Build Your Own

Home PC Computer System

There are many types of hard drives available and most people just concern themselves about capacity, however there are other elements to consider when selecting hard drives for the home pc computer system that you're building yourself. Things to consider when shopping for a hard drive:

Hard Drives

Interface

The interface of a drive is how the hard drive comunicates with the rest of the computer. The following hard driver interfaces are avalible:

• IDE cables can be distinguished by their wide 40-pin connector, coloured first-pin wire, and usually white "ribbon" style cables. This technology is rapidly deteriorating, as it cannot keep up with the increasing speed of current hard drives. IDE based hard drives do not exceed 7,200 RPM.
• SATA drives reach up to 10,000 RPM. If you want Serial ATA, you will either need to purchase a motherboard that supports it, or purchase a PCI card that will allow you to connect your hard drive. Note that only certain motherboard implementations will allow you to install Windows XP to a Serial ATA hard drive.
• SCSI, although more expensive and less user friendly, is usualy worthwile on high performance workstations and servers. Few consumer desktop motherboards built today support SCSI, and for building a new computer, the work needed to implement it may be outweighed by the relative simplicity and performance of IDE and SATA. SCSI hard drives can reach rotational speeds of up to 15,000 RPM, though these are generaly prohibitively expensive.
• USB or IEEE1394 can be used for connecting external drives. An external drive enclosure can convert an internal drive to an external drive.

Cache

The cache of a Hard drive is a faster media than the hard drive itself, which is normally 2MB (in low-end), 8MB (standard), or 16MB (large disks only) large. The existence of a cache increases the speeds of retrieving short bursts of information, and also prefetches data. Most modern hard drives have 8MB cache, improving performance with a relatively small price difference when compared to 2MB.

Formfactor

• 3.5 inches is usually used in desktops.
• 2.5 inches is usually used in laptops.

Capacity

As a rule-of-thumb minimum, you will need a hard drive capable of holding at least 20GB, although the largest drives available on the market can contain 1TB (1000GB). Few people will need disks this large - for most people, somewhere in the range of 80-200GB will be sufficient. The amount of space you will need can depend on many factors, such as how many high-end games and programs you want to install, how many media files you wish to store, or how many high-quality videos you want to render. It is usually better to get a hard drive with a capacity slightly larger than you anticipate using, in case you need more in the future. However, should you run out of space, you may add an additional hard drive if you have any free IDE or Serial ATA connectors, or through an external interface, such as USB or FireWire.

Rotational Speed

The speed that the hard drives platters spin at. However drives above 7,200 RPM usually have limited capacity, and a much higher price than 7,200RPM drives of the same capacity, making drives above 7,200RPM not ideal for the desktop.

Noise and Heat

The seeking sound of some hard drives can be very irritating, as well can be their rotation sound. Some hard drives can also generate a lot of heat, sometimes even needing aditional cooling to work at resonable temperatures. If your case is not very well ventilated, this is something to worry about.

Warranty

Many manufactures offer warranties ranging from 30 days (typically OEM) to up to five years. It is well worth spending an extra few dollars to extend the drive warranty as long as possible.

Maxtor L01P200 Internal 7200 RPM 200 GB Hard Drive