Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Unique Content Article on hard drives,hard drive,hard disk drive,disk,drive,data,storage,computer,storage,hardware,computers

The Ideal Hard Drive To Purchase


by Daniel Kilburn


All computers have a method of storing long-term information. The hard drive is the specific tool used in all cases and it does well in that regard. Modern disks can store information for years, even decades, with good maintenance and care. One of the main issues with purchasing one of these disks is that beyond storage space, the other technical details require some more education on the matter. Details like transfer and seek speeds, connection and revolutions-per-minute are often beyond that of the average consumer.

Storage size has been increasing vastly with each passing year. What started out as mere kilobytes now weighs in with vast, multi-terabyte drives capable of storing several operating systems, hundreds of games, hundreds of thousands of music files, hundreds of videos and so on. As the years go by and computers are upgraded, the disks are often kept. The quality of music and videos settles at a peak and several hundred gigabytes often suffices for storage of such media.

Games are especially the key here as they are increasing in size all the time. While they're currently restricted to DVDs, they'll sooner or later be put onto a new media with more space. This means even more information will need to be copied to the hard drives. Furthermore, digital distribution means downloading the entire game is easily done. It's inevitable that even larger drives will struggle with a dozen or so modern games in the future if they don't keep growing.

Modern hard disks have more to offer than simple storage space, though it's not noticeable unless performing more intensive demands, such as gaming. Outdated IDE/ATA connections used larger ribbon cables for transferring the information. The latest disks utilize the Serial ATA connection, which transfers at more than double the speed. This means faster loading and saving of information in real life terms. Furthermore, the inside of the case is less cluttering as the SATA cables are thinner and easier to manage.

The revolutions-per-minute (RPM) determines the seek speed of the disk. This is essentially summed up as how fast the computer can find any given file. Typically, it's between 7200RPM for normal drives and 10,000 for high-end ones. The RPM also shows how quickly it can transfer information, though this is bottle-necked by the connection.

Seek speed effects how quickly information is found on the disk, especially important for intensive applications like games. For the fastest seek time, Solid-State Disks are the best choice. They remove all of the moving components for non-moving ones, storing the information in a manner much easier for the computer to find. The downside is that they're slower at reading and writing than their rotary counterparts.

They're also very expensive and uncommon in most computers. For the performance enthusiast, these would be a welcome part to their setup. Especially when set in sequence with additional ones to improve their performance.

Choosing a hard drive means taking into account a number of different aspects if you want the best bang for your buck. Both performance and storage should be taken into account and with storage space costing less all the time, it's easier to find performance at a reasonable price. Also consider the external disks for more portable storage.




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