Buying a Hard Drive

The hard drive is a component that every computer needs. Infact when looking to add more functionality to your pc you should make the hard drive one of your top priorities in some cases. There are alot of different hard drives to choose from though.

A hard drive upgrade will benefit your computer alot as with todays internet downloading frenzy, you'll have probably noticed that you never seem to have enough hard drive space!

The first matter to consider when shopping for a hard drive is the size in GBs it can store. You might as well go for the largest you can find as to be honest, the price difference between a drive that is 120Gb and one that is 500GB is hardly much. Hard drives are alot cheaper than you think.

Another thing to consider is whether to go with an external hard drive or internal one. External hard drives sit on the outside of you computer and normally connect via a USB 2.0 connection. Where as internal hard drives are installed inside your computer either via IDE or a SATA cable. SATA is alot faster that IDE by the way and should be your choice if you go with an internal drive. As said already external hard drives are normally USB and the good thing about external hard drives is that they are extremely easy to install. Just plug into a USB port and your ready to roll. Unlike internal hard drives where you have to pull out your screwdriver and open your case, select an empty bay, screw it in, plug in the sata etc. Can be a daunting task for anyone who's never even looked inside a PC before. Something you should think about when deciding between the two.

The last not but least matter to think about before purchasing is which brand to go with. There are a few popular brand names to choose from. All of which are respected companies. As of now there are three companies that i would mention for your consideration. Seagate, western digital and hitachi. All of these three have there pros and cons and each have a unique quality better than the other. For instance Seagate are considered to be the best and most reliable but they're also the dearest. Western digital are known to make the fastest hard drives what with their raptor range but they aren't as reliable as Seagate and Hitachi are good allround but there isn't many to choose from as not many stores stock them.

I hope this information helps in your decision on purchasing a new hard drive.