Need help selecting a drive for your needs, CLICK HERE!!!
Jun 15 '01
The Bottom Line Read on to find a drive for your type of use, we serve large, medium, and small. Each with a description.
Need help choosing a hard drive for your needs?
Just scroll down to your category or section which best describe your needs
Large: Who needs a huge drive, at least 30gb's?
Video and Audio
With the advent of broadband connections for the home and compression formats, the downloading and sharing of music and video files has been much easier than before. So what would you say is going to stop you from downloading 2000 songs and possibly 600 music videos. Well that is what I have on my 30gb Maxtor 7200 ATA 100 drive. I try my best to pack it to the max and I do well at it.
The point obviously described was that people who want to download a lot of music and videos are definitely in the range of a user who needs a large drive. If you’re going to get a large drive, then be sure that your drive is capable for fast transfer and access speeds. Because if you don't, you’re downloads will begin to lag after 25 at once.
Large drives aren't only for the people downloading the videos but it is for those who capture, produce, and format videos. You can consume a lot of drive space while capturing videos in high resolution and quality formats such as raw avi and mpeg video. Most professional computer video producers have like two 40gb drives or even two 80gb's. If you're desperate for quality captures and space to store them then make sure that you are prepared. As mentioned above, you should look for the highest access times and the quickest interfaces. You want to make sure you drive is up with the system's performance.
Gamers are definitely included
If you're a professional gamer, then I suggest that you purchase something close to or around 30gb's. There are many games that you would much rather play off your hard drive over a CD. Most games take about 500mb's of your disk space. So you could probably fit 37 games on your computer with your other junk.
Medium: Who needs something kinda in the between?
The businessman
The businessman should be having respectful disk space for their 1000 page documents, spreadsheets, and large multimedia presentations. Obviously you don't need 80gb's for all of that so I recommend something less than 30gb's and larger than 15gb's. Sometimes those presentations come in mpeg formats, as you need a good (and larger) format so that you could view lettering clearly in them. I also recommend having at least 15gb’s, as the installation of new software such as Office XP will eat your disk space up. I have also beta tested Windows XP Professional and that eats up 2gb's immediately. You want to make sure that you have space for upgrading to new software.
Did I forget you Mr. Regular? No.
Ok. If you were a regular computer user like me 1.4 years ago, then you might consider saving up a few bucks on a smaller drive. My previous hard drive configuration before my current 30gb's was my main 10 and a secondary 4gb. I would use the main 10gb for my OS, games, and programs. I would only use my secondary for videos and music.
I would now recommend having something between 30gb's and 15gb's. You are probably the multi user type of person or you're a family. You will probably use this drive for some word processing, graphic editing, music, videos, some games, and browsing. These parameters are good for a family computer. Your kid plays Unreal Tournament and finds prices on that new Haro bike he really wants; you do a lot of browsing, some music, and probably play simple games such as pinball etc; and your wife uses it for browsing, managing her site, and shopping.
Access speeds should be up to date on your drive and I recommend purchasing a popular brand such as ACME and Maxtor (my pick for best service, replaced my bad controller card in one week). You can get a lot of help by dialing their number for help with problems. I had some trouble formatting my new 30gb Maxtor after buying it and they took me through the entire process of how to format on of their new drives.
Small: This is for you shorties
Not all of us are into all that junk give me something simple!
Well not all of us need to download 2000 mp3's and not all of us have to produce cinema movies on our computer. A good size for you guys is below 15gb's and larger than 8gb's. If you are just the typical web browser and you're an occasional gamer, then this might be your flavor. Most people in this drive range might do some word processing every now and then.
You guys probably don't care about downloading mp3's and videos and you play your music from real CD's in your CD-ROM drive. That is good that you are supporting the artists. I probably don't as well but I frequently purchase shirts and other junk from my favorite bands. I do support my artists and I am proud of it. Yes real proud. So proud that blood gushes out of my ears. Well anyhow. This drive size is good for the really new user and novice.
Did I forget to mention something? Please leave a note in the comments section if I did, thanks.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bobmp3_99
|
|
Member: Robert Erickson
Location: Tampa Fl, USA
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
It is summer vacation and I'm somewhat bored.
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.