I'm going to answer these blindly, before reading other responses. Some info may repeat, some may not.
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Originally Posted by Tamerlain
1.) Are Hard Drives generic in that they fit any motherboard, or do I need to buy one specifically for my motherboard? (I moved recently and haven't unpacked the motherboard box, so I don't have the specs handy)
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There are three common types of internal hard drives, Serial ATA (SATA) which are newer, Parallel ATA (PATA) or IDE/EIDE which are the most common, and even newer boards almost always support them, and SCSI which are less common unless you have a Mac, and old Mac-clone or a business system. If your board does, in fact, support SATA, I would recommend going that route. Make sure that the drive has a standard 4-pin Molex power connector or, if not, that you buy an adapter, as only really new power supplies have the proper connector for SATA power.
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Originally Posted by Tamerlain
2.) What does cache mean? I've looked at numerous hard drives and they all have different cache numbers (from 2mb to 8mb) and I don't what they mean.
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Cache is an internal buffering system within the hard drive. Larger cache allows for faster access (most during moves and data writes, but also simple reads to an extent) to larger files. Smaller files see very little, if any, difference with higher cache values. If you do a lot of 3D gaming, graphics work, music editing or otherwise work with large files, then go with 8MB or 16MB cache. Otherwise, cache will have little value to you.
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Originally Posted by Tamerlain
3.) Does RPM really make that much of a difference? It seems that the only two options are 7200 and 10,000. I'm not in so much of a hurry that I need my data accessed thousandths of a second faster - is there anything else RPM does that should factor into my decision?
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7,200RPM is ample for most people unless, again, you do a lot of graphics or sound editing (even 3D gaming works great with 7,200RPM). 7,200 is more or less the common speed point these days. 5,400s exist, though mostly for laptop drives these days. Stay away from them unless ALL you do is office type work. 10,000RPM drives are great, but for the added expense and limited size right now, generally not worth it unless speed is essential.
Additional things to note:
1) Seek time is fairly important, and a good measure of your drives ability to perform. Look for a seek time of 8s to 9s (or lower).
2) Purchase at NewEgg (
www.newegg.com). They almost always have the best price, a good selection and ship product quickly. I think a lot of ppl here at the TFP shop there.
3) Brand is important, but only in keeping away from REALLY crappy drives. Major brands (Western Digital, Maxtor, Hitachi, Seagate) are all good, but quality can vary model to model. I LOVE Hitachi Deskstar's, and still have one of the first IBM Deskstar drives for PATA. However, they had some issues with a few drives for about a year which earned them the nickname "Deathstar" drives due to their high failure rate. Nowadays, they are again some of the best drives. Do your research and look at reviews. Look for a good warranty (at least 2 years... some are up to 5). Remember though that a warranty does not cover data recovery. You'll get a new drive, but with none of your old data.