Installing a new Hard Drive?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
suigeneris20

suigeneris20

Distinguished
Jun 8, 2010
104
0
18,680
Hi, I am looking to install a new Hard Drive to my computer that I am upgrading..how do you know which is right for your computer? Also, does it matter how much disk space you get? Is there a certain limit that you can't exceed depending on which motherboard you are using? I will list the specs down below. If there is something else that you need to know for you to be able to help, please let me know. THANKS!

System specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core Processor
9 GB RAM PC3-10600 MB/sec
750 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec) 7200 rpm
XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1x16
1 Aerocool SilverLightning 140mm Case Fan
1 COOLER MASTER 120mm Blue LED Case Fan
1 COOLER MASTER Blade Master 92mm Case Fan
Corsair 550VX Power Supply
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Motherboard:
H-RS880-uATX Aloe
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
suigeneris20

suigeneris20

Distinguished
Jun 8, 2010
104
0
18,680
sounds good.

one more thing, if I were to disconnect the hard drive that is installed now and put the new one in its place..will that affect the first hard drive in a bad way?

Also, how do you go about using 2 hard drives?..this is what I am trying to do. I am trying to use the 1 TB as my main drive for games, music, photos, and videos..and the second (which is the original one that is installed already 750GB) I want to use as a backup..do I have to change some sort of settings or anything like that? Please explain, thanks!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ares1214

ares1214

Splendid
Dec 15, 2009
4,471
1
22,960
samsung drives are no better than seagate drives, but currently, the F3 is slightly better than the 7200.12 seagate series, as well as being cheaper. also, ive had 6 seagate hdds fail, 1 hitachia, 0 samsung, 0 WD, so i dont think they are very reliable.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MadAdmiral

MadAdmiral

Splendid
Nov 11, 2009
6,998
0
26,960


It wouldn't negatively affect the first HDD, but you'd have to install an OS on the second drive to use it (assuming you don't have both plugged in at once).

To set up a two drive system is very, very simple. Just plug in the second drive, start up the computer, format the second drive, and start copying/adding files. That's it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Onus

Onus

Titan
Jan 27, 2006
37,037
12
89,965
If you want the new drive to be your boot drive, a better choice would be to install it, then use a program like Acronis True Image Home to clone your primary disk onto it. After that, you'd go into your BIOS and set the hard drive boot order so the new drive is the boot drive.
Then disconnect the old boot drive to make sure everything works properly, in which case you can reconnect it and reformat it or whatever you need to make space available on it for your backups.
Having spent $30 or so on Acronis True Image Home, you can use it to do automatic backups too.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ares1214

ares1214

Splendid
Dec 15, 2009
4,471
1
22,960
a ssd is a solid state drive. they are very small (32-256 gb usually) and very expensive (100-700$ respectively) but are also EXTREMELY fast, quite, much safer, use less energy, and last longer. what you do is buy a small 32-64 gig drive for 150-300$, and only put your OS and important games, programs, and files on it, and they run EXTREMELY fast.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ares1214

ares1214

Splendid
Dec 15, 2009
4,471
1
22,960
this is an ssd:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227542

it has no moving parts (hdds have severals discs spinning at 7200rpm+) so you can see why it lasts longer and is safer. it also uses less energy. but what is truly amazing is the speed, the speeds of an ssd are FAST. watch a video or look at benchmarks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjCmLJtITK4

http://www.guruht.com/2010/05/corsair-force-f200-vs-oczs-agility-2-vs.html

the ssd in the video is old and slow, but the new ones are much faster, but still you can see the difference. the bench shows that ssd vs other ssds and hdds.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MadAdmiral

MadAdmiral

Splendid
Nov 11, 2009
6,998
0
26,960
There are other downsides to SSDs that haven't been brought up yet. First, SSDs don't work as well if they're full. Typically you need to leave 20% free or more to get the best performance out of them, which means the ones under 80 GB are pretty much useless. Second, SSDs don't like to constantly write data. While they're good for the OS and programs, you shouldn't store anything that needs constant updates or just regular data. Third, the more you use the disk, the slower it gets. This means that your computer will constantly be slower and doing regular maintainence will make it slower.

I personally think that SSDs are too expensive right now to be really worth it unless you've got a large budget. Until the 128 GB ones are around $200 or so, they'll be more useful. There are also still quite a few kinks to work out of them, as it's still new tech. If you were to buy one now, it would be a matter of weeks before the prices would be significantly lower for much better performing drives.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ares1214

ares1214

Splendid
Dec 15, 2009
4,471
1
22,960
while this is partially true, TRIM has solved most of that, as well as self heal, and a few other things that make them either not degrade, or degrade so slow you will have a new computer by the time it even degrades a little bit. i cant argue with them being too expensive, they are really too expensive, but as far as performance, they are un-paralled, and the price to gb ration is getting better, as well as speed and degredation rate. dont worry, the degredation is barely a problem, and TRIM solves most else.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom