Thread: Which HDD to buy?

I'm dual booting windows and linux. Windows works best with NTFS, and lInux works best with its ext* partitions. I need to buy a new HDD specifically for this. However I trying to decide how to make the most of it.
I can either:

1. get a drive, make 2 partitions, format one partition as NTFS and the other as ext* but have have no idea about performance penalties. Would a drive run slower if it had multiple partition of different types?
2. get 2 drives, one for windows/ntfs and the other for linux/ext4. I think this is best but it's the most expensive option.

And in regards to HDD durability and performance, which manufacturer to seek? In my mind the one results which pops up is WD Black but are they really the best? Bear in mind I need the best performance drives, not red, green, purple, etc.

Thank you.

PS: sorry for the thread title. rename to: Which HDD to buy?

Originally Posted by Master Razor

get a drive, make 2 partitions, format one partition as NTFS and the other as ext* but have have no idea about performance penalties. Would a drive run slower if it had multiple partition of different types?

All else being equal, partitions closer to the beginning of the disk have faster read and write speeds due to zone-bit recording. That's the only influence their amount or size has on performance at this level.

And in regards to HDD durability and performance, which manufacturer to seek? In my mind the one results which pops up is WD Black but are they really the best? Bear in mind I need the best performance drives, not red, green, purple, etc.

All mechanical hard drives are pretty much the same nowadays, so don't waste extra money on a particular model just because it's "high performance", spins at 15000 RPM or whatever. Just focus on avoiding "green" models (the power savings are minimal and don't justify the extra wear on the components) and getting as much storage space as possible.