07-29-2003, 07:52 PM | #1 (permalink) |
Crazy
Location: Clemson
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hard drive, what to get
ive had about 1 gb free on my 40 gb hard drive for a long time now... and thought it might be time to upgrade. I was looking at some 80 gb ones for around 100$ but i was wondering about some of the terminology im not sure about.
like this one has 7200 rpm and 8 mb of cache memory. can someone explain the inner workings of a hard drive please... |
07-29-2003, 08:14 PM | #2 (permalink) |
Crazy
Location: Miami Beach, Fl
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sure..., when shopping for Hard Drives all you really need to look for is size and RPM. 80 Gigs is fine, and 7200 RPM is good. Usually you'll spend less if you buy a 5400 RPM one, but those are slower. I dunno how to explain RPM, but i guess it's the revolutions per minute, meaning the higher the number, the faster data is found on the HD. $100 for 80 GB and 7200 is good.
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/Knowledge is Power/ |
07-29-2003, 08:20 PM | #3 (permalink) |
The GrandDaddy of them all!
Location: Austin, TX
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actually, i would say go for the 5400 rpm drive if u're gonna use it as storage only.
use the faster HD to boot up and then access the data from the secondary one.
__________________
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal |
07-30-2003, 03:51 AM | #7 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: North Hollywood
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higher RPM drives do two things for performance, they speed up the actual data reading from the HD and cut down 'rotational latency' the latter means the time taken for the head to get data thats a revolution or less away.
Its like having a sentence written on a big disk, the start of the sentence is 180o away from the viewer, the rotational latency, is the time it takes for the disk to get to the start of that sentence, the data read time is how fast you read the words. The downside is typically high RPM drives run hotter and are noiser, as with any mechanical system they can fail more often at higher performance levels 33% faster is the absolute fastest youll get out of it, but thats given that, you defrag the data, and that the disk reading is the bottleneck in your data transfer. power consumption is higher as well for the laptop people wanting 7200 or 5400. |
07-30-2003, 11:55 AM | #8 (permalink) |
Registered User
Location: Somewhere in Ohio
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$100 for an 80 giger is too much $$$$.
Western Digital 80 giger 7200RPM w/8MB Buffer: $86.50 If you don't really need 8MB buffer get this for only $74.50. BTW, GoogleGear has great prices. Always check them out. Plus, they have free 2nd day delivery on almost everything. |
07-30-2003, 01:57 PM | #9 (permalink) |
The GrandDaddy of them all!
Location: Austin, TX
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http://www.memorymedia.com/cgi-bin/w...YES&CODE=PHOLD
same product as sixrate, only for 83.89. (free shipping) sry, just had to beat his price. all hail pricewatch
__________________
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal |
07-30-2003, 02:51 PM | #10 (permalink) |
I am Winter Born
Location: Alexandria, VA
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I agree with the above posters that recommend the Western Digital Special Edition drives. I've bought several of those for myself and for others and can highly recommend them.
The 8MB cache will really give you noticable speed boosts.
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Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy! |
07-30-2003, 03:00 PM | #11 (permalink) | |
Registered User
Location: Somewhere in Ohio
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drive, hard |
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