Topic: New HDD

[mistybear]

I'm looking at getting a new HDD for Michael's computer, but I'm completely confused at to what the different types mean.

I was looking at Western Digital 250GB or 320GB. But looking at this site, LINK I'm a little confused. 

This what it says on the motherboard manual;

On-Board IDE
􀁨 One Ultra DMA 66/100 IDE controllers integrated in ICH6R.
- Supports PIO, Bus Master operation modes.
- Can connect up to Two Ultra ATA drives.
􀁨 Serial ATA 150 controller integrated in ICH6R.
- Up to 150MB/sec transfer speed.
- Can connect up to four Serial ATA devices.

I hope that's the right bit.

[Sandra]

Ok the first part Ultra DMA says you can connect up to 2 Ultra ATA drives, so if you have a DVD and a CD drive then those will be used up.
So this leaves you with only the Serial ATA (SATA) options for your extra hard drive/s.
If your case can accomodate them then you can have a total of 4 SATA hard drives and 2 DVD/CD drives connected to your motherboard.

The specifications says Serial ATA 150 controller, this is commonly called SATA or SATA 1.
SATA 11 use a 300 controller for faster data transfer.
You can run a SATA 11 from a SATA 1 controller but it will only run at SATA 1 speed.

Some hard drives have 2mb or 8mb cache and some have 16mb cache, usually the higher the cache the better and quicker the drive works.

RAID hard drives tend to be more expensive and often have a longer guarantee but otherwise will run the in the same way as non raid drives, although some like the raptors can run at 10,000 rpm instead of the usual 7,200 rpm.

2.5 inch hard drives are used in laptops, the standard pc ones are 3.5 inch.

So looking at your list you can ignore all the 2.5 inch ones at the end of the list, also anything that doesnt say Serial ATA or Serial ATA 11.
Theres no real point getting a RAID version, unless its on a special offer and is cheaper than the non raid version.

So that should narrow your list down a little, compare the different ones that are left for guarantee and delivery charges etc.

To connect the SATA drive to the pc you need to have a spare SATA data lead, (usually a thin red one compared to the wide flat grey ribbon for IDE drives), and a SATA power lead, although WD usually have the option of using the SATA or standard 4 pin molex IDE power lead.

[mistybear]

    Thats certainly helps alot. I was going to order one tonight but I just discovered that the friend I was going to ask to pick it up is away, so I'll leave it till next week.
More time for more questions. 

[mistybear]

What does 160GB per platter mean.

[Sandra]

If you remember the old type of record players that used to hold about 8 or 10 vinyl records and auto play them when one finished the arm came back and the next record dropped onto the turntable to start playing.

Hard drives are similar to that stack of records but with a small gap between each disc or platter with an arm that moves across the platter, on both the lower and upper surfaces, in order to read and/or write data from/to the drive.

The reason why hard drives are getting higher capacity for storage while still being the same physical size is that they are now managing to increase the amount of data stored per platter and at the same time they are making the platters thinner and with smaller gaps between them so they can have more platters inside than they had originally.

So a 320gig drive with 160gig per platter would have 2 platters, if it only had 80gig per platter it would take 4 platters.

I havent really looked at how many platters a drive has but I suppose if you could get the same capacity on a 2 platter drive as you could on a 3 or 4 platter drive then the lower number of platters could possibly make the drive more reliable as the number of arms that read/write data would be reduced so less chance of one of them wearing out.

[mistybear]

   I wondered how they worked, now I know, makes sense. I suppose the reason they only say 160GB per platter only on a few, is that, the computer savy would know what they would normally be otherwise.
Thats the difficulty shopping online, there isn't a sales assistant you can quiz about these things. Some do have live support, but not at the hours I shop.

[Sandra]

As I said MB I never even thought about the size or number of platters before.
I just received my new Western Digital 500gig SATA 11 hard drive this morning and I cant see anything on the drive itself that mentions the size or number of platters, so I havent a clue whats inside it 

[mistybear]

I did see one that has a window so you can see what goes on inside. Personally I don't see the point.

500GB that should be enough room for a few movies. 

[Sandra]

Its to replace a 160gig drive in one pc so I can replace a 120gig drive in this pc as I have another pc all set up ready to go that needs a hard drive.
Thought it was better to buy a big one to use in one of my pcs than to buy a smaller one just to have a pc ready to sell on.

It will mean that this pc has 2 x 160gig drives in and my other will have 1 x 500 and 3 x 250 in making 1.25 teragig in total.
Of course I also have my 250gig  external USB hard drive for temporary storage 

[sam]

hehe almost beating me now...

I have 500gb inside my main machine... and 3 usb X 500gb external (one I used as a compeltely media centre connected to tv aswell)- transfer speed is more than sufficient for backups / films.... oh and I have another 400gb of space on my other externals and my linux machine.... bit overkill oh well am I paranoid about backup or something..

[mistybear]

How can you connect a HDD to the TV, actually how can you connect your PC to the TV. I tried a while back and all it showed was Google Earth DeskTop, but nothing else. 

Also I noticed that the HDD we have installed already, is a 8mb cache, does that mean I have to get another 8mb cache or doesn't it matter. As you said 16mb cache is faster.

[sam]

well I have made a little media centre that has the right decoders on and most importantly video out..

as for connecting the computer to the tv , it depends on your computer... but normally quite simply now as most computers have s-video out, it can just be a pain getting the resolution / frequency of the signal to be correct.

[Sandra]

Also I noticed that the HDD we have installed already, is a 8mb cache, does that mean I have to get another 8mb cache or doesn't it matter. As you said 16mb cache is faster.

You can use a 2mb, an 8mb and a 16mb cache drive in any combination MB.
They dont need to be the same unless you are doing a RAID setup and even then I am not 100% certain that it matters even for RAID.

[gmax]

You can use a 2mb, an 8mb and a 16mb cache drive in any combination MB.
They dont need to be the same unless you are doing a RAID setup and even then I am not 100% certain that it matters even for RAID.

A  RAID array will always operate at the speed or capacity of the weakest or smallest drive. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So, obviously, if you're looking to set up a RAID setup, buy two identical drives.I have two WD 160 gig sata HDD's setup
RAID 0 data stripping, it gives me a small increase in speed, but every little bit helps.

[Sandra]

Thats what I thought, it would still work but in the same way as mixing different speeds of ram the ram will run at the lowest speed.

I only really mentioned it as an aside as MB wont be raiding anything but the fridge for quite a while yet