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Confused! Help, raptor, maxline III, hitachi ..??

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Time for a new computer. Not a gamer, average user (cadd, spread sheets, ...). Want to do a little video work (put old vhs tapes onto dvd) and such. DOn't need the best but want a decent machine.

Looking to use a AMD 3500 (939 socket), 1G ram, video with 128 or 258 megs, tv tuner (have always had an ati all-in-wonder, may now try and exterior unit like plextor or ???).

What to do for a hard drive?

Looked at Raptor. 10,000 RPM's. but only 74G for $200. SATA I and 8mb buffer.

Looked at Maxline III. NCQ, SATA II (but only 1.5 Gb/s),and 16 mb buffer 7200 rpm. 300 G for $200.

Hatchi. 80G for $80. SATA II (3 Gb/s), 8 mb buffer and 7200 rpm.

Will I really see any differency in any of the above? Which is more important, high PRM's, large buffer or high transfer rate (they could have made it easy for me and combined all three into one drive)?

I would preciate any advice (on the hard drive or other componets)!

Thanks ....Mike


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by xtal01 on 04/12/05 05:24 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Optimal would be a Raptor for work and then a larger/slower drive for storage. Do you have some old IDE drives that you can use as storage drives for your system?

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If smaller is better in this case would two hitachi's be better (still $160 vs $200 for the raptor)?

Maybe 74Gb would be enough? I have a 40Gb unit on my computer at home and have not filled it (mind you I have not tried my unit as a PVR either ... this may take a lot of store ... or maybe not??).

Again, I'm just trying to get the most I can for my $'s.

Thanks .... Mike

With video editing you're going to want/appreciate the speed of the Raptor. Use the 40GB for storage right now and save up some money to get a larger 7200RPM drive. Monitor <A HREF="http://bensbargains.net/" target="_new">Bensbargains.net</A> for some deals on HDDs. This site compiles/lists good tech deals, but they are not a retailer. Another good site like Bens is <A HREF="http://www.techbargains.com" target="_new">Techbargains.com</A>.

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I'd pick up a PCI TV-Tuner card with hardware compression, such as the Hauppauge WinPVR 150 or the ATI TV-Wonder Elite. Standard PCI slots should last through 2 more generations of motherboard, so that's 2 systems you could use it in, the one you're building now and the one that follows it.

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<i>>What to do for a hard drive?</i>

Depends on your priorities.

If priority = SPEED; then hard drive = Raptor
elseif priority = CHEAP; then hard drive = 80G ATA IDE drive
else priority = BIG; and hard drive = 250GB WD Caviar

<i>>Will I really see any differency in any of the above?</i>

Yes, the question is, what differences will you use effectively?

<i>> Which is more important, high PRM's, large buffer or high transfer rate?</i>

Again, it depends on your priorities.

high RPMs = low seek time / fast random READ / fast continuous READ/WRITE

large buffer = fast reads for frequently accessed items, buffered writes

transfer rate = irrelevant, the speed of the bus (1.5Gb/s) far exceeds the rate of the drive (~0.5Gb/s).

<i>>(they could have made it easy for me and combined all three into one drive)</i>

Yeah they did that, it's a 15,000rpm 300GB, 16MB cache SCSI drive and costs about $1,200.

<i>>I would preciate any advice</i>

Get a 250GB Western Digital Caviar, the speed will be fine for you and it will have plenty of storage space.

That raptor drive will deliver a much faster boot and install times than the other 2. Unless those 2 are a prime then I would suggest the Hitachi drive.

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