Harddrives?

[sandmannight]

I only need about 80 gigs of space so I was wondering should I get 1 80 or should I go 2 40's in raid. Would it be faster?

 

[shadowduck]

I only need about 80 gigs of space so I was wondering should I get 1 80 or should I go 2 40's in raid. Would it be faster?

Get 1 80 unless you do large writes of data to the drive where RAID helps you. Otherwise, the only thing you are doing is doubling your point of failure from 1 to 2.

 

[kitchenshark]

Get a 74Gb Raptor. XD That way you get the fastest performance you can in a single drive. Not a bad trade off if it wasn't so expensive.

 

[guyinyourattic37]

I would get the 80GB b/c a 40GB costs close to a 80GB so 2 will cost much more then one 80GB, 2 have a higher chance of failure b/c there are 2 drives, and raid only helps in large file transfers.

 

[ms2005]

Actually if you get an 80 you risk needing more space soon and paying a lot. Sweet spot for HDDs now is between 200 and 250 gigs,

 

[MrsD]

I would recommend a western digital. Look for the RE series drives, they have a 5 year warranty, versus 1 and 3 years for the SE's. Also, more cache is better, the new drives have 16mb, versus 8 mb.
More drives is more chances for failure, but if you back up regularly then go for the raid 0.
My buddies new $3000 computer has been down 4 months of the 5 months he's owned it. He went with 4, 80gb seagates cheapos. Two of the drives failed right away. Then one of the replacements they sent was DOA, it made a high pitch noise. Then they overnighted him a new one and it failed a week later. Dont go cheapo!

 

[sandmannight]

I may opt for a 160 or maybe a 250 but thanks everybody

 

[jaguarskx]

A 160BG would be the sweet spot considering the cost difference between a $50 80GB HD and a 160GB is only $20.

I recommend a Hitachi Deskstar 160GB.

 

[mdd1963]

Let's hope Hitachi has drastically improved these units from when they were acquired from IBM, earning them the "Deathstar" nickname!

 

[jaguarskx]

Let's hope Hitachi has drastically improved these units from when they were acquired from IBM, earning them the "Deathstar" nickname!

That was only for 2 Deskstar models, the 60GXP, and 75GXP only.

BTW, I have the 75GXP "Deathstar". It is my oldest HD drive that has never given me errors since 1999/2000. I can't say the same for other brands of hard drives I've bought especially Maxtor. I would by another 75GXP over any Maxtor without hesitation.