Choice of hard drive

There are three main types of hard-drives : IDE serie-ATA and SCSI. SCSI standard is the better one, and requires you to have a PCI slot available on the motherboard. It is also a lot more expensive. IDE is the most common choice and fulfill in most cases all needs. This is also the cheapest kind.  Serie-ATA is a new standard which can transfer more data faster and the air ventilation in the cabinet may be better. Also make sure that the hard drive is compatible with you motherboards. Todays softare and games require lots of disk-space so buy a big harddrive, nowadays it is very easy to fill it up, especially if you have broadband. Buy 120 GB, more if you can afford it. Rotation speed is another main factor. Get 7200RPM, this is one is faster than the 5400RPM and drives even better. If you decide to get a really fast drive, you may need to install a hard-drive cooler.

If you are considering buying two hard-drives, we would recommend that you only buy one. Two harddrives, although cheaper in most cases, it will generate a lot of heat. And you can always upgrade to a bigger hard-drive later when they become cheaper. When it comes to different brands, they are pretty much all the same. However, IBM and Seagate Barracuda are very reliable and both of them have several years of experience in the industry. We have had very good experiences with these brands, especially Seagate Barracuda, because it is very silent.