How to choose a hard drive for a computer?

Almost every second user has to solve the problem of choosing a hard drive, and regardless of whether you yourself assembled a computer device or using a specialized service. Sometimes a situation arises in which there is not enough memory to store the required information, movies or downloaded applications. The solution to this problem involves increasing the volume of the HDD with replacing it with a more capacious one. This problem can also be solved by installing another additional disk. In our article, we will consider how to choose a hard drive for a computer for any occasion.

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Drive types

To make the right choice of a hard drive, you need to familiarize yourself with the types of drives that the modern market currently offers. Having examined in detail the main features and differences of the “hard drives”, you can choose a device that will meet all your requirements.

HDD

A hard disk, or the often used name “hard” in slang, is the most common type of drive. The developers created this device back in the 70s of the last century, but to this day in the modern market it remains relevant. Winchester is a magnetic plate made of aluminum or glass, which is coated with chemicals. Such hard drives are usually inexpensive and have a large amount of memory (up to 4 TB), but they work in slow mode.

Important! Such hard drives are used to install the operating system and store user information.

SSD

SSD, or the so-called solid-state drive, is a disk formed on memory chips, and the design is completely devoid of mechanical parts. The 70s of the last century for the first time provided these models, but only now SSD drives have gained the greatest popularity.

The main feature of these discs is the presence of high speed. The negative point is the high cost.

Important! This drive is used to install the operating system, it often works in conjunction with a hard drive.

SSHD

Hybrid models are a kind of symbiosis of HDD and SSD. The design of the hybrid device is an ordinary "hard drive", but with the use of microcircuits that are present on solid state drives.

Important! SSHDs function much faster than regular HDDs, but are inferior to SSDs. These models have not received much distribution.

What to choose?

How to choose a hard drive for a computer? Having familiarized yourself with the various types of drives, you can make the final choice of an important component of your PC by the following parameters:

• For an office personal computer or for a PC that works with documents, an ordinary hard drive may well be suitable. To solve simple problems, it is quite justified, in addition, its cost is much lower than its "brothers".
• If you do not have enough speed of the old computer, then in this case you can add an SSD that will work in tandem with the hard drive. An operating system is installed on the solid-state drive, while 60 GB is enough to feel instant performance.
• Powerful gaming computer devices currently uniquely operate on solid-state media. An ideal option is their use complete with a hard drive. So, the SSD disk is loaded with the operating system and working programs, while 128-256 GB is enough, and the “hard drive” will be used to place files, documents and various games.

Important! Many users are mistaken, considering that the use of SSD can significantly increase the performance in games. But this is not so. Running games is possible and much faster, but the actual increase in FPS is not observed. But the system with this drive will function much more efficiently.

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Form factor

The very first thing you pay attention to when choosing a hard drive for a computer is to familiarize yourself with the physical size that separates drives into large and tiny drives:

• For desktop computers, 3.5-inch-wide hard drives are manufactured.
• The laptop uses models that have a slightly smaller size - 2.5 inches. Moreover, a smaller component width corresponds to a lower weight.
• SSDs are 2.5 inches in size. To install them in the system unit, you must purchase an additional adapter.

Important! Before proceeding with the installation of the hard drive, you must first familiarize yourself with the mounting in the body of the system unit of the computer device.

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HDD connection

How to choose the right hard drive for your computer? After determining with the drive form factor, you should choose the necessary connectors. As a rule, there are two drives on the case:

• one - serves for nutrition;
• the second is for connecting to the motherboard.

Interface connector

The hard drive interface connector is supported by the motherboard. The most common interfaces are the IDE and SATA models of various modifications.

Important! There are two more SAS and SCSI interfaces, but they are only for use in server computers.

IDE

The IDE is an outdated interface and is used only on computers that are no longer in use. It functions very slowly.

Important! Similar interfaces are still present on the modern market, but it does not make sense to acquire them, except as a rarity.

SATA

The followers of these models are drives with a SATA interface. Their main advantage is high speed:

• The first versions of SATA were able to surpass their predecessors by 50% in speed.
• Modern hard drives are equipped with a SATA3 interface with a bandwidth of up to 6000 Mbps.

Moreover, SATA versions are compatible with each other.

Important! For SSD drives, it is desirable that the motherboard has SATA3 support, so that the potential is better developed.

Food

Winchester requires power just like any other component of a computer device. Desktop computers are equipped with a 15-pin SATA connector, which is suitable for both HDD and SSD. Laptops do not require wiring. For the hard drive there is a special tray located at the bottom of the case.

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Volume

When choosing the volume of the hard drive, you should take into account the tasks that your “hard drive” will have to solve in the future. Consider a few recommendations to determine the size of the hard drive.

For computer

Depending on the needs of the user, it is necessary to choose a different volume of the hard drive. How to choose a hard drive for PC:

• For stationary computers that are designed to work with the Internet, a hard drive with a capacity of 320-500 GB is enough. Acquiring more capacious options does not make sense. For the functioning of the system, you can use drives and SSD.

Important! For budget computers, 60 GB is enough.

• For a universal computer device, which is used to store movies, various games, and for work, it is preferable to use a volume of 1 TB. Of course, you can get by with a 500 GB hard drive, but then the presence of an external SSD drive will not be out of place.

Important! For a universal class, it’s worth stopping by the hard drive volume of at least 128 GB.

• For powerful gaming computers, you need to choose a hard drive with a memory capacity of 2 TB. In addition, it is advisable to install an SSD with 256 GB. Such a set is justified for the existence of comfortable work.
• For professional use of computers, for example, video editing, preference should be given to 3-4 TB hard drives.

Important! When working with a hard drive of 2 TB or more, a motherboard capable of supporting the UEFI standard is required. The BIOS is not able to recognize such a large amount. The purchase of hybrid drives is justified only when there is a sense of increasing the response of the system, but there is no need to purchase a separate SSD.

For laptop:

• Many laptops use hard drives with a memory capacity of 320 GB to work. This amount of memory is enough for using a laptop, for example, on the road, when temporarily replaced with a stationary computer device.
• If you have a laptop used as the main workplace, it is advisable to use a 500 GB or more hard drive.

When choosing a 60GB SSD for your laptop, the speed increases instantly.

Important! If there is one slot in the laptop, many users may have questions with the installation. Experienced craftsmen offer a way out of this situation. Do not replace a volume hard drive with an SSD drive with scanty capacity. Yes, and the purchase of a solid state drive of 500 GB is an expensive acquisition. In order not to remove the hard drive on the laptop, and additionally add an SSD, you must use the special adapter in which the drive is placed. It is installed instead of the drive. Even an inexperienced user is able to understand such a design, in addition, nowadays not everyone needs a drive.

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Backup

Most users use the hard drive to store photos, movies, games and other files that are downloaded from the Internet. So, if the drive fails, you can purchase a new one and download the lost information from the Internet again.

But sometimes very valuable information is stored on the hard disk, the loss of which can cause serious problems. In this case, you can use two tips:

• The first method is to purchase two small disks in advance. One - it will be used for work, a second copy of all important documents will be stored on the second disk.
• The second option is the availability of cloud services. To do this, we simply upload the files, and there is no need to worry about their safety.

Based on personal preferences, you decide how to use the method.

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Hard drive specifications

When you find yourself in an electronics store in order to purchase a hard drive, sometimes there is not enough information about the features of the hard drives. Many models are full of various information about obscure parameters. Therefore, it makes sense to examine in detail the most common characteristics in order to understand which hard drive is the best for a computer.

Spindle speed

Spindle speed is a very important characteristic.

Important! The spindle is used only in the design of hard and hybrid drives. Since it is a mechanical part, it is simply absent in the SSD.

The speed of the entire hard disk depends on the spindle speed. The rotation is determined in revolutions per minute.Using various goals, manufacturers produce the two most popular types with a rotation speed of 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm. In addition, there are several other options, but they are not very popular, since their release is associated with certain cases.

What to give preference to?

• The main difference is the presence of different rotation speeds. It is clear that it is much preferable to refer to the “hard drives” having a rotation speed of 7200 rpm.
• But it is important to consider the level of noise and power consumption. In this situation, drives having a rotational speed of 5400 rpm are in a winning position. Since they function much more slowly, their work is much quieter, they also do not heat up and consume less electricity. Such models of hard drives are also preferable to use for laptops.

Memory buffer

The memory buffer is not an important parameter of a PC hard drive. But still, it would not hurt to own this information. Buffer memory is a memory chip that can to some extent increase the speed of operation. Although this value is very small.

On the modern market, there are hard drives with a buffer memory of 32-128 MB. In practice, 32 MB is enough. If they do not differ much in price, then you can give preference to much larger volumes.

Work speed

How to choose a hard drive for a gaming computer? After choosing a hard drive, most users will want to determine the speed measurements. This characteristic is an important parameter of any drive.

Linear reading

The indicator of this characteristic directly affects the speed of the hard drive. Therefore, first of all, you should pay attention to it:

• Modern hard drives have a normal rate, which is defined as 120 Mb / s.
• There are frequent cases when the information application does not have data on the speed of the hard drive. In this case, before you opt for a model, you need to ask all the information on the Internet. Many users make test measurements of certain options for hard drives, and then provide them on thematic forums.

Important! If you, for some specific reason, purchased a hard drive, and it does not suit you, because it works quite slowly, then there is an option to use the HDTune program. Such software is able to display all existing information about this model and about speed as well.

In SSDs, the manufacturer always displays speed, as he tries to prove his superiority over competing firms. They work much faster, but the speed depends on the selected model. So, the speed value varies from 160 Mb / s to 500 Mb / s. If you make a choice in terms of price to quality, you should purchase models with a reading speed of 450-500 Mb / s. Accurate measurements are made possible by many special utilities that can be easily used by finding them on the Internet.

Important! Hard drives for the computer must be selected with a reading speed of at least 100 Mb / s and with the presence of SSD - 450-500 Mb / s.

Line recording

Linear recording is the second parameter after reading, usually indicated next to it. It is considered normal when this indicator is 1.5 times less than the reading indicator. This indicator does not significantly affect the speed capabilities of the system. So, SSDs have this value slightly lower than reading, or this indicator may be at the same level.

Important! SSDs with approximately the same read / write value are recommended.

Access time

An important indicator of hard drives is the time it takes to access the file. This is especially important when copying small documents.The shorter the access time, the faster the hard drive. This value in indirect form indicates the quality of the drive.

Important! The normal access time for the “hard drive” is 13-15 milliseconds. You should not buy a model in which this parameter corresponds to more than 16 milliseconds. The access time is indicated in the attached instructions or, in extreme cases, can be found using the HDTune utility.

For SSDs, access times are less than 0.2 milliseconds, which is better than hard drives. Since the indicator is very small, the manufacturer does not always indicate it.

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Which company hard drive to choose?

It is not recommended to save on hard drives, since the speed of a computer or laptop directly depends on them. You should give preference to the most popular companies that have established themselves with quality products and produce the best hard drives for your computer.

Western digital

In today's market, Western Digital is a leader in hard drive manufacturing. Models are offered in different quality and class, even there is a separation by color factor:

• Blue hard drives are slow, but quiet.
• Greens work slowly, but do not heat up.
• Black hard drives are the best representatives in all respects - they are fast, do not heat up and are quiet.
• Reds serve to perform specific tasks.
• Violet, as a rule, is used in video surveillance systems.

Seagate

Seagate is an excellent manufacturer of fast drives. The quality of this company is not always reliable, but the price is quite reasonable.

Important! To date, only WD and Seagate have released hybrid hard drives.

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Stock footage

Now you are completely ready to choose a hard drive for your computer that is fully consistent with your goals. Improve your PC so that work behind it is always convenient and fast.