Need recomendations for a new harddrive.

Potentially retarded questions to follow.

For use with XP, needs to be internal. And I'm gonna be buying it via Dell, so I'm refering to this shit. http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?s=gen&c=us&l=en&k=hard+drives&cat=prod&p=1

How much stats on my comp would you need for a good call on this? Also, I'm willin' to put in a fair amount of cash for this ($300+?), and I want a good one. What sort of specs should I be looking for?

Why would anyone care what kind of hard drive you put in your shitty dell?

I knew no one would really care to begin with. Doesn't mean I'm not open to suggestions.

>>1
Dude, you get a Dell!

Overall the Western Digitial RaptorX 150GB Hard Drive is a 100% kickass product.

Overall the Dell is a 100% shit product.

You need to know the interface (99% most likely SATA or ATA) and form factor (again probably 3.5").  Then you have to decide if you want standard speed (7200 rpm) or higher, but be warned that higher speed is much more expensive per Gigabit (like 74 GB vs 500 GB in for the same cost).  The extra rpm speed will make a difference in game loading screens (and even more if you are doing a RAID configuration).  Generally try to get higher cache size whenever you can since it will only be a matter of dollars more.  A larger Cache decreases access time to recently accessed files.  Unlike rpm speed, cache size won't make a difference in loading screens but you if you don't get enough of it you may notice slowdown when managing files and directories.

Don't buy from Dell just because you have a Dell computer.  Dell isn't where you'd want to buy individual components anyways.  Try newegg and you can search exactly for what you want.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=14&name=Internal-Hard-Drives

Seagate and Western Digital are basically the Coca-cola and Pepsi of hard drives, try buying from them.

Get a Seagate Barracuda (NOT DiamondMax) or Western Digital Raptor.

Also, don't get a Dell just becuase "dude, you get a Dell!". Assemble a better computer yourself.

Samsung Spinpoint T

>>7
how do I know if it's SATA or ATA?

Also, thanks.

>>10
SATA has an S but ATA doesn't

ATA (aka EIDE or PATA)

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]
[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

SATA

+---------
|

Asshole:

>(o)<


Vagina:

/^\
\v/

Asshole:

>>13


Vagina:

>>13's mom

Fixed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136073

get two of those, and you're done for the next 2 years.

>>10

The most direct way is to open your computer and look at the back of your hard drive.  The pin layout will look like what >>12 explains.  Also try googling to get a better idea of how to tell the difference.  There are plenty of "do it yourself" type sites that will explain how spot the difference and even how to install the new HDD.

You can also find the interface through the device manager.  Right click my computer >> properties >> hardware >> device manager.

Look for something called IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers or similar.  In here it'll list the SATA and ATA controllers on your motherboard.  If there are only ATA controllers or SATA controllers then you are done. 

If not, right click a controller, goto properties and look at the "primary channel" and "secondary channel" tabs.  On each tab it will show you the master or slave drives on that channel, if any.  The devices you will find here will be things your Hard disk drives, CD drives, and DVD drives.  Now you can either search until you find the HDD you want to replace (and thus figure out what interface it is) or you can search until you find a free spot, and buy a drive with whatever that interface is.  SATA is the newer and superior technology so definitely choose that if you can.

>>16
*meant to say "If there are only ATA controllers or only SATA controllers then you are done.