Description:
- As
the primary communication device to the rest of the computer, the
hard drive is very important. The hard drive stores most of a
computer's information including the operating system and all of
your programs. Having a fast CPU is not of much use if you
have a slow hard drive. The reason for this is because the CPU
will just spend time waiting for information from the hard drive.
During this time, the CPU is just twiddling it's thumbs...
What To Look
For:
- First,
look at the technology. Do you want IDE or SCSI (see Glossary
for definitions)? SCSI is the faster interface which also
takes a load off of your CPU. It also requires the use of a SCSI
Card. IDE is the more common hard drive interface.
It is also less expensive. For common users, IDE is probably
sufficient. However, if you work with a lot demanding
applications and games, SCSI may be the way to go, if you can afford
it. Very few retail computers are buit around the SCSI
interface. This is one of the reasons you may want to Assemble
your Computer. If you can afford to go SCSI, you
should then get a SCSI CD-ROM
drive since they aren't much more expensive if they are SCSI.
*Update* For the most part, IDE is catching up with SCSI in speed.
The primary reason to go SCSI anymore is if you want a lot of
devices (you can only have 4 IDE devices), you really need the high
speed 10,000 RPM drives, or you want a CD-ROM burner. CD-ROM
burners work best when they are SCSI, and they work best along with
a SCSI hard drive and CD-ROM drive, particularly for making CD to CD
copies.
- Next,
if you decide to use IDE, look for UDMA/33 or Ultra ATA or UIDE, all
of which are the same thing and mean that the drive is capable
of transferring data at a faster rate (33 MB/s). All
motherboard chipsets from the TX on support UDMA.
- If
you decide to use SCSI, you need to consider the type of SCSI
(yes, it gets more complicated). These are hard to define
since different companies represent them differently. They
consist of a mix of SCSI-1, SCSI-2, and SCSI-3 as well as
Narrow-SCSI, Ultra-SCSI, Ultra2-SCSI, Wide-SCSI, and
Ultra-Wide-SCSI. The simplest way to decide is to look at the
number of pins your controller has. If it has a 68-pin
connector, then it has Wide capability. Find a hard drive that
has a 68-pin connector and then look for the highest SCSI rating
and/or the highest in the list above, with
"Ultra-Wide-SCSI" being the highest.
*Update* Ultra2 Wide SCSI is now the fastest... There isn't a
large speed improvement though. However, the newest U2W
controllers are very fast and reliable (such as Adaptec's 2940U2W).
- Of
course, you need to consider the size of the drive. Although
one can get by with 2 GB of hard disk space, you'll be much happier
with 6 GB or more. Consider 4.3 GB a minimum amount unless you
plan to perform a lot of disk maintenance and uninstalls.
- Whatever
you've decided you now need to look at the rpm (revolutions per
minute) of the drive. A minimum to look for is 5400 rpm.
This is basically the standard for IDE. 7200 rpm IDE drives
are starting to show up though, such as Seagate's Medalist Pro.
They aren't much more expensive, so you may want to get one of them.
If you're going SCSI, consider 7200 rpm as a minimum to make it
worth the extra cost (although a 5400 rpm SCSI drive will probably
be faster than a 7200 rpm IDE drive, not to mention the additional
benefits of SCSI). Currently, SCSI maxes out at 10,000 rpm
with the Seagate Cheetahs and IBM's new UltraStar 9ZX drives (the
IBMs are currently over $1000 though).
- Next,
look at the amount of cache on the drive. Usually they have
about 128kb, 256kb, or 512kb of cache memory. Some SCSI drives
have 4 MB of cache (IBM 9LZX). I would advise trying to find
one with 512kb.
- The
final thing to look at is access time. Usually if you have a
high rpm drive, the access time will be pretty low too.
However, if you're looking at two hard drives with the same rpm,
definitely go for the one with the lower access time. Any
drive with less than 10 ms (milli-seconds) access time should be
sufficient. Access time is the time it takes for the heads
that read the hard drive's data to get to another part of the disk.
Recommendations:
- 6/16/00
Update - IBM's 75 GXP is now the king of 7200 rpm IDE hard
drives. Its quiet operation combined with incredible speed and
past brand reliability make it the drive to beat. Quantum's
Fireball Plus LM is another great drive, with similar
performance scores but louder. Either drive would make a great
choice.
- 1/17/00
Update - I just wanted to note that my recommendations, though old,
still hold. There are some better drives out there, but not by
a significant margin. There hasn't been many great advances in
the hard drive area lately. If you are looking for the fastest
IDE drive, you may want to get the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40,
which does show a significant speed advantage over the IBM listed
below.
- 10/10/99
Update- My current "best pick" would be the IBM 22GXP
IDE hard drives. They are cheap compared to SCSI, and now
fairly inexpensive for IDE. This drive runs at a fast 7200
rpm. It even has 2 MB of cache, but it is also much more
expensive. The 14GXP is another incredible hard drive.
It's a little slower than the 22GXP, but also very cheap ($150 for
14 GBs of 7200 rpm speed)!
- Others
to consider are the Western Digital Expert (7200 rpm and ATA-66),
the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 5120 with 1MB cache (7200 RPM and
ATA-33), and the Western Digital Caviar (model number ACS313000 -
5400 RPM and ATA-66), in that order! I only recommend the
Caviar because it is a good drive for a very low price.
- 1.
1/17/00 Update- For SCSI drives, I have several
recommendations depending on your budget (all of which support
68-pin Ultra2Wide). First would be the 9 GB Quantum Atlas
IV (which is now fairly cheap). It beats out my second
pick which is IBM's UltraStar 18ES. It is one of the most
affordable 7200 rpm SCSI drives and also one of the fastest.
The Seagate Barracuda drives are also fairly inexpensive. They
run at 7200 rpms and have an access time of 8 ms. They are a
little more expensive than the others and a little slower too.
- 2.
The IBM UltraStar 9ES is a cheap lower-end SCSI drive. It is
one of the more affordable SCSI hard drives and one I would
recommend.
- 3.
10/10/99 Update- The Quantum Atlas 10k now beats out the IBM
9LZX in both price and speed! It's a 10,000 rpm hard drive
that can be had for under $500!
The
IBM UltraStar 9LZX is the second best at this point in time, but it
is not affordable by most people's standards. It runs at
10,000 rpm, has an access time of 6.3 ms, and has 4 MB of cache,
along with a high price tag...
-
3. If you can afford it, the Seagate Cheetahs run at
10,000 rpms and have an access time of 7.5 ms. They vary in
the amount of cache they have, with the
9GB having 1 MB and the 4.3 GB having 512k cache.
- 4.
Also worth mentioning is Quantum's Atlas III which uses the new
Ultra2-SCSI technology that doubles the
maximum throughput to 80 MB/sec. It's 7200 rpms and a 7.8 ms
access time. It's also quite
expensive.
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