Hard Drive - 120 GB Hard Drive

Hard drives are used to permanently store information.  Hard drives are available in two types of technologies Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) and  Small Computer System Interface (SCSI pronounced "Scuzzy").

IDE is the most common and least expensive type of hard drive.  By its nature it is a little harder to setup, and it puts a slightly higher load on your CPU.  Still this is the best choice for a standard PC.  Almost all store bought PCs have IDE hard drives in them.

SCSI is a faster technology and it allows for more flexibility.  You can plug multiple SCSI drives together (called "daisy chaining") with relative ease.   And the data access time is much faster with a SCSI drive.  SCSI controller cards (that work with the SCSI hard drives put less of a load on your CPU.  However, SCSI drives are much more expensive.  If you are looking for a high end performance system, you may want to consider this option.

Hard drives in general have an access speed rating that is measured in milli-seconds (ms).   This is the amount of time it takes the drive head to access the data on the hard drive.  The lower the number (9 ms for example) the better fast your drive is.

Hard drives also have cache just like mother boards and video cards.  Once information has been retrieved from the hard drive it will remain in cache for a while for faster access.  The higher the value of cache the better.  Big drives should have about 512k of cache.

Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) also applies to hard drives.  The RPM is the speed at which the drive spins. Common speeds are between 3600 and 7200 RPM. The faster the drive is spinning, the faster it can access the data from the hard drive.   Faster drives heat up more, so make sure that you have a large, well ventilated case if you opt for the fastest speeds available.

Analogy - Think of the hard drive as a large warehouse for storage.  The warehouse contains file cabinets, and the file cabinets contain drawers with files.  When you start a program on your computer, Word for example, the computer accesses your hard drive to start the program. like going to a file cabinet and pulling out a file.

History - Hard drives have gone up in storage space and down in price.  Years ago, you could purchase a 10 MB hard drive for about $5000.  Today an 18 GB hard drive, 1800 times the size would set you back about $275.  That's a value that has increased, let me get my calculator out again, over 32 thousand times!

Manufacturers - There are numerous manufacturers of hard drives.  Some of the most popular are Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate, Quantum, Conner, etc.  Our best success has been with Western Digital drives through the years. 

What You Are Looking For - If you are looking for maximum storage capacity, (i.e. you have kids, you are going to need a lot of space for games!) then buy an IDE drive and get the best value that you can.   Try to stick with the manufacturers mentioned above for best quality. 

If you are looking for performance, consider a SCSI drive for the fast access time.  Don't be too needy on getting a minimum of 12 GB if you are not constantly putting new software on your system without removing the old software.   You can live on about 4 GB and have your operating system, lots of productivity software and lots of games and still have space left over. 

When you buy a large hard drive, you are making an assumption (albeit probably a very true assumption) that you will need a lot more space in the future.   But isn't that always the case!?!