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Choosing a Hard Drive

_X__X_ Registered User regular
edited December 2006 in Help / Advice Forum
Currently I have a 160GB parallel connected drive. A store near my place is putting some 80GB hard drives on sale for $50, both SATA and parallel. Is there a speed difference between the 2 types and are they compatable to be hooked up to the same machine, say my current parallel and a SATA. I took a quick glance at my motherboard and I'm pretty sure I saw 2 plug-ins for SATA.

_X_ on

Posts

  • homeobockshomeobocks Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    Yeah, it shouldn't cause any problems to hook up HDDs on two different interfaces. Unless you want to RAID, which it doesn't sound like you do. SATA > PATA.

    homeobocks on
  • robaalrobaal Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    SATA drives tend to be slightly faster for some reason.

    Yes, you can use both PATA and SATA hard drives in the same machine if it supports both.

    80GB drives tend to be pretty bad value though, for twice as much you could get 3 times the space. Bigger drives are also usually faster than small ones.

    robaal on
    "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra when suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
    At night, the ice weasels come."
  • _X__X_ Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    I'm short on money right now, going to college and such doesnt leave much room for making any money. I get a bit of cash back from my books which I plan to use for Xmas presents and then anything left is going into a hard drive which I badly need, 10gb is all I have left on this one.

    _X_ on
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    robaal wrote:
    80GB drives tend to be pretty bad value though, for twice as much you could get 3 times the space. Bigger drives are also usually faster than small ones.
    Indeed.

    Thanatos on
  • _X__X_ Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    Just the problem of NewEgg and their "We don't ship to Canada" policy

    _X_ on
  • RydarkRydark Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    Why not use the shops in Canada? For example, NCIX.

    I don't see any other places by Vancouver that has more selection or better pricing than these guys.

    Rydark on
    Rydark.png
  • robaalrobaal Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    Rydark wrote:
    Why not use the shops in Canada? For example, NCIX.

    I don't see any other places by Vancouver that has more selection or better pricing than these guys.

    But their 250GB drives aren't as cheap as the one linked to at newegg.

    robaal on
    "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra when suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
    At night, the ice weasels come."
  • RydarkRydark Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    This is why living in Canada sucks when it comes to acquiring technology. :(

    The only internet shops I know of that are supposed to be reliable are NCIX and TigerDirect. If any fellow canuck knows other stores, feel free to add them.

    Rydark on
    Rydark.png
  • stigweardstigweard Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    Rydark wrote:
    Why not use the shops in Canada? For example, NCIX.

    I don't see any other places by Vancouver that has more selection or better pricing than these guys.

    Because NCIX are horrible unless you live in the west. Tiger Direct horrible.

    stigweard on
  • stigweardstigweard Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    robaal wrote:
    Rydark wrote:
    Why not use the shops in Canada? For example, NCIX.

    I don't see any other places by Vancouver that has more selection or better pricing than these guys.

    But their 250GB drives aren't as cheap as the one linked to at newegg.

    69.99USD is about 80.10CAD right now. Then add international shipping, which they don't do and you are already over 100$. Once it hits the boarder, you have to pay GST / HST and then duty on top of that. By the time it gets to your door, it would have been cheaper to walk to the nearest BB / Source / FS and buy one off the shelf.

    stigweard on
  • _X__X_ Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    I got my motherboard, processor and video card from TigerDirect and it wasnt too bad of a deal until I got it. There was no cables included with the motherboard and there was no fan on the CPU. Had to go spend another 25 bucks for a fan. I'll hold out on the hard drive for a bit longer until I get my christmas and birthday money in. Guess its 1 good thing about having a birthday 10 days after xmas.

    _X_ on
  • stigweardstigweard Registered User regular
    edited December 2006
    I checked around a bit and the best value for the money right now is still the Seagate 7200.10 320GB sata drive for ~115$ give or take 10$ depending where you buy it. It is weird right now because everything from 100 - 250GB is within 10$ of each other.

    stigweard on
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