New hard drive upgrade

K

Knev123

Geek Trainee
Hey guys, firstly i want to thank everyone that helped me upgrade my computer last time, i do love playing HL2, B&W2 on the highest possible settings :good: in this last upgrade nearly everything was bought new, so more like a new rig :P The only thing that wasnt upgraded was the hard drive, i currently have an IDE Maxtor 40Gb. now honestly i have no knowledge of hard drives and suggestions would be helpful... Here is my current rig:

Nvidia (Dell) 7800GTX 256Mb
Amd Athalon 3800+
Corsair XMS 1Gb
Asus A8N SLI deluxe
--> 40 Gb Maxtor IDE <----

Many thanks
 
Ok, well i dunno were to start really, i would suggest looking for a hard drive from a brand like Seagate, Western Digital or Samsung, now the size of the Hard Drive is up to you, do you download allot of stuff like Game Demos? and other things?. Your motherboard will support SATA, i would reccommend purchasing a SATA Hard Drive, these don't use the typical thick IDE cables like IDE Hard Drives, They use cables that are more or less the same thickness as power cables, anyway, take a look on Overclockers UK at Hard Drives, there is allot of Hard Drives, maybe consider buying one with around 250GB, that will last you for a long time (There really 232GB)

SATA Hard Drive @ OCUK
 
well thx 4 the tip and i had a look at OC but also looked at microdirect after reading a post in the storage device section. I think ive found a gd deal and i was wondering on your thoughts.. it is a "320 GB Seagate Barracuda® SATA2 7200rpm 16MB cache oem" @ £56.99 Ex VAT £66.96 Inc VAT. This appears to be pretty nice, a couple of questions though... its OEM so im going to need the correct cables etc?... also i noticed its "SATA2" is this still compatible with my mobo? (ASUS A8N SLi Deluxe)

Any help would be great...

(my future hard drive? :P 320 GB Seagate Barracuda® SATA2 7200rpm 16MB cache oem (Manufacturer's 5yr Warranty) available at Micro Direct Ltd UK )
 
Yea, i think SATA 2 is backwards compatible with SATA, i think a SATA cable will be included even tho its OEM, OEM just means no fancy box and documents etc.., i would of thought your motherboard would have came with a Sata cable too.

Some SATA HDD's have 2 power connectors, standard Molex, and SATA power connector, you only use one of them, if your PSU has a sata connector on them, use that, it's a wierd think looking connector too.
 
SATA and SATA 2 drives are cross-compatible with each other. SATA has a max burst rate of 1.5Gb/s while SATA 2 goes up to 3Gb/s. Keep in mind that these are burst, not sustained, so the added headroom makes little to no difference.

Seagate's 7200.9 or 7200.10 series drives (anything out there right now) are good units. Also, look at Western Digital's offerings.

OEM=Original Equipment Manufacturer. This simply means you get the item, and only the bare minimum accessories, like a driver CD or any necessary cables---depending on the part in question. Also, OEM units tend to carry a much shorter warranty than the retail box products.
 
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