Advice and Deals on Hard Drives

There are certain terms associated with hard drives that you should know in order to get the best performing hard drive for your needs.

• Rotation Speed

  This is how fast the drive's spindle spins in revolutions per minute (RPM). Most drives are rated at either 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM.

• Buffer Size

  This buffer is the data cache for frequently accessed data. Instead of reading the data from the hard drive, it is read from the cache which is much faster. Buffer sizes range from 2MB up to 8MB.

• Interface

  The two most popular interfaces are EIDE and SCSI. SCSI is more for servers and is also more expensive. The EIDE interface, also called Ultra ATA (UATA), is more mainstream and will suite most users fine.

  However, there is another emerging interface called Serial ATA (SATA). There are a number of advantages to SATA over EIDE (or UATA). One of the advantages I like is the fact the SATA cable is more compact and does not block air flow in the case. The SATA interface specification is also set for a higher transfer rate of 150 MB/sec. Hard drive performance is not near this level yet so there is no rush to upgrade. However, if your motherboard has SATA support or you have a SATA controller card, then my advice is to go with an SATA drive. SATA is the future interface for hard drives so you have nothing to lose.

• Average Read/Write Seek Time

  This is the average amount of time in milliseconds it takes the read/write head to move to another location. The less time it takes, the faster the data is returned.

Hard drive sizes keep getting larger and larger. I can think of a few uses for all that space such as storing video clips or movies, doing video editing, storing all your CD music as MP3 or WAV, or creating a secondary partition to backup your primary. But even then, it is unlikely you would ever outgrow a typical hard drive of today, at least not in the lifespan of the computer. My advice is to go for performance over size. Get a hard drive with 7200 RPM, an 8MB buffer, and a low seek time.

My hard drives have always been from Western Digital. Browse through this fine selection of Western Digital hard drives. They have always performed great for me. However, the manufacturer is really not all that important. Go with whatever manufacturer you are comfortable and familiar with. Look at the specs and go for a top performer. Another popular hard drive manufacturer is Seagate. Browse the selection of Seagate hard drives.