Computer hard drive choice

[joelryan2k]

Hi all

I'm putting a computer together from spare parts and I'm wondering what hard drive to put in it.

It will be a K62+ 500 on an Epox MVP3G2 mainboard. I believe it supports ATA33. I have a WD 30GB 5400 RPM drive currently and a Seagate Barracuda 40 GB 7200 RPM on the way.

How much of an improvement will the 7200 be over the 5400 in the K62+ system? Would it be limited by the ATA33 interface? Limited by the CPU? ... or something else?

I know it's hard to make generalizations for this type of question but anything will help... maybe some links to some articles? I browsed the FAQs but didn't see anything.

Thanks a 10^6!
-- Joel

 

[tenoc]

The Seagate probably will be a bit quicker in terms of seek times.

Your whole system is limited by the HDD interface, as you quessed,
but should be fine for office tasks and surfing.

You didn't mention video concerns so you also are aware it's not
going to be a major gaming rig!

 

[joelryan2k]

So you're saying the ATA33 interface will limit the 7200 drive on the K6-2 500?

Yeah I realize this won't be great for games but I'm also putting a geforce2 MX ($45) in it so it will be able to handle some games. It's mainly for office tasks, some 2D games.. with the emphasis on CHEAP.

Thanks for the response
-- Joel

 

[MisterMe]

I'm always amazed at how much more smoothly an older system runs when it gets a transplant to a newer modern 7200 rpm drive. I would say that the ATA33 will not be as much a bottleneck as your 500 Mhz engine. To make things ultimately run faster, you need more horsepower. Even still, the new hard drive will bring a new level of appreciation to your system and maybe, just maybe, you can wait for those hot new AMD chips on the horizon...then you'll be set...

 

[hmsrolst]

I would also think that the Barracuda would be faster, but you could try both and see whether you'd notice the difference (if you wanted to save the Barracuda for another, more capable system). With everyday kinds of tasks, my experience is that the difference between 512K and 2MB caches makes more of a difference than the difference between 5400 and 7200 rpm.

 

[InsaneMorphius]

hmsrolst,

"Ditto"

Go with the Seagate by all means, not only a faster drive, but larger as well

 

[ahsia]

In general, the bottleneck of most computer is the hard drive. We have a bunch of PII 400 at work, and they had old WD 4gb drives. After upgrading them to Barracuda IV 7200rpm, it made a world of difference. Even if you have a lower-end system, such as a Celeron, PII, Duron or K62, one of the latest 7200rpm HDs will make a huge difference over the 5400rpm drives.