Getting a Harddrive (1 Viewer)

[ezzy85]

I wanted to upgrade to a 120gig harddrive. A few questions about getting a harddrive:

Wheres a good place to get one?
Is there a difference when getting one apart from the capacity and if so, whats best?

Thats all I can think of for now. Anything else I should be considering?
THanks.

 

[fatmuscle]

depends where u live

 

[tempco]

Originally posted by ezzy85
Is there a difference when getting one apart from the capacity and if so, whats best?

Well, one thing that I know is the rpms (I think that's what it's called)... I think there's 5400 or 7200, so make sure you get at least 7200 (I think there's an even faster speed now).

 

[copious]

get one with 8mb cache/buffer as well.

 

[fatmuscle]

2mb and 8mb is like $20 diff i think?

 

[Fosweb]

Buy a Maxtor or a Seagate.
And dont spend more than $200 for 120GB/7200rpm/8MB

 

[Huy]

There's the slower 5,400rpm, and the 'standard' 7,200rpm.

Of course, you can find faster 10K or 15K I believe rpm's.

Go for the 8MB, you'll be glad you did. It's not much of a price difference (see fatmuscle's post).

Seagate 120GB, 2MB - $165 - don't pay any more than that
Seagate 120GB, 8MB - $178 - don't pay any more than that

But do your own hunting/searching

 

[ae]

http://ziplinkcomputers.com.au/hdd.htm

located in bondi junction, next to the Thai restourant Benjarong.

not the cheapest price around but easy place for ezy to buy

 

[ae]

Originally posted by ae
http://ziplinkcomputers.com.au/hdd.htm

located in bondi junction, next to the Thai restourant Benjarong.

not the cheapest price around but easy place for ezy to buy

 

[ezzy85]

i thought of going to them. whats the differene between these?

120GB, 7200 RPM (8MB CACHE) $179
120GB, 7200 RPM (SERIAL ATA) $219

 

[Winston]

Originally posted by ezzy85
i thought of going to them. whats the differene between these?

120GB, 7200 RPM (8MB CACHE) $179
120GB, 7200 RPM (SERIAL ATA) $219

SERIAL ATA, is only for motherboards that have SATA controller, while the 8MB Cache one is just for the standard IDE controlller.

 

[Winston]

Originally posted by Huy
There's the slower 5,400rpm, and the 'standard' 7,200rpm.

Of course, you can find faster 10K or 15K I believe rpm's.

Nods lol i wanted one i think you can get them in scsi .

 

[Huy]

Originally posted by Winston
SERIAL ATA, is only for motherboards that have SATA controller, while the 8MB Cache one is just for the standard IDE controlller.

I've got SATA enabled-controllers in my PC, but I don't own any SATA disks - they look sweet though! (the connectors/size). :yes:

Originally posted by Winston
Nods lol i wanted one i think you can get them in scsi .

Yeah, the SCSI disks (though an "old" technology) are fast.

IDE access (seek) times are still great though, about 8ms from memory. It could be much lower, with the new drives coming out, "bigger and better".

 

[jm1234567890]

You can't get 10k or 15k in IDE or SATA at 120Gb

there is a 36Gb SATA 10k rpm one (but REALLY expensive)

I think there are 18Gb 15k rpms, not sure

There might be 10k IDE ones

However, don't worry about these, they are for high performance servers.

I recomend 80gb rather than 120gb since there is a big price gap.
most mobos support 6+ HD's anyway so there isn't really a need to get such a big harddrive

Most SATA harddrives already come with 8mb cache

 

[Huy]

Originally posted by jm1234567890
I recomend 80gb rather than 120gb since there is a big price gap.

(Note: I am going off current specials, any brand, best bang for buck at present)

40GB for $90
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 40gb 7200rpm ATA100 2mb cache On Special

Another $9 and you can get yourself an extra 20GB
60GB for $99
Hitachi DESKSTAR 120GXP Vancouver II 60.0GB 7200rpm, ATA-100, 2MB Cache, 60gb/platter (HOT SPECIAL OF THE MONTH) On Special

A further $16 buys you an extra 20GB on top of that
80GB for $115
SAMSUNG 80GB 2MB ATA/100 7200RPM HDD 3 YEARS WARRANTY Order Only

For a further $42 on top of your 80GB, you can get 40GB
(works out to be $1.05 for every 1GB)
120GB for $157
Western Digital 120Gb WD1200BB 7200rpm Hard Disk Drive ATA-100 HDD 2MB Cache

On a best value for money comparison, you will find that:

40GB for $90 = $2.25 per GB
60GB for $99 = $1.65 per GB
80GB for $115 = $1.44 per GB
120GB for $157 = $1.31 per GB

The bigger the disk, the more value you will receive out of it (not a great price difference between the four, but you will receive more gigabytes for every 'up-size' - as the price decreases per GB with every (large) hard disk that you buy.

More value for the customer.

 

[jm1234567890]

I meant to get 80gb now, wait untill it fill up then get another hd
rather than get an 120 gb straight away

 

[fatmuscle]

the extra 40 will make a difference!