[anku94]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

I went for i4 as there is 1k difference between i4 and i5 and the performance difference seems to be very negligible (3.1 vs 3.3) as per the reviews.

Err...i4 doesn't exist. There's no plan or rumour or any other indication that i4 will be out anytime soon, if at all.

I think you meant i5 2400 vs i5 2500.

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

I went for i4 as there is 1k difference between i4 and i5 and the performance difference seems to be very negligible (3.1 vs 3.3) as per the reviews.

I got caviar black 1 TB for 4.7K. 2TB was close to 8k. 1TB is more than enough for my requirements now, I also have a 500GB seagate. I did not know about the performance superiority aspect.

Thanks for your feedback.

I think that a caviar black 1 TB at around 4.5K is worth it over a conventional Seagate 7200.12 1 TB at around 2.8-3K. Over the last 14-16 mths, I have sequentially used the following HDDs as primary system disk (with partitions of course): Seagate 500 GB, Seagate 1 TB, Caviar Black 1 TB, and now Caviar Black 2 TB. The performance has got better with each change. Compared with Seagate 1 TB, CB 1 TB has only a marginal superiority in read speeds (approx 130 MB/s at the start) but much better access times and the overall performance was better. CB 2 TB is significantly better than CB 1 TB and I usually record 148-155 MB/s at the start with 11-11.5 ms of access times. No comparisons with SSDs of course.

You have made a good choice, and perhaps when you get another one, go for a 2 TB CB/Barracuda XT or an SSD.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

I will be getting a HDD shortly; I guess the MoBo is capable of SATA2 disks.

Couple of questions?

I guess current availability is 500GB or 1TB. Are all HDDs (internal ones) 7200 RPM, or should I specify that?

The machine is primarily browsing / text editing / multimedia. So, I guess a budget of 2-3 K is alright.

I also have a maxtor 500 GB external HDD for backup.

Any other thing / specification I should look at?

[vasudeva]

At a budget of 2-3K, your best bet is Seagate 1 TB 7200.12 (2.8-3K) which is 7200 rpm (model ST31000528AS or ST31000524AS). Seagate also has a green model which is 5900 rpm. This is a great green model at 2 TB (4.8-5K) but there is also a Seagate 1.5 TB green model. Do not know much about that but that should be inferior to the 1 TB 7200 rpm model referred first. WD also has blue (7200) and green model WD10EARS which is advertised as `intellipower' but really is 5400 rpm. Greens from WD (5400 rpm) and Seagate (5900) retail at around 4.7-5K for 2 TB. Seagate 7200 at 500GB (around 1.9-2K) or 1 TB (2.8-3K) is really your best bet. Just check for 7200 and model no at Seagate site.

As to mobos, all present ones should be capable of Sata II (3 Gb/s) and that will be in the specs too but higher end ones now have 1-2 SATA III (6gb/s) ports. Purely marketing hype as conventional, mechanical HDDs do not even breach Sata II speeds. Newer drives are now increasingly coming in SATA III but they work on SATA II ports too.

As to the various drive performance, one can take a look at some of the drives in my system (incl. caviar blacks of 2 TB and 1 TB, Seagate Green 2TB, WD Green 2 TB, and 1 Seagate 1TB 528AS as an esata device). Figures do vary by 2-3TB across tests done immediately after the other, but they remain in a narrow range.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

vasudeva, do the colour codes stand for something? The black, green, etc?

Are those just brands, or are the HDD coloured that?

Also, I found "HDD cooling fans" on NPITHUB. How are these mounted? How are they to be powered?

One trouble with Kochi e shops is that I need to have a list of possibly available specs handy and compare with what is in stock when I go to the shop. There is no scope for finding model nnnn in shop, coming back, looking up the specs and then going back. The product may be out of stock by then, or price changed.

When I went to get the LED screen few weeks back, I had to choose between AOC or Dell; and that too, AOC was available in sizes like 17, 22, etc. While Dell in sizes like 26 and 24. Or something like that - hope you get the idea. No Samsung or LG in stock!!!!

They are always like this only - "take it or leave it" attitude is very rampant here.

[Ricci]

@BackSeatDriver
From what I gather of WD colour series:
Black -> performance , Green -> environment friendly/energy conserving, Blue -> economy/general desktop use

[cruiser@0523]

Just got my new pc few weeks back.

Intel i5 Sandy Bridge 2400
Corsair 1600mhz 8GB
ATI Raedon 6950 2GB
Seagate 1TB
23" LG LED Slim

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by Ricci

@BackSeatDriver
From what I gather of WD colour series:
Black -> performance , Green -> environment friendly/energy conserving, Blue -> economy/general desktop use

That is correct. WD colour codes its drives as stated above. Seagate usually does not. For all drives, there is usually rpm stated (except WD Green which states `intellipower') and of course there is always the model no. Just note down the model no that you want to buy. Not too hard!!

As to AOC or Dell, that is there in Delhi too but for perhaps lesser stuff than in Kochi. We simply have to either buy what is there or cajole someone in UK (for me) to get it for me. Not possible for LCDs but I got my first CB 2 TB that way.

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by anku94

Err...i4 doesn't exist. There's no plan or rumour or any other indication that i4 will be out anytime soon, if at all.

I think you meant i5 2400 vs i5 2500.

Sorry for the typo, what I meant was i5 2400.

Thanks for your recommentations, you helped me to save some money and get a good configuration.

Originally Posted by vasudeva

You have made a good choice, and perhaps when you get another one, go for a 2 TB CB/Barracuda XT or an SSD.

The credit goes to Anku.

The dealer tried his best to sell me Seagate (for obvious reasons). I did not bulge and he had to procure it from another dealer. 2TB was out of stock and I was not keen on it with the price difference.

My experience with Seagate is not good. I am going to stick with better hard drives from now on as data is very important and I am not regular with taking backups.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Please... if your data is of any importance at all (and if not, then why keep it) at least make a copy on an external drive or on DVDs. The amount you spend on your hard disc, or the name on the case, is no guarantee at all that your data will be safe. The physical reliability of the drive itself is only one small part of the picture.

Make me happy: copy your data today

And I'll make myself happy by updating my own sync-to-external-drive routine!

EDIT: I'm doing mine right now. Thanks for making me think about it. Your turn

[IronH4WK]

my colleague's Elitebook crashed today - bad sector; i'm guessing where the MBR is. fortunately, he had a bootable Ubuntu x64 on a pen drive. booted it up, copied the data and sanitized the disk; followed by re-installation of the OS.

if it hadn't been for the bootable Ubuntu, his data was lost forever!

[Thad E Ginathom]

At least a problem like that can be worked on. When the disk makes a grinding noise and stops, things are rather more terminal. I was so lucky last time this happened to me: by chance, I found that the disc would start (just one more time, as it turned out) if I turned it on its side --- and I got the data off. But it's not all about discs. I always remember this line from my first-ever sysadmin textbook: imagine a controller that goes bad and writes to the disk when it should be reading.

[IronH4WK]

i lost a 500GB Seagate 7200.11 drive a while back. it started with taking a long time to access anything on that drive. after a few days i realized the possibility of a crash and moved the data to my newer 7200.12 1TB drive. a week later, the 500GB drive stopped working completely; neither the BIOS nor the OS would recognize it!

now its a paperweight!

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Please... if your data is of any importance at all (and if not, then why keep it) at least make a copy on an external drive or on DVDs. The amount you spend on your hard disc, or the name on the case, is no guarantee at all that your data will be safe. The physical reliability of the drive itself is only one small part of the picture.

Make me happy: copy your data today

I do backup thru syncbackpro at least once every 1-2 days. Takes just 2 mins after the initial backup. Photos are backed up in at least 3-4 locations onsite and offsite. C: is backed up with acronis.

My brother once lost use of his hard disk and he had to get his lost photos from picasa. No prizes for guessing as to the quality of the restored photos.

[Thad E Ginathom]

For Windows, I used to use AlwaySync. Now, under Linux, I use Grsync. It is very simple, but still accomplishes the same thing.

Picasa, Flickr, etc are sharing services, not data backups. No doubt, if disaster strikes one's data, the copies would be a whole heap better than nothing, but very inferior to the original.

I've toyed with the idea of on-line backup services. When I was working, we loved the concept, but the service and/or the bandwidth needed to utilise it was beyond our budget. Now, as a retired individual, it is a fraction of the cost, but still a bit much for me. Still, I would never use an external service provider for my only backup.