Computer Hardware help

[Hawkeye]

I'm thinking about getting about 40GB or 80GB worth of HDD space added onto my computer, but the problem is that I am very computer illiterate. If I go to the store like Best Buy, pick up a seemingly good Hard Drive Disk and install it onto my computer, can it be as simple as that? Do I need a specific one to meet the commendations of my computer or do they all work universal?

[bipper]

What kinda computer ya looking at? There may be a bit of work to look at. See if you cant take a couple pictures of the inside of your case ;)

1. Make sure it is NOT under warrenty of any sort - if it is, contact the manufacturer and they will tell you a [insert company name] certified tech that would have to do it for you in order to keep your warrenty.

2. IDE or SATA: I am gonna gather you are using IDE cables (thick grey ribbons) but this will dictate which type of HDD to get. If you have a thin red cable going to your HDD, that would be SATA.

3. Drive bays. Make sure you have an area to physically screw this HDD into place.

4: Speed: 7200 rpms will do.

5: Brand: Segate is good. Best Buy deal mainly with Western Digital, which I have no qualms with - but it seems many people do! Don't buy Quantum! Stick with a decent brand.

That is all I can really think of.

g'luck!

Bipper

[crono_logical]

I prefer 5400 rpm, less heat and less noise normally, and usually cheaper :p Speed isn't so much as issue to me as other people, especially for plain data storage and no programs on it :p

If you're looking for decent price per GB though, 80 GB is too small to be looking at, to be honest :p

[Samuraid]

Yeah, you can get 160GB to 250GB for a decent cost to storage ratio these days.

And get a Seagate drive if you can, as bip said. I normally prefer Maxtor, but Seagate just bought maxtor which will merge with Seagate this summer.

[Hawkeye]

Computer Image 1 (http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/8523/comp14ko.jpg)
Computer Image 2 (http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1315/comp27yh.jpg)

Please give feedback so I can recieve confirmation on what I need to get, but so far it looks like a Seagate I guess.

clout: Primarily, I'm using the space for music and probably some games, but right now, I have 8GB left on my computer, and that's after uninstalling a whole lotta <img src="/xxx.gif"><img src="/xxx.gif"><img src="/xxx.gif"><img src="/xxx.gif"> that I don't need but wish I still had, if you know what I mean.

[Yamaneko]

That's IDE. Don't get a 5400RPM HDD for a desktop. That might be fine for notebooks, but heat and noise don't really matter in a desktop. Also make sure that the HDD you get has at least an 8MB cache, but preferably 16MB. Seagate is awesome. I have two of their 120GB SATA150 drives that have been working flawlessly (knock on wood) for two years now.

[Hawkeye]

I'm looking at this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=5566988&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat33200050001&id=1055388011277

I might get it in the pending week, so hopefully it should run well.

[Samuraid]

Good choice. If you are planning on ordering online, you may want to check out newegg.com as their prices are generally better than Best Buy's.

EDIT: And scratch that. Best Buy's sale price is currently better.

EDIT2: Check newegg.com again, the price at Best Buy just went up.

[Endless]

http://www.wdc.com/fr/products/Products.asp?DriveID=232

[Hawkeye]

What is the point of having an 8MB cache when I still have my other HDD still there? I'm merely just adding more harddrive space, not removing it or anything.

Plus, just out of general principle, I'm not going to download anything or upload anything once I've gotten to like my 3GB mark (which I am at now and need the space)

[crono_logical]

The 8MB cache is the buffer on that particular HD itself to make accesses to that drive appear faster, and little to do with the disks capacity itself - the more cache, the better. 8MB is fine. I'd be impressed if you worked out how to take it out of one drive and give it to another :p