shopping for Hard drive

[Cidolfas Orlandu]

Is there anything I need to look at or for? Can I just grab the size I need, or is there more to consider? (connectors, compatibilty and such)

Thank you.

[8igdave]

When buying harddrives you should buy them OEm. This means they are cheaper but do not come with any cables and will come in a anti static bag. All cables you need should have come with your motherboard and power supply though so this is not usualy a problem. however i presume you have a retail pc which didn't come with the extra cables? perhaps tyou should check first to make sure you never did get any extras though. If not they you will need to buy a sata power and a stat data cable.

What size are you thinking of? when going for sizes under 250gb they oftern come with a smaller cache, which decreases their performance whenn using big files. Really you want a 16mb cache and definitly a 7200rmp speed.

id suggest the western digital AAKS series. They have the reputation of being the most reliable hard drives around, they are fast and very quiet. The fastest are the new Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 series. But i dont think they are much faster and i stuck with western digital instead as the seagates are louder.

[Cidolfas Orlandu]

Well here's my situation. My computer broke down, I took it to a repair shop and they told me (for $30) that the hard drive is what broke. So now I am shoping around trying to find the cheapest way to fix my computer.

I bought it from a rent-to-own place and all I got was the computer, no extras (apart from the monitor, mouse etc).

I remember from the time I bought my graphics card, I almost bought a card I didnt have the slot for. From reading reviews I think I'll be ok if I have the right stuff to plug it into.

[8igdave]

thereshould be a sticker on the hard drive. what does it say? also does it have thin power and data cables or a big ribbon cable? usualy the cable is red as well but thats not a definit, just happemns all sata cables iove ever had have been red it seems lol.

[Cidolfas Orlandu]

thereshould be a sticker on the hard drive. what does it say? also does it have thin power and data cables or a big ribbon cable? usualy the cable is red as well but thats not a definit, just happemns all sata cables iove ever had have been red it seems lol.


Well I havent pulled it out yet but I guess I should.:rolleyes:

I cant do it now but when I do what should I look for?

And thank you for your help.

[8igdave]

well its either going to be IDE, sata or SATA II. I beleive there is no differnce between sata andn sata II cables however so they should be fine even if they are sata as the new ahrd drive you buy will be SATA II. On it is usualy a sticker and it will say if its sata or sata II. And like i said before, if its got a big ribbon of cables and not a single one for each then it is ide and you will need new cables, but make sure you have a sata port on your motherboard first if it is ide.

[Cidolfas Orlandu]

should I really be looking at the drive though? what I mean is, I dont need the same thing as long as I have the port for a new drive (whatever that turns out to be) right?

or am I completely wrong?

:confused:

[Nerror]

You can open up the computer and look for the name and model of the motherboard. That way you can look up on the net what types of drives it supports, if you aren't sure of how to see it by the connectors on the mobo.

The WD AAKS series is a decent choice, and the Samsung Spinpoints are pretty good too if looking for silence. Check out http://www.storagereview.com/ for more info than you'll ever need about HDs. :)

[Aes]

SATA cable (http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/cooldrives_1987_33680463)
SATA ports (http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revimages/motherboards/asusp5be/sata_ports.jpg)
IDE cable (http://www.gshop.com.au/images/ide_133_cable.jpg)
IDE port (green one with the missing pin in the middle) (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ECS/PF5/images/pata.jpg)

You will have IDE ports, you may have SATA ports. IDE ports are located of the right top to middle of your motherboard, you'll likely have one connecting your optical drive to your motherboard. The SATA ports will be on the bottom to middle right of your motherboard if you have any. Pretty much all SATA cables are either red or orange, the vast majority are red.

If you don't have any SATA ports don't bother getting an IDE drive you'll want to replace it far too soon to get your money's worth. It would probably be better to look into getting an external hard drive if you can think of some ways you can get some good use out of it. Otherwise unless it's a must, I would put off getting a new one until you upgrade the whole rig. It'll be more expensive but you'll certainly have it with you for longer.

[Cidolfas Orlandu]

I've pulled out the old drive and it says:

"120GB ATA/133 HDD"

So is there a difference between Ide Ultra ATA100 and Ide Ultra ATA133?

I'm looking at Newegg and they have 100.

[PeterPan]

I would recommend at least 160GB for todays multimedia purposes.

[8igdave]

Its ide? Then anyn replacement you buy will be quite slow by modern day harddrive standards and they do effect your pc speed quite a bit as the harddrive is the slowest component in most pcs, espeicaly gaming pcs. When your pc boots up it is the speed of youir hardrive determining how fast it takes prittyt much.