How to Choose the Right PC Components - Part 2 - the Hard Drive
In my previous post I talked about the heart of the PC – the memory and CPU. So let’s jump right in and see what other components are available for your new computer system.
The hard drive is where your documents and programs are stored. The most important spec is the size, usually measured in gigabytes or GBs. (if you come across a drive in megabytes or MBs, run!) The smallest drives available nowadays are 40GBs, which is plenty of space if you plan surfing the web, word processing, and sending e-mails. It’s also a decent size if the PC is part of a network since you will probably be saving most of your work to a server. If you plan on keeping a lot of MP3 music files or pictures on your computer, you’ll definitely want something larger. The jump from 40GB to 160GB is often less than $50.00.
The other specs of the drive describe its interface and speed. This is often what separates the budget PCs from a more expensive model. A SATA drive (or serial ATA) is the standard interface for most business class PCs and it is what you should look for. A budget PC may include a drive with older technology: IDE or EIDE. The only reason to choose this older technology is to get the absolute cheapest PC you can find. You’ll often find a speed rating 7200 rpm or 5600 rpm (revolutions per minute) which relates to the disk platter speed. The higher the number, the faster your drive, and the faster that document will load. (But then we’re talking milliseconds here.) There’s a 10,000 rpm, but for now it’s probably not worth the $100+ for the upgrade.
There are other hard drive technologies: SCSI and SAS, but these are typically used for servers. In Part Three, we'll discuss optical drives.
Mike Tanney
Product Manager
HLP Associates, Inc.
www.hlp.net
The hard drive is where your documents and programs are stored. The most important spec is the size, usually measured in gigabytes or GBs. (if you come across a drive in megabytes or MBs, run!) The smallest drives available nowadays are 40GBs, which is plenty of space if you plan surfing the web, word processing, and sending e-mails. It’s also a decent size if the PC is part of a network since you will probably be saving most of your work to a server. If you plan on keeping a lot of MP3 music files or pictures on your computer, you’ll definitely want something larger. The jump from 40GB to 160GB is often less than $50.00.
The other specs of the drive describe its interface and speed. This is often what separates the budget PCs from a more expensive model. A SATA drive (or serial ATA) is the standard interface for most business class PCs and it is what you should look for. A budget PC may include a drive with older technology: IDE or EIDE. The only reason to choose this older technology is to get the absolute cheapest PC you can find. You’ll often find a speed rating 7200 rpm or 5600 rpm (revolutions per minute) which relates to the disk platter speed. The higher the number, the faster your drive, and the faster that document will load. (But then we’re talking milliseconds here.) There’s a 10,000 rpm, but for now it’s probably not worth the $100+ for the upgrade.
There are other hard drive technologies: SCSI and SAS, but these are typically used for servers. In Part Three, we'll discuss optical drives.
Mike Tanney
Product Manager
HLP Associates, Inc.
www.hlp.net
posted by Derek Rowan at
5:43 PM
