buying advice on a hd
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9 Dec 2006, 13:57
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Journals
Afternoon everyone,
I finally realised my 60GB isn't enough to fulfill my needs, so i want to buy a new harddisk around 320 to 500GB. My computer is already 4 years old. But there isn't a new one coming too soon.
I have talked with some people and they said my motherboard isn't suitable (compatible) to put a sata drive in. On top of that i doubt there is room in the case for an extra drive :D
So i was looking to buy an external harddisk that i could make internal when i buy a new computer (and get them in raid 0 => superspeed(no idea what this is actually ;p)).
This sounds like a mess and so is my knowledge in this area ;p So any advice on what to look for, where to pay attention to and what brands are interesting would be greatly appreciated
spending money: 200 euros tops
peace out
I finally realised my 60GB isn't enough to fulfill my needs, so i want to buy a new harddisk around 320 to 500GB. My computer is already 4 years old. But there isn't a new one coming too soon.
I have talked with some people and they said my motherboard isn't suitable (compatible) to put a sata drive in. On top of that i doubt there is room in the case for an extra drive :D
So i was looking to buy an external harddisk that i could make internal when i buy a new computer (and get them in raid 0 => superspeed(no idea what this is actually ;p)).
This sounds like a mess and so is my knowledge in this area ;p So any advice on what to look for, where to pay attention to and what brands are interesting would be greatly appreciated
spending money: 200 euros tops
peace out
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a502x1y0z1p0s0n0m0
a)raid 0 doesnt make your computer much faster tbh and you have a MUCH higher chance of data corruption.
b)you can put a sata hd in any pc, just like you can buy nic/sound cards etc you can buy controller cards for hard drives to slot into the pci bus (most common ones are scsi but this looks alittle over your head)
c)raid 0, the hard drives have to be the same
Probably the best solution for you tbh is buy a new hd, and replace it with the 60gb one atm and then use that as a external drive.
ive owned quite a few drivers and samsung and seagate are by the far the best with hitachi the worst.
In order of importance (hd features)
hd speed (5400rpm, 7200rpm, 10000rpm etc)
platters (aim for as low as many, means your data will be stored more densily and faster to access)
interface (sata2/sata1/ide 133/1de130 etc)
since your aiming for a big sized hd, speed will probs automatically be 7200 for you, so try o get one with as few platters as possible
I would (and I have) purchased an extenal 320 GB, 7200 RPM harddrive on which i store everything and can run applications from.
You want to use Firewire over connecting via USB if possible.
I consider the optimal setup when you're gonna buy your new PC.
1 X WD Raptor Drive at 10,000 RPM (SATA), go for either 76gb or more
1 X your current 60gig HD for random crap applications that dont need to use the speed of the primary drive
+ Your external that you're about to buy.
(All HD's i own are western digital and I'd recommend them also!)
Seagate 320GB 16MB Sata II 7200rpm (€ 99)
Western Digital 320GB Sata II 16MB (€ 109.95)
Are we looking at disks similar to this one then?
Do consider this:
USB 1.0 is so very slow
USB 1.1 is so slow
USB 2.0 is decent <= but do you have USB 2.0 ?
The practical (best-case scenario) transfer speed of USB 2.0 is 40 MB/sec
The minimum speed of current generation HD's is 40 MB/sec or more
The maximum speed of current generation HD's is near 80 MB/sec
The peek transfer speed of current generation HD's is well over 100 MB/sec
If you have many devices fighting on the same USB bus, speed will go down.
What does this mean?
Running games from an external HD isn't the best thing to do. Store your movies, photos, music files on the external HD.
Put the OS + games + applications on the 60 GB HD.
Thank you for paying attention.