[willhub]

Hi.

Well currently I have 1x 250GB WDC (IDE) and 1x Samsung SP 160GB (IDE)

I am currently thinking of this:
http://www.ebuyer.com:80/UK/product/115418

Now this HDD will be partitioned for one been my games and the other been the OS, now will having IDE HDD's in my PC still slow the operation of Windows and games due to there been IDE hdd's?

Also, will a SATA HDD actually speed up my loading times compared to IDE HDD's? right now it takes me around 4.5 bars to load into Vista and 6 for XP, not much difference from my old 3700+ AMD single core system with 1GB ram so my only thought could be that its the HDD's causing the slow loading times because there IDE.

Thanks
Will.

 

[DuckieHo]

No, mixing HD bus types will not affect anything.

SATA vs IDE means nothing in terms of performance. As of yesterday, no desktop hard drive can use over 100MB/s. IDE is good up to around 133MB/s so there is still room left. The performance gain from newer HD is due to better firmware, controller, and data density.

 

[pow3rtr1p]

If prices are anything like USA's, you should be able to get 400 GB for like $10 more. 400 GB seems to be the sweet spot for HDDs right now.

That being said, any Seagate with Perpendicular recording technology is known to perform very well, sometimes the larger drives even perform on par with the smaller Raptors. Larger drives will be faster, as the platters are the same size, but mroe data is crammed onto it. Thus, a 750 GB Barracuda may very well be able to outrun a 35 GB Raptor sometimes.

I would say a 320 GB Barracuda would be a great drive to get, but if you can find a 400 GB for not much more money, I would opt for that one, instead.

And about speed questions, the only thing that would slow down is boot times. Your mobo will need to check both IDE and SATA before it boots, and thus boot times may be a few seconds longer. No big deal, though.

 

[willhub]

With IDE HDD's though I always get crappy stuttering in some games from loading and windows loading takes ages because of the HDD.

Is it really true the no desktop HDD can go over 100mb/s? I mean I was so sure they were faster :s I dont understand why Windows loads so slow

 

[Emmanuel]

Get raptors!

 

[willhub]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emmanuel Get raptors!

I'm on a 50quid budget lol.