Another HDD Q please

[jcampi]

I'm starting a list of components to build a PC. It seems like Seagate is preferred by most of the experts at this BBS. WD sure is cheaper. SATA also seems to be preferred over IDE. Can someone explain the difference between SATA/IDE? I also notice drives with 5,400 or 7,200 rpm speeds. I believe the higher the speed the quicker the drive may perform. I also notice drives with 8 or 16MB of cache. Ideally, I think I'm shopping for a SATA Hard Drive of about 160GB, 7,200 rpm with 16MB of cache. I want to try and keep the cost down. New egg has a Seagate Barracuda for $95 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148140] and a WD for only $60 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136036]. Comments please.

John: I split your general question into a separate thread to give it higher visibility. Terry

[golfmore]

I have had better luck with Seagate. The faster the better. The more cache, the better. I have had WD Caviar drives before. I would not have another one. ALthough , there are those that say they have had great luck with WD. I will never have another one. Just an opinion.

[jcampi]

I was looking for more of a discussion on the differences between SATA and IDE hard drives. What do the letters stand for and what are the pluses and minuses of each type of drive?

[dbarrow]

Sata on sata bus does yield more throughput.
Roughly equal to old older scuzzies.

[jcampi]

Sounds like SATA is the way to go. They are about the same cost as IDE so that's not an issue. I'm told they seem to be easier to install -is this true?

[dbarrow]

The only noticeable difference is the plugs on the back. Both power and bus connections are different.
SATA mobos come with SATA power pigtails as do most new PSUs.
While the small SATA ribbon cable is easier to route, you only get one drive on one cable.
The plug usually snaps into the drive but I had a problem with one that was just a tad loose and gave me problems until I changed to a different cable.
Throughput on SATAs is so fast you wouldn't notice any difference between 7200 and 10000rpm drives so don't waste your money.
Most now have 16mg cache which does make an improvement.
The big difference between SATA and IDE is in the bus and how it communicates with the CPU bypassing the PCI bus controller and going direct.
There is a detailed white paper at Intel on how this all works.

[jcampi]

dbarrow, your post is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks much. So if I purchase the ATX case, video card (PCIe), HD and DVD Drives first I can select a mobo to fit all of the hardware(?). Does the mobo have to be selected to work with a SATA HD or do most mobos just already come with this option?

[dbarrow]

The vast majority of all current mobos will be SATA.
Do give consideration to future expansion and additional drives. Most will have at least 2 SATA connectors (2 drives).
Some offer 4-6 SATA connectors.
If you plan on adding additional drives or SATA cd/cdrw/dvd you will need 1 for each device.

Beware that some SATA cd/dvd drives WILL NOT WORK AS A BOOT DEVICE as the driver has to load first in the OS.
I got a Plextor cd/dvd SATA drive when I built this machine and it is not recognized until after the OS loads, therefore; not a bootable device.

The mobo will have at least 1 IDE connector.
Get a cheap cd (player only) drive for that as a bootable device.

One more time... A word of caution on your timing of purchases.

Wherever you buy your hardware, thoroughly check out the RMA policy.
While most drives can be RMA directly to the drive mnfr for replacement during their extended warranty period, I have received drives DOA out of the box.

Newegg and ZipZoom both have fairly restrictive RMA policy I believe is 30 day.
Always consider that it is possible to get a defective item.
If you are within the RMA period, they will quickly exchange it for a new one.
If you are over the RMA period, you will have to deal with the mnfr directly under that warranty.
RMA to Asus can be a two month process!

I had a very good RMA experience with Newegg on a mobo but it still took almost 3 weeks.

Just put the money away for the parts and when you are ready to do it, order everything at once and make sure to put it all together within the RMA period.
They are generally much easier to deal with in getting an RMA when they see all the parts as one big order and understand you are putting together a whole machine from scratch.

Nothing worse than having a pile of parts that has been growing dust in the corner and when you put it all together, you find something that won't work and you are past the RMA period!