Big Newb Question on Hard drives.

[Phippsp]

I have not yet really begun to look for hard drives I've just got done picking motherboard, video card, and cpu. Now I must pick the hard drive and learn about them enough to know which to get. So im going to ask some questions about them that when I look on new egg and it ask what type I want I might know what to pick.

What should I look for in a good hard drive?
What is a good RPM? What does the RPM do for the hard drive?
What is a good Cache? What does the Cache do for the hard drive?
What is the interface or the hard drive? And what does it do for it?

There are all options that you can choose from off of newegg when you search for a hard drive. I know proble the best way to find the best one would be to click the highest numbered ones but Id really like to know what each thing did for the hard drive so I could understand it much better.

 

[Cromewell]

1. RPM, the more it has the faster the HD is. 7200 is just about standard now
2. Cache is exactly what it's defined as: small fast memory holding recently accessed data, designed to speed up subsequent access to the same data. (dictionary.com) 8MB is what you will find on most drives, 2MB still exists on the lower end (cheaper) models.
3. The interface is how you attach the drive to the computer. this is usually any one of SCSI, PATA, SATA or USB (external HDD). It basically limits the transfer speed between HDD and computer (although the HDD speed usually is the limit not the interface speed).