Compatibility?

[ignite101]

I have a Abit Fatal1ty AN8 Motherboard and wanted to know what 10k RPM harddrives I can use. If someone could give mea few links off newegg to the good ones that would be grea,

 

[badge]

I have a Abit Fatal1ty AN8 Motherboard and wanted to know what 10k RPM harddrives I can use. If someone could give mea few links off newegg to the good ones that would be grea,

Western Digital makes Raptor 10K rpm hdds. Here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=raptor&Submit=ENE&Ntk=all&N=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

 

[Codesmith]

Hard drive compatiblity is rarely a problem. A few MB have SATA controllers that don't like SATA 3.0 Gbps drives, in which case you set a jumper to force it to SATA 1.5 (with zero loss in performance because 3.0 vs 1.5 has no impact).

The only 10K RPM drives are the WD Raptors all of which are SATA 1.5.

I like the new 74 GB with 16 MB cache. Its faster than the old 74 8MB cache model and many report it to be just as fast the 150 GB model whose technology it shares, if not a tiny bit faster.

If you need more space then that get a 2nd, cheaper and slower drive. Two WD RE2 if you want to go with RAID 1, otherwise a Seagate, both have 5 year waranties like the Raptor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=raptor&Submit=ENE&Ntk=all&N=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

 

[ignite101]

Ok, so Im pretty much safe with getting it. Now the question is, is it worth it. I currently have a 250GB Seagate and a 120GB Maxtor. I consider myself to be a gamer I play CounterStrike Source and Battle For Middle Earth 2 as well as a # of other games, but those are the main ones. Can I expect a major increase in loading performance once I get a 10k rpm or is not that big of a deal.

Also, is it worth it to put my OS on it? HOw big is the Windows XP w/ SP2 ?

 

[The_Prophecy]

You should see a difference in loading times for your games from a Raptor drive. Putting XP on the Raptor wouldn't be a bad idea.... after install, XP with SP2 and all post-SP2 hotfixes applied uses about 3-4GB (I don't remember EXACTLY how much space, this is just a ballpark guess).