How we choose the Hard Drive
Quick review of Hard Drive technology
We like to think of the Internet as our main hard drive! The days of buying a
ton of software and installing everything on our PC's hard drive are slowly
coming to an end. Almost everything one does today is a click away on the
net without having to install anything. Even software you actually need to
install on your hard drive can usually be found as a free download online. For
example check out this fantastic office suite program 'OpenOffice' available
for free at www.openoffice.org. Also, with the advent of cloud computing
this trend looks to continue. Our hard drive storage needs should therefore
be going down.
On the other hand digital audio, video and pictures are large files and
becoming ever more mainstream in the computer world. We might want to
build our own multimedia library! So getting a large drive isn't a bad idea.
However, given our introduction and the fact that unused hard drive
capacity does nothing for our computer's performance, money can be saved
by buying the right size hard drive. This saving can be spent on other PC
parts that do increase our computer's performance.
We think 250GB storage is a good size currently. One can always add more
hard drives later, if ever needed. Our computers have been designed to be
upgradeable. Also economical large solid state hard drives with no moving
parts should be coming in the near future, and we can look forward to that.
Quality of the hard drive is clearly important. Speed of the disk is measured
in rpm. 7,200 rpm is fine and has the advantage of likely spinning cooler and
quieter than 10,000 rpm, apart from being cheaper. Serial ATA 3 Gb/s drives
are the current tech for faster connections, thinner cables for better
airflow and cooling in the case, and more reliable performance.
RAID is a current tech that uses two or more hard drives for data backup
and/or better performance. We think the computer system should have
RAID capability if a second hard drive is ever added.
Quick review of Hard Drive technology
We like to think of the Internet as our main hard drive! The days of buying a
ton of software and installing everything on our PC's hard drive are slowly
coming to an end. Almost everything one does today is a click away on the
net without having to install anything. Even software you actually need to
install on your hard drive can usually be found as a free download online. For
example check out this fantastic office suite program 'OpenOffice' available
for free at www.openoffice.org. Also, with the advent of cloud computing
this trend looks to continue. Our hard drive storage needs should therefore
be going down.
On the other hand digital audio, video and pictures are large files and
becoming ever more mainstream in the computer world. We might want to
build our own multimedia library! So getting a large drive isn't a bad idea.
However, given our introduction and the fact that unused hard drive
capacity does nothing for our computer's performance, money can be saved
by buying the right size hard drive. This saving can be spent on other PC
parts that do increase our computer's performance.
We think 250GB storage is a good size currently. One can always add more
hard drives later, if ever needed. Our computers have been designed to be
upgradeable. Also economical large solid state hard drives with no moving
parts should be coming in the near future, and we can look forward to that.
Quality of the hard drive is clearly important. Speed of the disk is measured
in rpm. 7,200 rpm is fine and has the advantage of likely spinning cooler and
quieter than 10,000 rpm, apart from being cheaper. Serial ATA 3 Gb/s drives
are the current tech for faster connections, thinner cables for better
airflow and cooling in the case, and more reliable performance.
RAID is a current tech that uses two or more hard drives for data backup
and/or better performance. We think the computer system should have
RAID capability if a second hard drive is ever added.
CurrentBuild PC is a trademark & product of CurrentBuild Computer. Components are trademarks & products of their respective owners.
Previous part
Motherboards review
Motherboards review
Next part
DVD/CD drives review
DVD/CD drives review
Western Digital Caviar SE
250 GB hard drive
250 GB hard drive
Western Digital Caviar SE16
320 GB hard drive
320 GB hard drive
Previous part
Motherboards review
Motherboards review
Next part
DVD/CD drives review
DVD/CD drives review