Choosing a hard drive.

[wysiwyg]

When you replace or build a PC, what decides your choice of hard drive, what qualities do you look for in its technical specs.?

 

[Brink]

Hello Wysiwyg,


On hard disks, I like to look for these items:

• Form factor. 2.5" for laptop and 3.5" for desktop.
• At least a 7200 RPM. Higher is better.
• Size. 1 TB (1000 GB) drives are getting pretty cheap these days.
• SATA interface with a rated 3.0 gbit/sec transfer rate.
• Seek time as low as you can find. Typical is around 9 ms.
• Native command queing NCQ
• Built-in buffer size. Larger is better.
• Solid State Drive SSD if practical for you with the cost.

Hope this helps some,
Shawn

 

[wysiwyg]

Thanks Brink, succinct and to the point. :D

 

[z3r010]

You might want to keep an eye on the hard drive benchmarking thread we have going over at Seven forums - Show us your hard drive performance - Windows 7 Forums

 

[Brink]

Thanks Brink, succinct and to the point. :D

You're welcome Wysiwyg. Please let us know what you decide to get.

 

[bruce2]

Here is a good example of a nice one with good value. Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

 

[robertpri]

Brink's advice is spot on correct. I would only add one thing--maker. I'm sure all drive makers do this, or something similar, but I've always liked WD for their warranty actions.

One phone call, and they send you another drive with a prepaid return box. Package your old one, and send for free. Quick, easy and free.

They might all do this now, I don't know, but I stayed with WD for this reason.