Buying a new harddisk- what should I look for?

[Madmarc]

I'd like to buy a bigger harddisk.
I do now have a 10.1GB IBM UDMA 33 5400 rpm.
Is it worth buying a more expensive 7200rpm / UDMA100 model ?

 

[Rigoletto]

How are you filling that HD I am wondering?

 

[Pretender]

It depends.
a) what do you want a new HD for? Is your current one full and you need a new one, or do you just want a faster one?

b) How quickly do you use up space?


If you're looking for a major performance boost, going from 5400rpm/UDMA33 to 7200/UDMA100 won't give you much of a boost, but if you want to spend a few extra bucks (probably $10-20 extra on a 20GB Hard drive) it can't hurt. Also, before you get the drive, you should make sure your motherboard can support UDMA 100 or 66, otherwise you'll need to get a controller card to fully take advantage of the extra speed (you can use the drive without the card, but you won't get the speed boost of UDMA 66 or 100).

If you just need another hard drive for space, 5400 RPM is probably sufficient and more practical. If you see yourself needing 45GB of space in the near future, 5400 RPM would probably be significantly cheaper then 7200 RPM.

If you have any more questions, I'll try to help.

 

[Phuz]

IBM 75 GXP
Any size @ ATA 100 is rockin.

 

[obeseotron]

ATA66 is barely used ATA100 is absolutely worthless. People see 66MB/sec or 100MB/sec means something. Is a riding lawnmower fast on the Autobahn? The hard drive matters a lot more. The IBM's are currently the best, but the new maxtors may also be nice.

 

[GAZZA]

extremely technical but good info STORAGE REVIEW

 

[Mday]

ibm 75gxp. that's all.

 

[hoomza444]

short and simple:

ata 66 is fine.nothign is even taking advantage of udma/ata 66 let alone ata 100.

if you want ide, then make sure to go for 7200 RPM. as long as it is 7200 rpm, doesn't matter if it is ata 66 or ata 100.

i woudl say go for SCSI and get 10,000 RPM if you really want speed.

 

[ColdTech]

I know someone who is selling a 7200 rpm ata66 27gb maxtor for 115 shipped
LMK if your interested I will have him email ya..

 

[3615buck]

Yes, go for the IBM 75GXP, they are really fast (although I regret the speed drops from 37 to 19 Mb/s on the inner circles of the disk).

 

[HellRaven]

The above mentioned IBM 75GXP's and the Quantum LM+ drives are usually recognized as the best of the current 7200rpm ata66/100 drives. They were the top two on storagereview as well. The Quantum is noisier, but a little cheaper and a bit faster. The IBM's are slightly slower in some benchmarks, but is quieter and has the IBM name which means alot to some people as far as reliability. I personally have a Quantum LM+ 30gb hard drive that I bought for about $140 3 months ago and it smokes (not literally, figuratively! ). No problems whatsoever. And since I got a PAl3065 with a huge delta fan and a couple of case fans, I don't notice the extra noise too much

 

[3615buck]

I don't think the Quantum is fatser, check it at :
www.storagereview.com
Sisoft Sandra rated my 75 GXP at 37 Mb a second.

 

[xtreme2k]

IBM 75GXP is faster overall compared to Quantum LM

 

[Madmarc]

Thanks everybody.
I guess I'll buy an UDMA66/7200 model from IBM
Bye!!