Different types of hdd's

[swker98]

hi, i would like to know what kind of hdds there are (gard drive disks) and what the difference is. (Ex. ATA SATA) ands ore what kind of wire do they use and the benifits.


Thanks

 

[andygibbs]

ATA is the current standard, it uses regular molex power connectors and IDE cables.

SATA is a newer product (also SATA2 is already in development) - it is faster than ATA and uses different cables - much thinner and neater.

Also take into consideration the RPM of the drive, 5400 is a bit slow, 7200 is good, 10,000 is fast but can be quite noisy.

Servers generally use 10k rpm SCSI hard drives, but SCSI is unusual in home computers.

Most motherboards only have IDE connections and so can only take ATA, you would need a new-ish motherboard for SATA hard drives.

The capacity that you need is simply dependant on how much you plan on saving to your hard-drive. Usually from 40GB upwards