Which HDD - speed essential...

Mubbers

Shoot!
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I'm looking to get a new HDD. My main requirement is to speed up access times for apps and games.

I already have a 40 gb drive which isn't SCSI. If I convert to SCSI can I keep the old one?

In any case what are the best drives around for speed and storage.

TTFN

Mubbers
 
try and get a nice sized one with maybe 8 meg buffer which isnt that far off SCSI performance
 
Would a nice size be about 100GB?

I believe bigger is faster due to a higher data density... what about rpms again I'm assuming the faster the better?

M
 
yeah 100 is fine i would say, 7,200rpm is a good speed to have but try and get the 8 meg buffer :)
 
Western Digital 1000JB is just what you need. ATA/100, 8MB Buffer, 100GB

JJB
 
i'm not so sure the 8mb buffer gets you much performance. not to mention those WD drives don't have the best seek times. also, size doesn't affect speed.

the 911 turbo of harddrives right now is the IBM 120GXP. it has the best seek times and transfer rates of any IDE harddrive around. comes in 40, 80, and 120gb sizes.
 
120Gb!

That'll last about a year before the next M$ OS comes out and fills it up - I need somthing bigger!

Thank so far for all the info chaps, keep it coming...
 
windows 98se took up about 700mb... xp takes up about 1.5gb... so how much could the next os take up... maybe a whole 3gb?

besides, you can have more than one harddrive, you know.

if it's lots of storage space you want, then get a 5400rpm drive that maybe doesn't have the fastest seek time in the world. you definitely won't need it while watching a movie or listening to music. it'll also be cheaper, quiter, cooler, and more reliable. they have em out now at 200gb.
 
look, if you need something fast and abnormally huge, get a western digital "WD2000JB". runs about $370 USD online.

ata100 (ata133 isn't purposeful)
7200rpm
200gb capacity
8.9ms seek time
8mb buffer
 
Sorry I was being a little silly there. I have currently got three HDD's the one that came with my new machine [40 Gb] and two from older PC's [1 Gb & 2 Gb].

It is amazing how much slower the old ones are compared to the new.

Incidently I tried hooking up the old w95 HDD as my main drive but the machine simply would not boot up any idea why?
 
throw awaya those 1gb and 2gb ones... copy all data on them onto your new drive... they slow down your system...
 
if you want dual boot... use software.. like patition magic.. it comes with PQboot that can help you ... and other software can do the same thing..
 
I'll take the old drives out and compare -

The thing about the dual boot is that as far as I understand XP won't allow a second OS if it was installed 1st. This discussion occurred here a while back and never seemed to be resolved even with PM 7 (which I have)...

If anyone has learnt otherwise let me know!
 
The 120 GXP is also available in 60 gig flavours, I have 2 of them in RAID 0 :)
 
tell me, doctor... do you have benchmark numbers comparing your single 120gxp to your dual 120gxp's? just curious.
 
Originally posted by Doctor Who
The 120 GXP is also available in 60 gig flavours, I have 2 of them in RAID 0 :)

What's RAID 0?
 
Originally posted by Mubbers
What's RAID 0?
if you have a raid controller, you use one harddrive as master on each channel (ide3 and ide4). both must be unpartitioned. you then go into your raid controller's bios and create a stripe array (raid 0) and choose both harddrives. once it does that, you parition and format then new array which is one big drive. now each time a file is copied to the array, half of the file is put on one harddrive, and half on the other.

point: it increases both read and write performance

it's best to use 2 identical harddrives. cuz..
1) the array size will only be double the size of the smallest drive. eg, if one is 20gb and the other is 60gb, the array will only have 40gb.
2) the array is only as fast as it's slowest drive. if one drive is slower than the other, the faster one will be waiting on the slower one.

note: raid 0 is not as stable as a single harddrive. since you're relying on 2 harddrives, if one goofs up a little bit, you lose your whole array most the time.
 
Buy for the future

FIRST, FIRST, FIRST >Seek time< FIRST, FIRST, FIRST

Then large platters - 60 GB is the newest standard

You may want to wait for Serial ATA (very soon) 150 MB/sec, nice round cabling-no more obstinate flat ribbon cables that always seem to get in the way
 
RAID 0?

Since most gaming/apps read more than write, RAID 0 is contra-indicated. It takes less time to read a chunk of data from one drive than bouncing back and forth from two. Now, it is true that writing is just the opposite and would be the choice if you were collecting a lot of real time data at a high rate (SETI stuff)
 

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