What specs do I need to look for for new hard drive?

[kregger]

I have a Western Digital 20-GB 5400-RPM Ultra ATA/100 Hard Disk. I definately want around 80 to 120 GBs at 7200 RMP.

But do I have to get ATA/100 or can it be ATA/133? I asked a Gateway tech on that chat thingy. He said I could get an ATA/133 and it would be faster. But I got the impression that he didn't actually know what he was talking about. How could I find out if ATA/133 would work on my system and not bottleneck or something.

What is Ultra? Would I need to get an Ultra ATA?

And what's the difference between EIDE and IDE? Can I use either?

I'm also going to get Windows XP. Does an OEM of XP come with hard drives?

I'd appreciate your help with this and mabye a good place to find a good deal. Thanks!

 

[GrayWolf2000]

EIDE and IDE are basically the same thing. So are Ultra DMA and ATA. You can buy an ATA 133 hard drive but if your motherboard doesn't support it, you will only get ATA 100 speeds. If you really want ATA 133, you can buy a PCI controller for around $50. I would suggest picking a hard drive based on the seek time and transfer speed (ATA100, ATA133, etc.) Hope this helps.

 

[mee987]

<< But do I have to get ATA/100 or can it be ATA/133? >>


Your current system (motherboard, specifically) probably doesn't support ATA133, but if you bought an ATA133 drive it will run fine at ATA100 or 66. The speed of the drive will bump down to the lower speed between the 2 devices (mobo and HDD).



<< What is Ultra? Would I need to get an Ultra ATA? >>


Ignore the "ultra," just look at whether the drive is ATA100 or 133



<< And what's the difference between EIDE and IDE? Can I use either? >>


You can pretty much ignore these too. If the drive is ATA100 or 133, it is an IDE drive.



<< I'm also going to get Windows XP. Does an OEM of XP come with hard drives? >>


No.

 

[cholley]

try to find out what your bios limits are as far as size, www.z-buy.com for a good deal

 

[CSoup]

too bad storagereview is out of business. ATA66/100/133 should not really matter other than that newer drives usually have the newer interfaces. What you care about is access time, seek time, burst transfer, and sustained transfer measurements.

 

[richleader]

Just get what's on sale. Really. With ATA 100, having 7800RPM isn't as important, though it is nice if you can afford it, but not as much of a benefit as it was in ata66 days. Is that compusa $90 for 80gb still on sale?

 

[kregger]

Thanks for the info guys! You've been a big help.

 

[WW]

Actually Storagereview is NOT going away. One guy will be running it instead of two. If you are looking for a fast hard drive, that's the place to check first. The western digitals with the 8 meg buffer are the fastest IDE drives currently, but only come in 100 and 120 gig sizes and are priced accordingly. The new IBM 120GXP comes in 40, 80, and 120, and might fit your budget better. Also the Maxtor D740X drives are similar in price.

 

[Jman13]

<< Just get what's on sale. Really. With ATA 100, having 7800RPM isn't as important, though it is nice if you can afford it, but not as much of a benefit as it was in ata66 days. Is that compusa $90 for 80gb still on sale? >>



Correct me if I'm wrong, but ATA xxx simply refers to the maximum speed of the interface. A 7200 RPM drive with the same areal density as another 5400 RPM drive will be significantly faster. The ata100 will not boost the speed of the 5400 RPM drives...but the higher density platters on new 5400RPM drives make them much faster than the 7200RPM drives of a few years ago...maybe that's what you're thinking of.

 

[mee987]

Jman is right, the ATA standard only affects the maximum possible transfer rate (buffered read) -- if you want fast sustained read speed, you need to get a 7200 rpm drive.

 

[Nothinman]

Jman is right, the ATA standard only affects the maximum possible transfer rate (buffered read) -- if you want fast sustained read speed, you need to get a 7200 rpm drive.

Actually if you want good fast sustained reading speeds, you should get a nice 15K RPM SCSI160 drive =)

Also ATA/133 includes a bigger max drive size, ATA/100 and below are limited to 127G.

 

[mee987]

From the questions this guy asked in the original message, I think he should stay away from SCSI for now =)

 

[Nothinman]

From the questions this guy asked in the original message, I think he should stay away from SCSI for now =)

I wasn't suggesting he get one, specially since when most people see the need for a controller card (over $100 for that) and the price of the drives compard to IDE, they run away screaming. I just like pushing SCSI because I have a fully (well, minus the CDRW) SCSI system myself.

But if I had to buy IDE again I'd get a ATA/100 7200RPM drive before a ATA/133 5400 RPM drive any day.