On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 07:41:46 +0400, Nadeem <rkcomm RemoveThis @intnet.mu> wrote:
>hello people
>I am currently looking forward to buy a new hard disk for my machine.
>
>I currently have a Maxtor 60GB 7200 RPM, its one of those older models
>without fluid bearing. It still works fine except that the noise it
>makes is a little bit irritating when I compare it with my brother's
>almost noiseless Maxtor 40GB Hard disk.
>
>I use my machine (2400+ XP, 512MB DDR266, KT333) mainly for learning as
>am a student in computer science. It dual boots with Mandrake Linux and
>Win2K; and I need to reboot (to switch OS) quite often, and loading time
>is no great. I suppose the bottleneck in performance in my machine is
>the hard disk?
>
>My question is, what nice little hard disk model would offer me a boost
>in performance *and* lifespan?
>
>Is SCSI really much faster that those IDE ones?
For server use, yes. For desktop or workstation use, no. They are
designed for different markets and therefore emphasize different
performance characteristics. A 15K rpm SCSI drive will usually be
faster than a 7200rpm IDE drive, but when you start getting remotely
close to comparable spin rates IDE pulls well ahead of SCSI for
desktop and workstation users (ie a fast 7200rpm IDE drive will be
faster than a 10K rpm SCSI drive).
> and how about their lifespans?
In theory SCSI drives should have a longer life span. They are
designed for servers and tend to be in use 24/7 but still come with a
3 year warranty. Of course, in practice, hard drive reliability is
very tough to measure. No matter what drive you get there is always
the chance that it will die, while a drive with a terrible reputation
for quality could end up lasting 10 years.
>I wouldnt want to buy an SCSI if it is double the price of an IDE for
>the same storage capacity....
Don't buy SCSI unless you're running a server. On top of being 3-4
times as expensive for the same storage capacity, they are not faster
and they are usually MUCH louder.
>I would prefer one around 80 GB since the 60GB one seems just enough for
>my needs.
You've got a few options here. The absolute fastest hard drive for
desktop and workstation use is the Western Digital Raptor 74GB SATA
drive. This is a 10K rpm Serial ATA (kind of the follow-up to IDE,
aka parallel ATA) drive. It's fairly expensive though, and while it's
not as loud as some of the high-end SCSI drives, it's definitely going
to be louder than most other desktop drives.
On the slightly more practical/cheaper side would be a Western Digital
Caviar with 8MB buffer. These are quite reasonably priced, fast and
cheap. A couple other good options would be the Seagate Barracuda
7200.7 or the Maxtor DiamondMax 9, both with 8MB buffers. These two
drives are just slightly slower than the WD drive, but they are also a
reasonable amount quieter. All three of these drives are available as
either Parallel ATA or Serial ATA. SATA is quickly becoming the new
standard for future drives, but in you're system you will need an
add-in controller to make use of it, and parallel ATA will continue to
be supported (at least as a somewhat legacy-type thing) for many years
to come. The three drives are also all available with either a 2MB or
8MB buffer. The latter is a bit more expensive (usually $10-$20), but
will boost performance by a good little bit. I'd highly recommend
getting a drive with an 8MB buffer.
If you want some more info about all of this, head on over to:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.storagereview.com" target="_blank">www.storagereview.com</a>
These guys REALLY know their hard drives, significantly better than
any other hard drive reviews I've seen on the net. They have reviewed
all of the drives I've mentioned above as well as many others.
They've also done a fair bit of work to figure out just WHAT tests
matter for what users (many other sites just subject their drives to
server-type workloads and then conclude that SCSI is much faster than
IDE for all workloads, which definitely isn't the case).
-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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