school this noob with some knowledge

[ninjaburningsky]

i know my basics about hard drives but when it comes down to it what is it that makes a hard drive better.of course size but how big a role does the hard drive actually play in terms of data transfer speed.
am i to think that the higher rpm in comparison to the size makes a good drive.
i guess im wondering why there is a 250 gb hd for sale $150 at one place by a certain company is more inferior to a 250 gb hd for a hundred bucks more.
i mean really how big a role does that play while gaming?

whats the better of the companies...maxtor,western digital,seagate, hitachi.i mean as always with pc hardware theres a bunch of companies ...i just want to know the best of them.

whats the deal with ata and raid .i dont know the difference.

thnks in advance

 

[sniperchang]

Well in my experiance, games mostly use RAM to play really Fast, but having a fast Hard Drive couldn't hurt. (lol, nice title )

 

[suprasteve]

Things to consider when getting a hard drive: size, cache size, rpm's, how it connects (is it compatible), and manufacturing company
WIth that criteria, if your computer supports sata, they are a little faster than ide drives, so I'd suggest one if it is compatible with your system. Most drives are going to be 7200rpm drives, you could step up to a 10k drive, but it will cost more. Standard cache is 8mb, but if you can find one with 16, it's better. And the four companies you listed are all good, my personal choice would be a maxtor though. And as sniperchang said, you will see bigger changes in game quality depending on ram, but if you're in the market for a fast drive primarily for gaming and have extra money laying around, look at the 10k rpm drives

 

[Geoff]

i have a 16MB cache sata drive, and it is extremely faster than my old 120GB 8MB IDE hard drive. Windows loads in 1.5 bars, and games load much quicker.

IMO, the raptors are overpriced and over rated. I would go with a high capacity, high cache, and sataII drive, such as the 320GB 16MB SATAII 7200RPM hard drive. You'll get better performance out of it, as well as more space.