Looking For a Hard Drive

[Rambo]

Well, I found a 90 GB hardive for £40 including Postage and stuff. What do you think to that? Would that be sufficient to be a gaming PC? Here are the details of the one I'm looking at:

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9

90gb Hard Drive (7200RPM)

Model 6Y090P0

Capacity of 90.0 GB
Ultra ATA/133
FDB Motor
8 MB Cache Buffer
9.3 ms Average Seek Time
7200 RPM

Every hard drive is thoroughly tested and then formatted NTFS filesystem (for Windows XP), so once installed into your computer it is ready to go.

Ok, it's got an 8 MB cache so I suppose that's good....

What about the thing called "NTFS" Filesystem? Is that good or bad? Any other hard drive bargains people know about? Thanks!!

 

[Rambo]

I was thinking about maybe getting a 120 GB Hard drive, but I can't find one for cheaper than £50...... Will there be much of a difference between the hard drive (90GB 8MB Cache Maxtor against a 120GB 2MB cache Maxtor, both IDE)?

Thanks.

 

[Super_Nova]

www.pricewatch.com

 

[Rambo]

Cheers, I'm on that site right now...

 

[Rambo]

So, will there be a speed difference between the Maxtor90GB 8MB Cache against a Maxtor 120GB 2MB cache, both have an IDE interface.

I was thinking that the 90GB one would be quicker due to the cache size..... Praetor, anyone want to gimme some info

Thanks!

 

[Maurik]

Im using an 80gig diamond 9 and I would really recommend it its fast and is quite quiet....

 

[Rambo]

Can someone answer this:

will there be a speed difference between the Maxtor90GB 8MB Cache against a Maxtor 120GB 2MB cache, both have an IDE interface.

And, can you tell me what "NTFS" is, and if it is good or bad?

Thank you!

 

[Rambo]

Sorry I'm impatient.... I must be a lil annoying sometimes

I don't suppose anyone would know though?? About the ^^above^^ post?

Cheers.

 

[aqsg72]

NTFS is just like the file system on the hard drive as I understand (its not hardware related, you can alter it when you format). The two ones utilised by windows are fat32 and ntfs, there seems to be little difference between the two but fat32 doesn't like handling files over 4GB and just won't....

The 90GB one would be faster accessing due to the 8MB cache also, correct.

 

[Praetor]

NTFS = NT File System = New Technology File SYstem = Everything FAT/FAT32 should have been. You can use NTFS in Windows2000 and later

 

[Rambo]

Ahh cool!!

Thanks everyone for replying!! I appreciate the help

 

[SFR]

a small note about NTFS and FAT32:


If you have an existing OS that runs on FAT32 such as Windows 98... OR, if you have hardware that might not support NTFS.. You must format that partition in FAT(32).

and NT was the first OS to use NTFS (makes sense, NTFS.. NT... NTFS...)


Cache memory is thousands of times faster than the spinning disk. So when you repeateldy access data from the hard drive it will be put in the cache which will, of course, speed up things.

And nothing was said about RPM's... The faster the hard disk spins the faster the read/write head will recieve data.

If I need to access data fast I would rather have a smaller drive at 10,000RPM, rather than a larger drive at 7200RPM

 

[jancz3rt]

Ok Ok...

Let me tell you something. The cache 2mb and 8mb make a hellofa difference. Really. I have to WDs. One of them with a 8meg cache and the other with a 2meg cache. The other one is so much more powerful.... . So I would stick with the first one you chose (the 80gig one). Good luck and I bet you will be happy with your choice.

JAN

 

[Rambo]

So I would stick with the first one you chose (the 80gig one).

Thanks mate!! I have bought it for £41!! Now that's cheap init?!

Also, it's a 90 GIG Not 80

Thanks people!

 

[jancz3rt]

Yeah that's a good price...

Did you get from Ebuyer or Dabs or...

I used Ebuyer all the time when I was in the UK. I recommend it. Yeah the price is good.

JAN

P.S.: let us know how it's working once you get it up and running

 

[Praetor]

(90GB 8MB Cache Maxtor against a 120GB 2MB cache Maxtor, both IDE)?

The performance jump wont be earth shattering, noticeable but not earthshattering. It depends on how much the storage space means to you