Choosing a desktop hard drive is easy. Decide on internal or external, type of connection, capacity, transfer speed, and seek time. SATA is preferred, eSATA is fastest.
Choosing a desktop hard drive is actually a very simple process. Since hard drives have very few specifications and many of them are common to large groups of drives, choosing one is much easier than it might seem. The first step is to decide whether you want an internal or external drive and then decide on the type of connection. Next, drive capacity, transfer speed, and seek time may have the biggest impact on your decision.
The first important choice in choosing a desktop hard drive is whether you want an internal or external drive. An internal drive is usually less expensive and doesn’t require extra cabling or separate power, but you’ll need to install it yourself. An external drive needs a connection to your computer, and most all need to be connected separately, but they’re easy to install, portable, and often ready to use in minutes.
The next step is to determine what type of connection is available to your desktop hard drive. Internal connections are usually integrated electronic drives (IDE) or advanced technology serial ports (SATA). Some motherboards have both types of connections, but most have one or the other. If you have the choice, SATA is generally considered the better choice. External drives usually use universal serial bus (USB), firewire, or an external serial advanced technology (eSATA) connection. While USB is the most common style of drive and port, eSATA is the fastest and most stable, followed by FireWire and then USB.
Many users choose a desktop hard drive based on its storage capacity. The size of a drive is typically measured in gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB), with terabytes being larger. The drive size is always provided before formatting; after formatting, the drive loses approximately 10% of its total capacity.
The second common method for choosing a drive is based on its transfer rate, or spindle speed. Transfer speed is the time it takes to move stored information between the drive and the computer. Some drives do not have a specified transfer speed, so buyers use spindle speed. This is a measure of the rotational speed of the storage areas within the drive. In both cases, the higher the number, the faster the transfer.
The last common measure is seek time. This amount is expressed in milliseconds. The lower the seek time, the faster the drive is able to access the stored information. This is one of the few areas where you want the lowest number possible. An average desktop hard drive has a seek time of about 10 milliseconds.
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