Recommend me a Hard Drive!

[Wazzerphuk]

As the title says, I'm feeling the pinch in terms of space and I need something meaty so I don't have to keep juggling things around.

My current setup(s) are a p4 2.6ghz ht, 512ram win2k and a 1.6 amd sempron 2800+ with 512 ram winxp.

My current HDDs are all IDE, but both mobos are capable of running SATA. I've never had or setup a SATA drive before, is it as simple as IDE and can it be run side by side with IDE drives without a loss of performance?

In terms of size I'm open to suggestions as value and reliability are the two things I am after.

Cheers!

 

[dysfunction]

SATA is very easy to get up and running...

This is a good drive to get...

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM - Ebuyer

 

[Zenith.UK]

My first recommendation would be to get one of these...

Sharkoon Quickport Duo.
It allows you to hotswap SATA drives and takes both desktop and laptop drives.
Just under £45 from Scan

Then look at getting a Seagate SATA drive... I know they've had some bad press lately, but they have a 5 yr warranty as standard on retail units (3 years on OEM units)
1TB from Scan, £91.97
1.5TB from Scan, £112.55

The Sammy that dysfunction mentioned it also a good unit.

 

[TdC]

the F1 spinpoint 750GB / 1TB / etc is pretty awesome imo

 

[Wazzerphuk]

My first recommendation would be to get one of these...

Sharkoon Quickport Duo.
It allows you to hotswap SATA drives and takes both desktop and laptop drives.
Just under £45 from Scan

I like this a lot I don't like the price so much

 

[Kryten]

Then look at getting a Seagate SATA drive... I know they've had some bad press lately, but they have a 5 yr warranty as standard on retail units (3 years on OEM units)
1TB from Scan, £91.97
1.5TB from Scan, £112.55

The Sammy that dysfunction mentioned it also a good unit.

I'd go for the samsung. Sorry to correct you but the seagates do not have a 5 year warranty, they've been dropped to 3 very recently - this applies to retail and OEM units, something else they've been bashed for. They were very good at sorting the firmware problem but lets just hope its a one off. I'd imagine they hope the same

 

[Wazzerphuk]

And if that drive were to run, say, as a slave to an IDE drive, will the performance be throttled by the IDE?

 

[Sar]

Can you slave a Sata drive off an IDE one?

I didn't think you could (or would want to)?

 

[Sar]

SATA is very easy to get up and running...

This is a good drive to get...

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM - Ebuyer

Hmmm.... tempted...

/strokes chin

 

[nath]

Sata's don't really do primary/slave. They're all primary, as far as I know.

 

[Sar]

Aye, that's what I thought tbh.

Thought it was a bit odd, plus that and they're different techs too.

 

[Helme]

I'd echo the suggestions for the Samsung F1's (500, 750, 1000 GB). I've got the 750gb version myself and it was an most excellent buy, it's fast(like really fast) and dead silent, I've had it for 3-4 months now and I still haven't actually heard it yet while sitting next to my open box.

 

[kirennia]

The samsung 1TB 32mb cache... simply put, I have yet to see another harddrive at a similar size/cost with a 32mb cache (big difference) and I can attest that it is near silent when compared to a number of other harddrives. Installed one two days ago and it's wubbly, not to mention the fact that it's made by samsung, while their ethics could be questioned, their build quality is generally top rate for computer components like this.

Was very surprised having recently switched to a sata dvd reader and 32mb cache harddrive, on my laptop and previous machine, microsoft visual studios took around an hour and a half to install (it's just an incredibly slow to install program) yet with these, 25 minutes and it was done and I don't know how long the prompts were left on the screen...