices, from laptops and smartphones to TVs. The disadvantages include a short cord and vibration during operation. In addition, there are complaints about heating and poor compatibility with Apple gadgets. There is also an opportunity to choose more capacious options for 2 and 5 terabytes, but you will have to pay a significant extra.

Record-breaking hard drive in many respects. First of all, the model flaunts 14 GB of internal space. This capacity was achieved by filling the case with helium. Speed ​​characteristics are also encouraging. For reading and writing, the disk is given about 270 MB / s - an unattainable figure for most hard drives. Even when the disk space runs out, the speed drops to only 130-140 MB/s. At the same time, temperatures outside the case reach 45 degrees - when placed in a desktop case, you should take care of good airflow.

Acoustic comfort is perceived differently by users.Some in the reviews complain about excessive noise, others praise for silence compared to competitors. There is little information about reliability, but there is no doubt about the security of the data, because the manufacturer even duplicated the chip with the firmware to ensure uninterrupted performance. It is a pity that the official five-year warranty from the manufacturer does not work in our country.

This server hard drive from Seagate can be classified as ordinary. Nothing outstanding, but the device does its job perfectly. The cost of the disk is a little more than 12 thousand rubles, which, with a volume of 4 TB, gives an extremely "tasty" price per 1 GB of memory. Speeds are consistently good: about 130-140 MB/s. The spindle speed is slightly higher than the standard - 5900 rpm.

The reviews praise the hard drive for its low noise and vibration levels. The model is designed for use in a NAS, but it will also take root perfectly in a regular desktop computer. At the moment, there is no information about the experience of long-term use of the ST4000VN008, but according to users, no excesses have occurred over the year. Also, the claimed time to failure - 1,000,000 hours - gives confidence. Not a record for server technology, but the average user will have enough with his head.

The leader in the ranking of the best server hard drives is the Western Digital WD20EFRX. The drive has a capacity of 2 TB and, thanks to the SATA 6GB / s interface, provides a maximum information transfer rate of up to 600 Mbps.The uptime declared by the manufacturer is 1,000,000 hours, which indicates the high reliability of the device. Good engineering solutions allow you to store the drive at temperatures from -40 to 70 ° C (not during operation).

In numerous reviews, users talk about quiet operation, extended warranty and the absence of vibrations as the strengths of this model. Thanks to the unique NCQ technology, the disk can process several commands at once, which has a positive effect on its performance. Relative to its neighbors in the TOP, it is the most economical - the consumption is only 4.4 watts. The disadvantages of this device include high cost and rather stringent requirements for ambient temperature during operation.