12 replies to this topic

[Santa-san]

Hiya! I've just bought some new gear for my computer, motherboard etc. but I'm not sure what type of harddrive to buy. I have a 120gig IDE ATA100, which I boot from, BUT shall I buy a serial-ata drive or a IDE ATA133? My motherboard supports just about everything , but does anyone know if it will cause hardware conflicts to run Serial-ATA and IDE ATA drives simultaniously?

[hu5h]

nooo that shouldn't be a problem. I was planning to buy a new hdd too but I think I'm going to stick with ide for awhile so that I can go RAID. I don't know if there's any conflicts if you raid 100 and 133 drives together tho.... shouldn't be a problem ne~~?

sata should be faster tho so might wanna go with that

[yggg]

i remember that the computer vendors said to be it doesnt matter wat speed ur HDD is...it will adjust (optimal or lower frequency) to ur bus speed... the only problem i guess is whether there are enough power supply lines (2 dvd drives + 2 HDD == lots of wires haha..but then my pc is rather old too)

[ZONElover]

I have no problem with that.... my PC works with 100 and 133.... but you i think you may have a a problem if your motherboard is different from your memory stick...(don't know the exactly name.. the Memory RAM)

[Santa-san]

I have a Asus A7V880 KT880 motherboard board, and a Kingston 512Mb DDR PC3200 400MHz CL3 memory. My old motherboard had the VIA KT133 chipset... Now THAT'S old! It woz the chipset from hell...

But back to the harddrives; are you guys saying that it would cause no problem to start using the serial-ata channels when my two ide channels are filled up? (Which they always are) Also; each IDE channel can hold 2 units, but how many units (in a sequence) can an serial-ata channel hold?

[agb]

For now, I'd buy which ever is cheaper (but still quality) models.

I mean, unless u'r doing serious HDD intensive work like DB or alot of reencoding, HDD performance diff between SATA and IDE won't be too diff. Sata's possibilities are still being tapped and are expected to have a longer future. However, IDE might be better buy for now because it's easy to get external enclosures

So, basically, instead of the bus type, I'd look at other characteristics like mem buffer / rotational speed / noise level / reliability / reputation. Reputation and reliability are particularly important, but it only applies to the model you are looking at than the manufacturer. Every single major HDD manufacturer has some crummy models.

BT'ing is particularly hard on the HDD, infact, the only HDD's that I've found most reliable despite 24/7 BT traffic are laptop HDD's. Which is why I use my laptop for BT

Then, once you have a few models which satisfy your criteria there, then look at price.

[Santa-san]

I am thinking of buying a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250R0 250Gb 7200rpm 16Mb UDMA133 IDE.
It?Ls got some pretty nifty specs! And I think the price is right too, about 1345:- / $192.
The only thing I'm not sure about, is if the motherboard I mentioned supports it. But it should, right? I haven't been able to figure it out, since the manufacturers homepage(s) only makes me go ...

[agb]

I'd say get it. Worst case u'll have to buy an external IDE enclosure and plug it into the PC with USB2 port

[Santa-san]

I?Lll do so then! My landlord is installing a proper broadband connection where I live, which (hopefully) will be finished in a month or so. And the new HD will probably be useful...

[Santa-san]

I was out shopping for some cd/dvd media for my DVD-rom yesterday, and for the first ever I found some dual-layer DVD-R. But you won't BELIEVE the price! For one (1) dual-layer disc I was asked asked to shell out 89kr/$13/?�7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What kind of price is that? Really??

I buy regular DVD-R for about 20kr/$3/?�2.........
Is this just pricey sweden, or is like this where you guys live too?

[agb]

I was out shopping for some cd/dvd media for my DVD-rom yesterday, and for the first ever I found some dual-layer DVD-R. But you won't BELIEVE the price! For one (1) dual-layer disc I was asked asked to shell out 89kr/$13/?�7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What kind of price is that? Really??

I buy regular DVD-R for about 20kr/$3/?�2.........
Is this just pricey sweden, or is like this where you guys live too?

Yep, that's about the going price for DVD DL's these days. I fact, that is the price for a DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL's aren't available yet (at least not as of last month) The dual-layer tech is still very immature. They only became available last Sept or so. Started ~$25. Now at the site I go to, they are down to $9 + shipping. It won't go down to 2-3$ for another 8-12 months at least

[Asayan]

Dual Layer DVD's will never down to $2-3, because of difficult production process and lot of defective rejects. They're intermediate between DVD's and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD's, and will be replaced by them.

[agb]

Dual Layer DVD's will never down to $2-3, because of difficult production process and lot of defective rejects. They're intermediate between DVD's and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD's, and will be replaced by them.

Same thing was said of DVD+/-R's when they were $15 each. Now they are <.50$ US

Blue ray recordables (when they come out in two years) will be priced initially at ~$20-30 probably, but will go down in price