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erixsonduran   03-18-2003 at 07:17:57 AM

I need advise, I have an HP6644D Pavilion PC with a 600MGZ Celeron processor, 64MB RAM, and a 15GB hard drive, and windows 98SE, and two unused PCI slot.I use the PC for the internet and downloading MP3 file and burning them to CD. I want to replace the hard drive with one with at least 60 to 80 GB, and I contacted HP email support, and they advised me that my pc only supports up to 60GB hardrive ATA 100, running at 5400RPM.

The computer shop in my area says that HP is correct about the 60 GB hardrive, but that I can go ahead and install an ATA 133 hardrive running at 7200RPM.

(1) Who is correct, HP or the shop?
(2) which hard drive would you recommend, that would
run cool, and quiet,and be reliable? I was considering
Seagate Barracuda v 60GB single platter model ST360015A
because I figured since it has one platter and two heads
it should run quiet and apparently it is a simple
design, but a friend told me he does not recommend
Seagate because it has "Fuzzy Logic" {what ever that
means}, and said Maxtor is better, and others tell me
the opposite.

Someone out there, please reply, and advise me on what
to buy, Seagate, WD, or Maxtor, by the way my PC has
only one 3.5" hard drive bay, and HP also told me that
my PC cannot be upgraded to Windows XP, and I dont care
much about Benchmark result, I just dont want a noisy
hard drive like the one in there now.

And Crashman, be nice.., okay, I dont know much, I'm
still learning.

Yours truly, Erixson Rafael Duran-Bello.

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GhostKat   03-19-2003 at 01:04:12 AM
- 0 +

If you install a hard drive controller card that supports ata 133 then you can install just about any hard drive out there because the new card will be able to support it. This is probably what the store is going to do for you. The controller card built into the mainboard of the computer, as hp said, can only support a 60gb drive.

As far as what type of drive you want to get it'll be a matter of opinion. I recently got a maxtor drive and I think it's very quiet since it has fluid bearings. Alot of people here seem to recommend Western Digital's special edition drives because of the performance (or thier on the take from WD) 8mb cache give the drive.

Crashman are you being mean to people? shame on you! *ducks to avoid cd-rom flying at his head*

GK
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by ghostkat on 03/18/03 06:04 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

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lhgpoobaa   03-19-2003 at 01:18:53 AM
- 0 +

Thats crap. You can run a ata133 drive if you want, but it will be only detected as ata100 (the fastest the onboard controller can run).
But the speed difference between the two is negligible.
As for 5400max drive speed. WHAT A LOAD OF EXCRIMENT. 7200rpm will run fine.
The only other limitation could possibly drive capacity... e.g. not over 127Gb.

As far as which drive, yes the seagate V is a quiet and cool running drive. they are designed to be. Maxtor also have drives with fluid bearigns, but are less quiet as the drive focusses more on performance.

<b>Paying for Sex didn’t mean you couldn’t get it any other way – it meant that you could afford the convenience option, same as any other service.</b>

Reply to lhgpoobaa
Teq   03-19-2003 at 01:19:53 AM
- 0 +

HP does some really weird stuff to their computers...

Most hard disks will "back clock" to accomodate older systems. You can connect an ATA133 drive but it will only work in the maximum transfer mode of your system... in this case ATA100 (which, btw, isn't exactly slow).

The platter rpm really doesn't matter that much, it's the transfer modes that matter. A 7200 rpm drive will probably be just a hair quicker to respond to transfer calls than a 5400 but it's unlikely your system would care about that.

The 60gig limit is probably imposed by the BIOS and you might be able to overcome it with a FLASH update.


--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

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