Drive comparison: HDD UserBenchmarks — 1015 Hard Drives Compared

The best hard drives for 2023: top HDDs for your data

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(Image credit: Future / Seagate)

Choose the best hard drive for long-term file storage or network-attached storage (NAS) servers to ensure your files’ safety. Purchasing a hard drive isn’t just a matter of getting the right capacity for your storage needs. You also have to make sure that you’re getting protection against inevitable hard drive failure.

Hard drives, also known as HDDs, are still reliable with their large capacities and generally lower prices than a solid state drive (SSD) with the same capacity. However, even the worst SSD will perform better than the best HDD in terms of file transfer rates and general performance just by virtue of the technology. The best SSD, therefore, is going to absolutely smoke the best hard drive in the world.

So why even go with an HDD then? Well, one of the biggest advantages of an HDD is their significantly larger capacities. You can get HDD with capacities up to 20TB right now, and while these can be pretty expensive, when you compare their price per gigabyte of capacity, they are an incredible value.

An SSD, meanwhile, will cost you way more and you won’t be able to get the same kinds of capacity. Even if you take the HDD’s list price as your basis, you’re still getting much more capacity per dollar, which is what makes HDDs so attractive for low-priority storage.

But which HDD will get you the right amount of storage and performance? Fortunately, we’re here to break it down to help you find the best hard drive for you, regardless of your need or budget. We’ve even included a price comparison tool so you can get the best hard drive deal available.

The best hard drive overall

1. Seagate BarraCuda

The best hard drive overall

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Capacity: 1TB – 8TB

Cache: up to 128MB

RPM: 7,200

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

Low cost

Fast spinning disks

Reasons to avoid

—

Limited cache

It’s almost impossible to talk about hard drives without mentioning Seagate’s BarraCuda lineup – it’s a force to be reckoned with. And, it’s not hard to see why, Seagate BarraCuda drives offer a great gigabyte-per-dollar ratio and speed benefits to top it off.

While you can get capacities as small as 500GB, the 2TB model hits a sweet spot by balancing high performance and affordability. Since this drive combines 7,200rpm platters and high density data, so computers outfitted with this drive will be able to read data as fast as you’ll get with an HDD.

And with Seagate’s 5-year limited warranty, you can expect to get a lot of durability out of these hard drives. They aren’t going to be nearly as fast as a NAND SSD, unfortunately, but with options of up to 14TB, you just can’t beat the capacity an HDD like the Seagate BarraCuda affords you.

The best budget hard drive

2. Western Digital Blue Desktop

The best budget hard drive

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Capacity: 500GB – 6TB

Cache: 64MB

RPM: 5,400 – 7,200

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

An option for every budget

Faster option available

Reasons to avoid

—

Less value from smaller drives

Western Digital is about as established an HDD brand as it gets, and even today, it is putting out incredibly solid hard drives for long term storage at great prices. Nowhere is this more the case than with its line of WD Blue hard drives.

With a wide variety of storage options from a small 500GB to a capacious 6TB, the WD Blue is a viable pick for almost any type of PC build that’s sticking to a budget. The best value comes from the larger drives – they’ll give you much more storage per dollar spent.

And, if you’re looking for a bit more speed, there are also 7,200rpm models available that don’t come with too much of a price hike. As with any HDD, an SSD is going to offer you better speed, so your best bet here is to definitely go for capacity and value, which is the real strength of these drives.

The best gaming hard drive

3. Seagate Firecuda Desktop

The best hybrid hard drive

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Capacity: 1TB – 2TB + 8GB

Cache: 64 MB

RPM: 7,200

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

NAND-boosted performance

An already fast platter

Reasons to avoid

—

No competition

SSDs are incredibly popular, and it’s not hard to see why. But, if you need a lot of fast storage, and you don’t have a vault of cash, hybrid hard drives are a great option, especially for gaming.

The SeaGate FireCuda is the best hybrid hard drive on the market. It can fit up to 2TB of data, and then its 8GB of solid state cache storage learns which data you use most, so that you can access it quickly. That speed boost is even sweeter when you consider that this drive spins at 7,200rpm, so you’re getting the best of both worlds.

With a 5-year warranty and an approachable price tag, it’s easy to see why this is one of the best hard drives you can buy today, especially for those with PC gaming in mind.

The best high-capacity HDD

4. Seagate IronWolf NAS

The best hard drive for networks

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Capacity: 1TB – 20TB

Cache: 256MB

RPM: 7,200

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

Ready for RAID

Faster than smaller options

Reasons to avoid

—

Pricier than non-NAS drives

It’s a little unfortunate that the Seagate IronWolf NAS drives come at a premium, but they aren’t priced much more expensively than a standard hard drive at their capacity. However, their native NAS optimization makes that premium totally worth it.

These drives are capable of running at a fast 7,200rpm spin rate 24/7 without having to worry about early drive failure, and if you have one of the best NAS devices for your business or home, the Seagate IronWolf NAS really is your best bet.

With up to 20TB drive capacities, you will get more storage than just about anywhere else with the IronWolf NAS drives from Seagate, which makes these especially good for long-term video and multimedia storage. That said, this isn’t the kind of drive you’ll want to use for day-to-day app and file storage, as random access speeds on a 20TB HDD is about as horrible as you’d imagine it is.

The best external HDD

5. Western Digital My Book

The best external hard drive for game consoles

Specifications

Interface: USB 3.0

Capacity: 3 – 20TB

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

Massive storage options

Simpler upgrade solution

Reasons to avoid

—

Potentially slower

Game consoles hard drives fill up fast with massive libraries. And, like laptops, the upgrade path for 2.5-inch hard drives isn’t all that great, but that’s where an external drive comes in.

The WD My Book strikes an amazing balance of storage and price, offering enough room for massive game libraries. Running on USB 3.0, it may not be quite as fast as an internal drive upgrade, but it will run games and offer more storage at a cheaper rate.

Best of all, because this is an external hard drive, you can take all your favorite games on the go. Or, if you’re working on a major project that requires a certain degree of portability, the Western Digital My Book is also a great work storage device in a pinch thanks to its large capacity.

How to choose the best hard drive for you

So how do you know which hard drive is best for you? There are a lot of things to consider, so it’s not as simple as just buying the «best» hard drive.

Which hard drive is best?

That depends entirely on whether you want speed, capacity, or value, but the best hard drive overall is the Seagate BarraCuda for its excellent capacity for the price. If you’re talking about the best hard drive by value, we’d pick the Western Digital WD Blue Desktop hard drive.

What’s the difference between a hard drive and an SSD?

There are a few differences between a hard drive and an SSD, but it’s important to first note that they pretty much have the same job, they just function differently.

Traditional hard drives have a circular disk (platter) that stores your data — as the disk spins, the read-write arm reads data on the disc or writes data to it as it spins. Solid state drives (SSDs) have no moving parts, instead using NAND (Negative-AND) flash memory — the more memory chips an SSD has, the more storage capacity.

Price-wise, you’ll typically find that hard drives are less expensive than SSDs and offer quite a bit more storage capacity for a lower price. However, SSDs tend to be a lot faster than even the best hard drives because they don’t have to rely on moving parts like HDDs. The best SSDs can function up to 10 times faster than traditional hard drives.

There’s a third option in the SSD vs HDD conversation as well — hybrid drives (SSHDs) offer the speed of an SSD and the capacity of a traditional HDD in a single drive. An option like this would be great if you don’t have space for multiple hard drives and want the best of both worlds.

Is HDD or SSD better?

Generally, you’re going to get the best performance out of an M.2 NVMe SSD, followed by a SATA SSD, and then a 7,200 RPM HDD, with a 5,400 RPM HDD coming in last. That said, an HDD can offer much higher capacities, making them great for longer term storage of files you don’t need to access regularly.

How we tested the hard drives

Testing hard drives isn’t that much different than testing an SSD. Typically, this involves running file copy tests to measure the transfer times of very large files and folders, but it also includes testing the hard drives with benchmarking tools like CrystalDiskMark.

That tool in particular gives us a better, more detailed look at transfer speeds based on sequential read and write speeds – that is, how fast the drive reads and writes to large blocks of disk space in a line – as well as random read and write, which takes data blocks of varying sizes and copies them to the disk in random locations and then reads back data from random locations to better represent actual real world performance, since very rarely are large files written to a single block of free data on a hard drive.

Taken together, this gives us the best view of a hard drives performance.

Round up of today’s best deals

Seagate BarraCuda

$18.90

View

See all prices

Western Digital Blue Desktop

$45.99

View

See all prices

Seagate Firecuda Desktop

$64.99

View

See all prices

Seagate IronWolf NAS

$104.99

View

See all prices

Western Digital My Book

$531.61

$168.43

View

See all prices

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.

You can find him online on Threads @johnloeffler

Currently playing: Diablo IV

With contributions from

Michelle Rae UyComputing Reviews and Buying Guides Editor

The best hard drives for 2023: top HDDs for your data

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Future / Seagate)

The best hard drive for long-term storage will depend on your needs and budget, but whether you’re looking to expand an NAS server, you have plenty of hard drive options out there.

A hard drive, also known as an HDD, won’t get you the same performance as the best SSD, but what they lack in speed, they make up for in terms of capacity and price. And with many of the best HDDs also being the best external hard drives, you have plenty of options, no matter which what you want to go.

We’ve pulled together our top picks for the best hard drives on the market to help you find the right HDD for your needs and budget, as well as some of the best hard drive deals available to help you get it at the best price possible as well.

The best hard drive overall

1. Seagate BarraCuda

The best hard drive overall

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Capacity: 1TB – 8TB

Cache: up to 128MB

RPM: 7,200

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

Low cost

Fast spinning disks

Reasons to avoid

—

Limited cache

The best budget hard drive

2. Western Digital Blue Desktop

The best budget hard drive

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Capacity: 500GB – 6TB

Cache: 64MB

RPM: 5,400 – 7,200

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

An option for every budget

Faster option available

Reasons to avoid

—

Less value from smaller drives

The best gaming hard drive

3. Seagate Firecuda Desktop

The best hybrid hard drive

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Capacity: 1TB – 2TB + 8GB

Cache: 64 MB

RPM: 7,200

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

NAND-boosted performance

An already fast platter

Reasons to avoid

—

No competition

With a 5-year warranty and an approachable price tag, it’s easy to see why this is one of the best hard drives you can buy today, especially for those with PC gaming in mind.

The best high-capacity HDD

4. Seagate IronWolf NAS

The best hard drive for networks

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Capacity: 1TB – 20TB

Cache: 256MB

RPM: 7,200

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

Ready for RAID

Faster than smaller options

Reasons to avoid

—

Pricier than non-NAS drives

The best external HDD

5. Western Digital My Book

The best external hard drive for game consoles

Specifications

Interface: USB 3.0

Capacity: 3 – 20TB

Today’s Best Deals

Reasons to buy

Massive storage options

Simpler upgrade solution

Reasons to avoid

—

Potentially slower

Game consoles hard drives fill up fast with massive libraries. And, like laptops, the upgrade path for 2.5-inch hard drives isn’t all that great, but that’s where an external drive comes in.

How to choose the best hard drive for you

So how do you know which hard drive is best for you? There are a lot of things to consider, so it’s not as simple as just buying the «best» hard drive.

Which hard drive is best?

What’s the difference between a hard drive and an SSD?

There are a few differences between a hard drive and an SSD, but it’s important to first note that they pretty much have the same job, they just function differently.

Is HDD or SSD better?

How we tested the hard drives

Taken together, this gives us the best view of a hard drives performance.

Round up of today’s best deals

Seagate BarraCuda

$18.90

View

See all prices

Western Digital Blue Desktop

$45.99

View

See all prices

Seagate Firecuda Desktop

$92.49

$64.99

View

See all prices

Save up to 30% on …

Seagate IronWolf NAS

See all prices

Western Digital My Book

$531.61

$168.43

View

See all prices

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

You can find him online on Threads @johnloeffler

Currently playing: Diablo IV

With contributions from

Michelle Rae UyComputing Reviews and Buying Guides Editor

Tire Calculator | Wheel Width Calculation

Using the tire calculator, you can easily calculate how the outer dimensions of the wheel, ride height (clearance), speedometer readings and other characteristics will change when you install tires with a different size on your car. The calculator calculates all tire sizes in millimeters, and the vehicle speed in km / h.
Also, the calculator will help you calculate the required rim width for a specific tire size.

Comparison of old and new tire sizes.
Table of similar sizes and catalog search.
Disc width calculation.
US tire inch calculator.
Comparison of inch and metric sizes.

How to use the tire calculator:

First enter the standard size installed on your car, and then the one you want to install and click «calculate». The table on the right will show the results of the calculator’s calculations.
Detailed information about tire marking in the section: tire marking.

We recommend that you install only the factory tire sizes that are listed in the owner’s manual for your machine. Installation of non-standard sizes may void your dealer’s warranty and may affect vehicle performance and handling.

Tire calculator for European tires

Old size:

145155165175185195205215225235245255265275285295305315325

/25303540455055606570758085

12131415161718192021222324

New size:

145155165175185195205215225235245255265275285295305315325

/25303540455055606570758085

1213141516171819202122222224

Found a catalog:

175/70 R13 —

Size	Old (mm)	New (mm)	Comparison (difference in mm)
Tire width mm (A)
Profile height mm (B)
Inner diameter, mm (C)
OD mm (D)

Speedometer
Speedometer (km/h)
Actual speed (km/h)
Difference (km/h)

Clearance change (mm)

Show tires with size: 175/70 R13 in the catalog?
Summer
Winter

Attention!

1. Installation of non-standard sizes can lead to deterioration of vehicle performance and destruction of the tire itself!

2. Discs that are smaller than those currently installed may not fit your vehicle because the brake system (caliper) may be pushing against the inside of the disc.

It is best to choose the tire and wheel sizes recommended by your vehicle manufacturer.
Recommended sizes for your car can be obtained from an authorized dealer or our specialists by phone: +7 (495) 995-80-40.

Table of similar tire sizes

For ease of selection and comparison of wheel sizes, we offer you a table of the closest tires in Outer diameter (D) +/- 10 mm, which are in our Pokryshka.ru catalog.

Wheels with an outer diameter difference of more than 10 mm are not recommended unless this size is specified in the owner’s manual for your machine.

Calculator calculates table based on original tire size — Old size — 175/70 R13.

You can select any other «Old size» at the top of the page to compare with.
In this case, the values in the table will change only after pressing the «Calculate» button (also at the top of this page).

Wheel Width Calculation

When selecting rims for your vehicle, you need to know exactly the minimum and maximum rim widths appropriate for a given tire size. To calculate the width of the disk, you can use this section of the tire calculator.

Enter size:

145 155 165 175 185 195 205 215 225 235 245 255 265 275 285 295 305 315 325

/25303540455055606570758085

12131415161718192021222324

Disc diameter, in.
Minimum wheel width, inches
Maximum wheel width, inches

Attention!

Installing rims that are too narrow or too wide will cause the tire to warp,
reduce tire performance, and increase wear.

Tire Calculator — Inches

To convert US tire sizes in inches to European tire sizes in mm, you can use the tire size calculator for inches.

For example, you need to convert the American tire size marked 31X10.5 R15 to the European one.
We enter 31 x 10.5 x 15 and get the result of the calculation: 267/76 R15, and just below you will be shown rounded to the European standard size 265/75 R15.

You can read more about American tire marking in inches in the section: tire marking — decoding

Tire size in inches (LT)

27293031323335373840

8.59.510.511.512.513.514.515.5

14151616.517182022

US size
Metric size
Rounded to European standard

Comparison: inch and metric

Comparison of American and European tire sizes. Sometimes it is necessary to find out how the dimensions of the wheel will change when changing tires with American markings to European ones.
In this tire calculator for inch sizes, you can calculate the change in the external parameters of the tire and the vehicle’s clearance (Clearance is the ride height, that is, the distance between the bottom of the car and the road).

Old size:

27293031323335373840

8.59.510.511.512.513.514.515.5

14151616.517182022

New size:

145155165175185195205215225235245255265275285295305315325

/25303540455055606570758085

12131415161718192021222324

Dimensions	Old (mm)	New (mm)	Comparison (difference in mm)
Tire width mm (A)
Profile height mm (B)
Inner diameter, mm (C)
OD mm (D)

Speedometer
Speedometer (km/h)
Actual speed (km/h)
Difference (km/h)

Clearance change (mm)

Looking for a new size: 265/75 R15 in the catalog?
Summer
Winter

Attention!

All contents of this site are protected by intellectual property law (Rospatent, registration certificate No. 2006612529). Setting a hyperlink to the materials of the site is not considered a violation of rights and does not require approval.

Visual tire calculator OOO Exclusive

Size selection
Pick up by car

Dimensions of your wheels

Show tire

25303540455055606570757680828590

1213141516171819202122232426

View in the catalog

Show disc

1213141516171819202122232426

51213

132124117110109.5109108107106105100837675716968676665646362.662.56261.561605958.1585756.556 .45655.555.25554.55453.55352.552.25251.55150.850.55049.54948.54847.54746.54645.54544. 544.44443.843.543.14342.54241.541.341.24140.540.44039.53938.53837.537.33736.636.53635.53534.53433.33332.53231.831.53130.5 302928272625.525. 4252423.523222120.52019181716151413121098540-3-5-6-10-12-14-15-19-20-24-25-35-40-44-45-55

View in the catalog

Replacement wheel dimensions

Show tire /

25303540455055606570757680828590

1213141516171819202122232426

View in the catalog

Show disc

1213141516171819202122232426

3.544.555.566.577.588.38.599.51010.51111.5 1213

132124117110109.5109108107106105100837675716968676665646362.662.56261.561605958.1585756.556. 45655.555.25554.55453.55352.552.25251.55150.850.55049.54948.54847.54746.54645.54544. 544.44443.843.543.14342.54241.541.341.24140.540.44039.53938.53837.537.33736.636.53635.53534.53433.33332.53231.831.53130.5 302928272625.525.4252423.523222120.52019181716151413121098540-3-5-6-10-12-14-15-19-20-24-25-35-40-44-45-55

View in the catalog

Car tires are responsible for the grip of the wheels with the roadway and ensure driving safety in all weather conditions. When replacing one tire with another, it is important to correctly select them according to their parameters. In the event of an error, this will lead to a deterioration in the performance of the car and even affect the integrity of the tires themselves. To make the right choice, it is easier to use such a handy tool as a tire calculator.

Why do you need a calculator

This is a virtual assistant for any driver. With its help, for each specific car, you can calculate the optimal tire parameters. To use the visual tire calculator, you need to enter the indicators in special columns, noting the sizes of old and new tires. Make it easy, simple and fast. Even inexperienced drivers will be able to find the «right» tires for their car.

A special window with dimensions opens, then choose your option, and in another window — suitable for replacement and press the «Calculate» button. A high-quality calculator will be able to calculate all changes in the characteristics of a car, not only in the case of changing tires, but also disks.