Purchasing a 2nd Harddrive

[jordanpr]

I am currently running an ASUS N4L-VM DH board with a stock case 350w power supply and my primary HD is a Samsung P120 250.0 GB @ 7200 RPMS.

Would adding another hard drive hurt the fact that my power supply is a little on the weaker side?

Also, I'm about to start a lot of music recording, so what would be a good value hard drive, for say, oh, 500Gigs, that is quiet and affordable and compatable with my board and a pretty weak PSU?

also, what the heck does OEM mean?

and, if I get something OEM, it looks like I won't be getting the cables. Is all I need just a power cable and a SATA connection cable?

I'd prefer to get a 3.0ghz/sec hard drive (I think?)

thanks in advance

 

[ch33zw1z]

1. Your PSU should be enough for a 2nd hard disk
2. Brand? I would go with either Seagate or a Western Digital drive. I've used both and been ok with each (knock on wood). I would stay away from Maxtor.
3. OEM=Original Equipment Manufacturer. Basically Non-retail, you wont get a retail box, cable, manual, etc..just the bare drive, still covered under warranty.
4. All you need is a SATA cable and a power cable. For powering SATA drives, either the 4-pin Molex (old style) or the SATA power connector is good, but NEVER use both on a single drive simultaneously.
5. What you mean is 3Gb/s, which is the SATAII specification for maximum speed. SATAII is also called SATA3.0, SATA300, etc..not sure why, more of an advertising thing.

 

[Dahak]

The power supply should be fine,
as for oem hard drives, usually its just the bare drive, no cables, no quick install guide, no fancy box and usually ive seen it before where the retail kit have only 1 year warranty where as oem had 3-5 depending on manufacture. ie maxtor,western digital, samsung are usually 3 years, seagate usually 5 years,

As for quite drives, i've personally like seagate, but others may have different views.

Currently in my main machine i have a seagate 320 and a maxtor 300 and my maxtor is really loud.

dang it, ch33zw1z posted while i was typing

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i'd go with a samsung drive right about now, they run cooler/quieter and just as fast.. the 7200.10 drives run a little on the hot side... and WD doesn't really have anything worth getting besides the overpriced raptors

 

[ch33zw1z]

I use a few of the WD KS drives, SATAII, 16mb cache, cool and quiet. work great for me

sorry Dahak, fast fingers!

 

[jordanpr]

Haha.

Anyone want to Newegg me some examples of your favorites?

 

[jordanpr]

Thanks by the way