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Hard Drives

Hard Drive Buying Guide

Hard drives are all about capacity. All other things being equal, the biggest hard drives are always the most expensive, usually because the latest models of large hard drives are often in short supply for the first few months. But as even newer and bigger drives hit the market, you'll be able to find the preceding model line at much more affordable prices. Note that higher-performance (7200-rpm) drives will tend to cost more than the more mainstream (5400-rpm) drives at the same capacity.

Server based drive systems traditionally use SCSI multi-tasking controllers to handle multiple users. In addition, servers systems may daisy chain 2 or more drives to increase performance (data striping) or data security (redundancy), or both, in schemes that are referred to as (R)edundant (A)rray of (I)nexpensive (D)rives or RAID systems. These require special controllers and software, but can deliver critical performance and security for multi-user network systems or workstation class stand alone PCs. The trend is to bring the electronics for RAID increasingly to the desktop users, as it is with our newer Intel 9xx based motherboards.

Feature	Low End	Mid Range	High End
Capacity	20GB to 40GB	60GB to 80GB	100GB to 250GB
	An important consideration. It's generally wise to go for the biggest capacity you can afford, even if you don't think you need the space right now. Larger-capacity drives in any model line always cost more than smaller-capacity units, but the cost per GB isn't always consistent: The price differential between a 60GB and an 80GB drive isn't that large, but really large drives often cost considerably more.
Rotational speed	5400 or 7200 rpm	7200 rpm	7200 to 10,000 rpm
	Somewhat important. Faster rotational speed means the drive reads and writes data faster. Rpm is more important if you use a PC for video or multimedia applications: Differences in rpm don't make a noticeable difference for tasks such as word processing or Web surfing. The largest drives often have the slower (5400 rpm) rotational speed.
Interface speed	Ultra ATA/100 or ATA/133	Ultra ATA/100 or ATA/133, SCSI, Raid	Ultra ATA, SCSI , SATA, RAID
	Can Be important. The difference in speed between an ATA/100 and ATA/133 drive won't be noticeable to most users. To get maximum performance from your hard drive, its interface speed must match the interface speed of your PC, or you must install an interface card that matches the speed of the new drive. Newer Serial ATA (SATA) drives do increase throughput fairly well, but you must have a system that supports them, and drivers for Windows. SCSI drives are best for multi-user systems because of their multi-tasking abilities. RAID arrays can be configured for very high performance, but as always, you pay for what you get, and these systems can be very expensive.
Seek speed	9 ms	8 ms to 9 ms	8 ms or lower
	A minor consideration. Average seek speed (measured in milliseconds) is how fast, on average, drives can find a particular piece of data. For most people, the differences in everyday use will be negligible. The exception is when many relatively small and scattered bits of data need to be assembled, such as when copying large folders full of many small files. Once a major factor in performance, drive electronics are increasingly uniform in the sub 10 Millisecond range.
Buffer size	2MB	2MB or 8MB	2MB or 8MB
	Somewhat Important. The buffer is a memory cache on the drive where data is temporarily stored in anticipation of the next likely request of the PC's processor. Because random-access memory is considerably faster than mechanical rotating storage, it can speed performance. The latest drives for desktop PCs have generous buffers of 2MB or larger, more than adequate for typical use.