[ HD ] Is it a good choice?

[zm2002]

I need help on taking a decision ...

... my system is:

Pentium III 600EB Copermine
MotherBoard ASUS P3V4X (chipset VIA AGP4x BUS133)
DRAM 256 Mb PC133
Riva TNT2 32Mb
HD Western Digital Caviar 20Gb 7200rpm
Sound Blaster Live! Value
Monitor Sony 19"


[1] I was thinking of replacing my Hard Drive ... to a Western Digital 120Gb 8Mb cache 7200 rpm ... will it be a good option for now and "the future"? Sooner or later I'll change to a Pentium 4 system ...

[2] Does anyone know if there will be MotherBoards with Serial ATA and Paralel ATA at the same time?

[3] Should I be concerned about buying this HD with Serial ATA on it's way?


Thanks allot!
ZM

 

[Soulkeeper]

i wouldn't even worry about serial ata it isn't gonna be mainstream till next year
and it offers no real performance gains
if you need a hard drive you might as well get one now
the western digital 8mb cache ones are great i hear

 

[lsman]

to answer (1):
yes, but make sure your MB BIOS is updated and support larger drive, or you may need the Western Digital EZBIOS or whatever to help you make use of the drive.
to answer (2):
For AMD board:
MSI here
and also Abit here
For P4:
Asus P4S8X with SIS 648 chipset
Soyo will have it on 845E
....

(newegg has MSI KT4 Ultra-SR, serial ata optional $128, Abit AT7-MAX2 has everything for $180! Asus A7V8X for $185.
and P4: ASUS P4S8X for $146, good value... u may want this now! )

 

[zm2002]

Thank you both!

Any more opinions?

Thanks
zm

 

[zm2002]

What about these 2 discs:

Western Digital 120Gb 8Mb cache 7200 rpm
and
IBM Deskstar 120GXP 120Gb 2Mb cache 7200 rpm

Which one you think it's best and more "future-performance-proof"?


Thanks for the attention,
ZM

 

[lsman]

IBM exit their HD business not long ago, sold it. Not that they will not warrenty their drive, but hard to say how easy the parts will come by.
other co. (Maxtor and Seagate) will have 8MB "special edition" soon.

All in all, both are good and i like WD for a quiet operation (had a 2mb 30G 7200rpm, very quiet, not sure about the 8mb)

(actually just got 2 100G 8mb WD, put in on FS forum, if no one interested, it will be my RAID)

also, you can consider the seagate barracuda IV too.

 

[zm2002]

Any more opinions? I need to choose wether to buy it or not ...

Thanks
ZM

 

[JSSheridan]

I have the same motherboard as you, a P3V4X. I bought an 80GB version of the special edition drive that you are looking at, and it's worked well for me. Keep in mind however that our EIDE controllers only operate at 66MB/s, so the performance improvement might not be as much as you expect. This is a good HD for future computers though. I'm planning on putting it in my new system that I'm building around the first of 2003. Hope this has been helpful. Peace.

 

[zm2002]

Does anyone knows a site where I can find direct comparison between

Western Digital 120Gb 8Mb cache 7200 rpm
and
IBM Deskstar 120GXP 120Gb 2Mb cache 7200 rpm

?

Thanks allot,
zm