Will I notice the difference?

NeuromancerWGDD'U · 06-24-2005, 08:12 AM

My old hard-drive is coughing up blood, and producing grinding noises that hint of impending doom. As such, I am now in the market for a new hard-drive, but I'm also on a budget

.

I've been looking at a few hard-drives in the 80-90 dollar range, and I want to know; will I really even see a difference in speed between a drive with an 8.5 ms seek time, and a drive with 8.9 ms seek time? The 8.5 and the 8.9 ms seek time drives seem pretty mixed when it comes to price (almost as if there was no difference between them at all). If it matters, I use my computer for gaming and music -- sometimes at the same time. I also occasionally use it for music editing, but that's more processor/RAM intensive.

As a side-question, what is "NCQ"? I've seen it on a drive I'm considering (I'm pretty darn sure my hardware doesn't support it), but I have no clue as to what it is.

EDIT: I posted a while back about how my PS/2 ports had been tweaking out on me. I figured out why. Somehow, the hard-drive is causing the mouse/keyboard to stop responding/go insane. When it happens, the entire system skips for a second, the hard-drive LED turns solid, and the PS/2 issues start.

I2EN3GADE · 06-24-2005, 08:25 AM

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822152014

that is a good HD for $80.

no you wont notice the difference.

NeuromancerWGDD'U · 06-24-2005, 08:29 AM

Oh, should've mentioned, I'm looking at 160 gig SATA 150's (what can I say, I'm narrow minded at times).

I2EN3GADE · 06-24-2005, 08:39 AM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144152
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152015

both of these look good.

kof2000 · 06-24-2005, 08:48 AM

if your mobo dont have sata ports you'll need an add on card for those sata drives.

kof2000 · 06-24-2005, 08:49 AM

compusa is selling a 200gb hddfor 90 dollars right now.

NeuromancerWGDD'U · 06-24-2005, 08:49 AM

Mobo has 2......or 4?....ah well, some amount of SATA 150 ports.

NeuromancerWGDD'U · 06-24-2005, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kof2000

compusa is selling a 200gb hddfor 90 dollars right now.

Is that a nation-wide sale, or localized? I suspect the latter, but...you never know.

LittleHoov · 06-25-2005, 06:30 AM

also i dont think you will actually get those access times, i dont know how they rate them, mine is rated at 8.something i think, and while running HDTach i got an average access time of about 13ms...

mgoldb2 · 06-25-2005, 07:02 AM

Quote:

what is "NCQ"?

Long explanation
http://www.seagate.com/content/docs/...x_sata_ncq.pdf

Short explanation
http://www.neoseeker.com/Hardware/faqs/kb/15,71.html

06-24-2005, 08:12 AM	#1 (permalink)
NeuromancerWGDD'U Gold Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: I miss Oregon... Age: 18 Posts: 477	Will I notice the difference? My old hard-drive is coughing up blood, and producing grinding noises that hint of impending doom. As such, I am now in the market for a new hard-drive, but I'm also on a budget . I've been looking at a few hard-drives in the 80-90 dollar range, and I want to know; will I really even see a difference in speed between a drive with an 8.5 ms seek time, and a drive with 8.9 ms seek time? The 8.5 and the 8.9 ms seek time drives seem pretty mixed when it comes to price (almost as if there was no difference between them at all). If it matters, I use my computer for gaming and music -- sometimes at the same time. I also occasionally use it for music editing, but that's more processor/RAM intensive. As a side-question, what is "NCQ"? I've seen it on a drive I'm considering (I'm pretty darn sure my hardware doesn't support it), but I have no clue as to what it is. EDIT: I posted a while back about how my PS/2 ports had been tweaking out on me. I figured out why. Somehow, the hard-drive is causing the mouse/keyboard to stop responding/go insane. When it happens, the entire system skips for a second, the hard-drive LED turns solid, and the PS/2 issues start. __________________ My little machine: S423 Pentium 4 1.3Ghz, 4x256 16-bit RIMM RAM, 32MB TNT2 video card. I think it may be time to upgrade... The upgrade! My machine will soon be a 939 X2 4000+, 4x512 DDR400, and an 8600GTS. Last edited by NeuromancerWGDD'U; 06-24-2005 at 08:42 AM.

06-24-2005, 08:29 AM	#3 (permalink)
NeuromancerWGDD'U Gold Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: I miss Oregon... Age: 18 Posts: 477	Oh, should've mentioned, I'm looking at 160 gig SATA 150's (what can I say, I'm narrow minded at times). __________________ My little machine: S423 Pentium 4 1.3Ghz, 4x256 16-bit RIMM RAM, 32MB TNT2 video card. I think it may be time to upgrade... The upgrade! My machine will soon be a 939 X2 4000+, 4x512 DDR400, and an 8600GTS.

06-24-2005, 08:48 AM	#5 (permalink)
kof2000 Diamond Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Oahu Age: 26 Posts: 6,273	if your mobo dont have sata ports you'll need an add on card for those sata drives. __________________ QX9650@4.2 swiftech \|9600@3.0 9700 nt 780i \| 790fx 8gb ddr1200 \| 8gb ddr1200 2x150gb 3x1tb \|2x250gb 3x8800gtx \|3x2900xt 1gb 2x20xdvdrw \|2x20xdvdrw 15in1 card reader \|15in1 card reader ng15/g9 \|ng15/g9 1200w psu \|1200w psu 2x28" LCD \|2x28" LCD

06-24-2005, 08:49 AM	#6 (permalink)
kof2000 Diamond Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Oahu Age: 26 Posts: 6,273	compusa is selling a 200gb hddfor 90 dollars right now. __________________ QX9650@4.2 swiftech \|9600@3.0 9700 nt 780i \| 790fx 8gb ddr1200 \| 8gb ddr1200 2x150gb 3x1tb \|2x250gb 3x8800gtx \|3x2900xt 1gb 2x20xdvdrw \|2x20xdvdrw 15in1 card reader \|15in1 card reader ng15/g9 \|ng15/g9 1200w psu \|1200w psu 2x28" LCD \|2x28" LCD

06-24-2005, 08:49 AM	#7 (permalink)
NeuromancerWGDD'U Gold Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: I miss Oregon... Age: 18 Posts: 477	Mobo has 2......or 4?....ah well, some amount of SATA 150 ports. __________________ My little machine: S423 Pentium 4 1.3Ghz, 4x256 16-bit RIMM RAM, 32MB TNT2 video card. I think it may be time to upgrade... The upgrade! My machine will soon be a 939 X2 4000+, 4x512 DDR400, and an 8600GTS.

06-24-2005, 08:25 AM	#2 (permalink)
I2EN3GADE Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Illinois Age: 19 Posts: 155	http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822152014 that is a good HD for $80. no you wont notice the difference.

06-24-2005, 08:39 AM	#4 (permalink)
I2EN3GADE Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Illinois Age: 19 Posts: 155	http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144152 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152015 both of these look good.

06-25-2005, 06:30 AM	#9 (permalink)
LittleHoov Gold Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Climax Springs, Missouri Age: 21 Posts: 302	also i dont think you will actually get those access times, i dont know how they rate them, mine is rated at 8.something i think, and while running HDTach i got an average access time of about 13ms... __________________ ZTSystems Notebook Intel Core Duo 2 TS5450 1.66ghz 3GB DDR2 RAM 250GB Hard Drive Nvidia 8600M GT OCed at 600/430 plus a host of other goodies.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode