Best 500GB Internal Hard Drive What You Can Buy For Your Laptop, Desktop Or PS3 / PS4
Report Data Collected On: 1/Feb/2019
Irrespective of the increase in demand of cloud storage, hard drives will always have their importance and prominence. A storage drive is always needed to capacitate the programs, operating systems and files. From surfing the internet to playing games, every action that you perform on your system requires access to a storage drive.
SSDs are popular these days, but still, you can’t resist the low-price tag of a hard drive which can back you up for some good amount of storage.
Yet, if you didn’t pick up the right primary drive for your laptop or desktop computer, which isn’t that fast to beat up the modern tasks i.e. 4K streaming, then it surely possible that you could face some old age problems such as slow internet browsing experience, slow playback of blue ray and 4K video, the graphics wouldn’t load that fast, etc.
A small-storage hard drive is mainly popular for the backups, people usually buy 500GB Hard drives for the RAID 1 Array, or they just need it for the OS because everything they do is online. Still, you can use it as primary if you are really low on your budget. 500GB is actually sufficient, when you’re not into hardcore gaming or collecting any 4K movies;
But it can at least hold enough, so you can even install 2 operating systems and still left with more than 400 gigabytes of storage to store all your precious data in.
To find the top & best hard drives in the market, I especially maintain a spreadsheet which contains more than 150 SATA 500GB Hard Drives specification, just to compare out the best drive available in the market.
#But before choosing any hard drive, here are some few things which you need to understand first:
- Physical Size – Hard drive comes in a lot of different sizes but we mainly use four different sizes as according to our desktop, laptop & server needs. The first one is ‘2.5 Inch Drive’, it’s a full-size drive which we can normally use in our big Desktop/NAS/CCTV/Server cases. The second one is 2.5 Inch 9.5mm Drive which you can generally see in your old laptop or PlayStation. The third one also comes in 2.5 Inch variant but it’s 2.5mm thinner than the 9.5mm and only heights 7mm. The fourth one again is a 2.5-inch drive but it’s 15mm in height and mostly used in NAS and Servers. All the latest laptops only support 7mm height drive and you can’t install the bigger one. So, make sure about the correct size support before purchasing any HDD. Tip: You can check your old system’s drive to confirm the size. Tip 2: You can use 2.5 Inch Drive at the place of 3.5 Drive because it uses the same interface.
- Performance – For performance comparison, just mainly look for the maximum numbers in specs under your budget and that will work for you.
Suggested link: How To Buy A Good New Hard Disk Drive?
So, Let’s See How Many Best 500 GB Hard Disk Drive Are Available:
#Best 500GB 2.5 Inch HDDs Available For Laptop
2nd 2.5 Inch – HGST Travelstar Z7K500.B ‘HTS725050B7E630’
- Size: 2.5 inch 7mm
- RPM: 7200
- Read and Write Speed: 158 MB/s, 151 MB/s
- Cache Size: 32 MB
- Interface: SATA 6 Gb/Second
- Warranty: 3 Years
- Price Tag: 29.99$ Approx. {Check Current Price}
About it: Built with 2.5″ form feature, the HGST Travelstar HTS725050B7E630 is a 500GB hard drive from WD. It has been designed with the purpose of meeting the requirements of both innovative professionals and gamers.
This drive can be used in the computer or a notebook and the users certainly benefit from this drive as it has SATA 6Gb/s interface together with a 7200 rpm for gaining optimum performance. The Travelstar Z7K500.B hard drive has been intended for a wide range of high-performing applications for quicker loading and data usage times.
This HGST drive offers higher performance, higher capability, and higher consistency. The SATA 6Gb/s interface offers towards the back compatibility to systems with SATA 3 Gb/s requirements.
In addition, the recording head never gets connected with the disk media which in turn makes sure that there will be less deterioration to the recording head and media along with delivering better security for the hard drive when in transference. It might get a bit noisy while in use and some might find it a bit costly based on what it is offering.
In my Opinion;
The name HGST mainly know for its reliability. You actually can’t get a drive under 30 dollar with this kind of performance. HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) was acquired by the Western Digital (WD) in 2012. So, you can tell the brand is in good hands.
But still, if you are able to put a bit of extra money you can buy a high-performance 2.5 inch 1TB drive as compared to this one, for only about 44 dollars;
Here’s a link for “WD Blue WD10SPZX” Review: List of Best 1TB HDD (Hard Disk Drive) – Monthly Updated
Click on link to check out the current price of “HGST Travelstar ‘HTS725050B7E630’“: @Amazon US ($29.99), @Amazon UK (£41.08), @Amazon IND (₹4400.08), @Best Buy (N/A), @Walmart (N/A), @Newegg ($51.72).
1st 2.5 Inch – Seagate Barracuda Pro ‘ST500LM034’
- Size: 2.5 inch 7mm
- RPM: 7200
- Read and Write Speed: 156 MB/s, 150 MB/s
- Cache Size: 128 MB
- Interface: SATA 6 Gb/Second
- Warranty: 5 Years
- Price Tag: 50.99$ Approx. {Check Current Price}
About it: Seagate Barracuda is a really lightweight 2.5 inch form factor hard drive with just 7mm height. These are 7200 RPM drives. Available in different capacity variants and data transfer rate of 155 MB/sec which enhances your PC experience. Seagate is industry leading in manufacturing hard drives and provides a five-year warranty on its hard drives.
You can trust and rely on its capabilities without any worry. Seagate ensures you reliable data storage solutions as a result of their unique and cutting-edge technologies. Barracuda is coupled with revolutionary non-volatile Intel Optane memory which is capable of delivering massive capacity and providing a performance bit like a Solid State Drive without any compromise. The speed of application loads and booting up is almost twice in BarraCuda than other hard drives of similar category.
Seagate Barracuda Pro desktop series offers huge capacity drives of up to 14 TB, but for laptops, the highest variant is only available for 1TB. These drives are just perfect for gamers and other business professionals who are looking for a seamless performance without any long load times.
All the Seagate Barracuda drives are loaded with features one of them is MTC or Multi-Tier Catching Technology which helps in loading application in the fastest possible time.
Seagate drives uses Media cache and DRAM technologies for optimizing data which results in an even more improved read/write speed. The rescue data recovery system of BarraCuda pro drives protects your valuable data and ensures you a peace of mind. It makes BarraCuda a great option for upgrades.
In my Opinion;
This one is the best 2.5 inch drive available right now. 51$ is actually not that bad for a drive who runs at low temperature and works great in a PlayStation. And you know, some people only buy this drive to replace their PS4 stock hard drive, just to speed up the whole data processing performance. The console and games can load fast, the download and installation of any game can be done quickly.
Spending 61.72$, can just you a better performer drive under the 1 TB category;
Here’s a link for “Seagate BarraCuda PRO ST1000LM049″ Review: List of Best 1TB HDD (Hard Disk Drive) – Monthly Updated
Click on link to check out the current price of “Seagate ST500LM034“: @Amazon US ($50.99), @Amazon UK (£46.49), @Amazon IND (₹6800.08), @Best Buy (N/A), @Walmart (N/A), @Newegg ($51.99).
#Best 500GB 3.5 Inch HDDs Available For Desktop
3rd 3.5 Inch – Toshiba DT01ACA*** Series ‘DT01ACA050’
- RPM: 7200
- Read and Write Speed: 137 MB/s, 134 MB/s
- Cache Size: 32 MB
- Interface: SATA 6 Gb/Second
- Warranty: 3 Years
- Price Tag: 22.95$ Approx. {Check Current Price}
About it: Consuming lesser amount of power and delivering optimum performance, the Toshiba DT01ACA*** Series ‘DT01ACA050’ is a 3.5 inch hard drive with 7200 RPM that delivers an extraordinary blend of power efficient technology and high-quality performance, which makes it an ultimate solution for personal and professional using desktop computers.
Designed for the more sustainable environment, the Toshiba DT01ACA*** Series ‘DT01ACA050’ minimizes the ecological effect in product designing, manufacturing, functioning, and discarding. This hard drive has been designed with top quality materials while maintaining the highest quality standards.
This Toshiba hard drive is easy to install and does not require any technical specialization. It comes equipped with enough capacity that you can store your favorite shows, songs, movies, important files, and so on. In addition, it is a reasonably priced hard drive that people can afford without affecting their budget negatively.
Based on what its model number implies, this hard drive is the first line in the group of the DT01ACA*** Series. The main difference between them is areal platter size. Similar to previous Toshiba hard drives, the covering of ‘DT01ACA050’ is minimal with lesser support for construction for the area surrounding the motor.
In my Opinion;
This one is the cheapest performer desktop drive you can find on the internet. 32 MB cache with 7200 RPM in 23$ is like a cream on the strawberries. Not just for its price, Toshiba is a well known Japanese brand who produce top-notch enterprise/servers grade products on which you can rely on.
Click on link to check out the current price of “Toshiba DT01ACA050“: @Amazon US ($22.95), @Amazon UK (£27.96), @Amazon IND (₹3308.00), @Best Buy (N/A), @Walmart (N/A), @Newegg ($31.89).
2nd 3.5 Inch – Seagate BarraCuda ‘ST500DM009’
- RPM: 7200
- Read and Write Speed: 163 MB/s, 153 MB/s
- Cache Size: 32 MB
- Interface: SATA 6 Gb/Second
- Warranty: 2 Years
- Price Tag: 45.72$ Approx. {Check Current Price}
About it: Seagate BarraCuda ST500DM009 is a reasonably priced storage drive for both desktop and laptop computers. It can store all your favorite songs, movies, games, and more with the storage capacity up to 8TB with SATA 6Gb/s interface that improves performance.
One of the most user-friendly features this hard drive offers is that it is amazingly versatile. It is a multipurpose and trustworthy Seagate hard drive, which has been designed to serve all kinds of requirements from the past and what can be expected in the future.
Barracuda drives offer an economical method to manage all your PC requirements including working, gaming, storing your favorite movies and songs, and so on. It can easily fit in with desktop or all-in-one computers, home servers, and entry-level direct-attached storage devices.
Barracuda family incorporates assiduously resilient features in its hard drives. For more than 20 years, Barracuda has been offering its customers with highly reliable storage solutions in the form of hard drives. Barracuda hard drives also come equipped with Self-Encrypting Drive technology which helps in preventing data breaks.
Seagate BarraCuda ST500DM009 is available in different storage capacities, with up to 8TB capacity for desktops and up to 5TB for laptops. Despite being one of the most reliable products, some users are still annoyed with its quality issues. A few enhanced hard drives in the market might prove to be a better choice.
In my Opinion;
The reason for this drive to be on the top second position of our list is all because of its performance rating under the 500GB storage category. But still, it’s not quite worth it because in 42.10$ you can actually buy a 1TB Seagate Baracuda drive with better performance specs.
Here’s a link for “Seagate ST1000DM003” Review: List of Best 1TB HDD (Hard Disk Drive) – Monthly Updated
Click on link to check out the current price of “Seagate ST500DM009“: @Amazon US ($45.72), @Amazon UK (£40.28), @Amazon IND (₹4970.00),@Best Buy (N/A), @Walmart (N/A), @Newegg ($45.99).
1st 3.5 Inch – WD VelociRaptor ‘WD5000HHTZ’
- RPM: 10,000
- Read and Write Speed: 171 MB/s, 157 MB/s
- Cache Size: 64 MB
- Interface: SATA 6 Gb/Second
- Warranty: 5 Years
- Price Tag: 70.99$ Approx. {Check Current Price}
About it: WD VelociRaptor WD5000HHTZ provides the customers with an incomparable blend of excellent performance, storage capacity, and dependability. It is a perfect choice for those involved in video editing, photo editing, gamers, and those whose main focus is to achieve optimum performance. This WD hard drive has with a 3.5-inch rising frame which enables easier installation into modern day high-performing computer systems and frameworks.
Intended near to a 10,000 RPM rotation speed, this drive includes a 64 MB buffer size and provide with the optimum performance for video and photo editing. With large capacity and high-tech, technology, this drive can deliver an effective equilibrium of high performance and high storage capacity.
This makes it an ideal choice for work associated with large amount of data such as 3D rendering and scientific displaying, video editing, etc. In addition, it consumes less power. This 2.5-inch hard drive is encircled in a 3.5-inch rising frame with an integral heat control feature that helps in keeping the drive cool when workload is high.
Equipped with NoTouch ramp load technology, the recording head does not touch the disk media making sure that there will be less deterioration to the recording head and disk media along with better protection for drive when in transit.
On the downside, this drive charges a bit extra cost as compared to its competitors. At times, it can be difficult to install and some users have been complaining that it makes noise when working with data.
In my Opinion;
Just like the top second, this one also fails when it comes to the price tag. In 70.09 you can actually buy the top first drive of our 1TB list, which can assure you with some better read and write performance.
For “Western Digital RE WD1004FBYZ” Review: List of Best 1TB HDD (Hard Disk Drive) – Monthly Updated
Click on link to check out the current price of “WD WD5000HHTZ“: @Amazon US ($84.99), @Amazon UK (£90.94), @Best Buy (N/A), @Walmart (N/A), @Newegg ($70.99).
And that’s our top 5 list of the best 500GB (2.5/3.5 Inch) HDD what you can get for your desktop or laptop computer. Stay tuned for more! – So, what will you pick, if you wanted one for yourself? Let me know in the comments below:
Happy Shopping!!!
Hello, first i want to thank you for the post, its really nice sharing with us your knowledge, but could you give to us your benchmark read/write for each HDD model you have showed to us, would be really nice.
I’ve been searching in a couples days for a good HDD 500gb and one caught my attention, following the model WD5000LPLX, this is a Western Digital Black, the benchmark of this model is very high for an 500GB HDD, could you confirm that to me? perharps a compation of benchmarks, i would be immensely grateful!
I know that WD 500gb (WD5000LPLX) have great benchmark results, which is 48$ right now on the amazon. see >> http://amzn.to/2rbBkqZ
but as you can see on my list, I’ve suggested an SSHD for 49$ (Top 1st HDD – Seagate Thin SSHD ST500LM000). see >> http://amzn.to/2pHN3M7
And you know, you can also buy a newer version of this SSHD too and of course yes, it’s expensive, I think around 55$.