Go Back   Sports Car Forum - MotorWorld.net > Hobbies and Leisure Time > Computers, Consoles, Gadgets And Gizmos



Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-11-2005, 03:12 PM   #1
stradale
Regular User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 2,737
Default One or two harddrives? Need advice

I just bought a new computer and I specified it to have a 160 Gb SATA HD in it. However, after taking delivery I found out when installing my OS that they made a mistake and put a 80 Gb SATA HD in.

Since I bought the computer in the place where my parents live and I don't want to haul the computer back and forth, let alone ask my friend to help me out and spend another day and a half installing two windows XP OS (one tweaked for making music, the other standard for random tasks) and a bunch of programmes and documents. So I suggested they provide me with a second 80 Gb HD and I'll put it in myself. The guy from the store, who is very helpful and eager to sort this out, advised me not to do that and swap the one I have now for one HD of 160 Gb.

Can anyone here tell me what the pros and cons are to either one or two HDs? Bear in mind I don't want the performance to suffer.

My computer has:
CPU: Pentium 4 (630) 3Ghz
Motherboard: Asus P5GDC Deluxe
Memory: 2 x 512 Mb DDR
Video card: Asus Extreme AX550 ATI
Sound card: M-Audio Audiophile 2496
DVD/RW: NEC ND-4550A

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
__________________
stradale is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-11-2005, 03:22 PM   #2
SFDMALEX
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 5,337
Default

I'd rather have two 80s.

1) Hardrives tend to die a lot lately and the odds of two harddrives going bust at the same time are much lower then those of your one and only.

2) It's faster incase you do a lot of torents where you can just direct all of the downloads to one drive isntead of the other withouht slowing down your system because with one you have files going in and out on the same drive resulting in a slower performance.

3) Unless you plan to upgrade to more in which case you will need a free IDE or SATA connection I would go with the 2x80 option.
SFDMALEX is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-11-2005, 04:25 PM   #3
stradale
Regular User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 2,737
Default

Thanks Alex!

Your third point is something I hadn't considered yet. Even 160 Gb is going to be filled soon enough, so that is something I need to add to the equation.

Anyone has some ideas about what is faster or more reliable?
__________________
stradale is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-11-2005, 04:58 PM   #4
5vz-fe
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Toronto
Posts: 6,167
Default

2 is definitely better than one.....

Unless you require a partition more than 80 gigs, I don't see why having 1 160 gig will be better.

1) Moving files between partition ( / HD in 2 HD case) will be faster
2) You can set up 2 seperate page file for ur window system

+ what SFDMALEX saids
__________________
5vz-fe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-12-2005, 07:46 AM   #5
stradale
Regular User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 2,737
Default

Originally Posted by thamar
Do you know why they say 1 is better? PRICE!
2 Discs cost more then 1

Just take the 2, the mainboard has enough connections for HD's
I know he's not going to be an ass about this, he has also given me a better motherboard and videocard than I ordered with no extra cost. These parts were 80 euros more expensive and they were put in due to the fact the delivery was taking one week longer than expected.

I do know that it's more expensive and, after all, I opted for one 160 Gb HD originally. Granted, it's their fault they put the wrong HD in, but since he already gave me a considerable discount overall plus a better motherboard and video card, I'm not going to try to squeeze them for all I can on this. That is, if it's possible to copy the OSes to the new HD without installing them all over again. They said I can return the 80 Gb HD later.
__________________
stradale is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-12-2005, 08:19 AM   #6
Blip
Regular User
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 383
Default

You should also get a harddrive cooler for one of the drives.

It lowers your drive temperature dramatically and dampens the vibrations. That should also lengthen the life of your hard drive.

I'm currently using the Vantec Vortex. Very effective.
http://www.thecoolingshop.com/produc...roducts_id/905
__________________
©

Drive it like you stole it !
Blip is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-12-2005, 09:09 AM   #7
No.1
Regular User
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 3,224
Default

^^^

How much of a temp reduction do you see with the cooler? ie. what was your normal temp, and what is it now?

And is the Votex loud?... is it the loudest thing in your case?
__________________
No.1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-14-2005, 04:10 PM   #8
Blip
Regular User
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 383
Default

Originally Posted by thenumber1
^^^

How much of a temp reduction do you see with the cooler? ie. what was your normal temp, and what is it now?

And is the Votex loud?... is it the loudest thing in your case?

NOISE:
on Low speed it's not loud. You won't notice that it's on when using the PC. But on High Speed it is very loud. I haven't used high as I don't need THAT much cooling but for extended use High Speed setting would be quite annoying even if you're just sitting in the same room as the PC.

COOLING:
Normal temp when cooler is off = up to 40.
Low speed = varies between 26-29.
High speed = not tested for extended period.

Harddrive is 7200RPM WD.
__________________
©

Drive it like you stole it !
Blip is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-14-2005, 05:06 PM   #9
No.1
Regular User
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 3,224
Default

Nice results... i'm gonna buy one to begin with 8)
__________________
No.1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-18-2005, 03:13 PM   #10
stradale
Regular User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 2,737
Default

Well, it's solved. I agreed to replacing the 80 Gb with one of 160 Gb. After all, that is what I ordered in the first place. As the computer store is where my parents live, my dad stopped by to pick it up for me. Instead of a Hitachi Deskstar160 Gb SATA with 8 Mb cache the guy gave him a Maxtor DiamondMax 200 Gb SATA with 16 Mb cache, to compensate for the inconvenience. Nicely done! Now all I need to do is pick the new HD up at my parents, put it in, transfer all my stuff, clean the HD I have now and return it.
__________________
stradale is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-06-2009, 12:23 PM   #11
gigdy
Regular User
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Baltimore, Md
Posts: 2,221
Default

Originally Posted by ab1 View Post
still think 2

__________________
gigdy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-06-2009, 03:31 PM   #12
RC45
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Texas
Posts: 15,413
Default

..or not.. perhaps he wants to catch up on 3 years of threads
RC45 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2009, 11:29 AM   #13
philip
Regular User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Houston
Posts: 812
Default

Ah how times have changed. I'm going what is somebody doing buying a new computer with a 160 gig hard drive.

To answer the obvious question, two hard drives. Programs and data on one, backup on the other.
__________________
philip is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump