Competent hard disk selection (HDD). Choose a hard drive for home

Many when buying a Flash drive is wondering: "How to choose the flash drive". Of course, the flash drive is not so difficult to choose, if you know exactly for what purpose it is purchased. In this article I will try to give a complete answer to the question. I decided to write only about what we need to watch when buying.

Flash drive (USB drive) is a drive designed for storing and transferring information. Works flash drive very simple without batteries. Just need to connect it to the USB port of your PC.

1. Flashki interface

At the moment there are 2 interfaces. This is: USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. If you decide to buy a USB flash drive, then I recommend taking a USB 3.0 flash drive. This interface was recently made, its main feature is a high data transfer rate. We'll talk about speeds just below.

This is one of the main parameters to which you need to look first. Now flash drives from 1 GB to 256 GB are sold. The cost of the flash drive will directly depend on the amount of memory. Here you need to immediately decide for what purposes a flash drive is bought. If you are going to store text documents on it, it is quite enough and 1 GB. To download and carry movies, music, photos, etc. You need to take the bigger, the better. To date, the chassis are flash drives from 8GB to 16 GB.

3. Case material

The housing can be made of plastic, glass, wood, metal, etc. Mostly flash drives made from plastic. There is nothing to advise anything, it all depends on the preferences of the buyer.

4. Data transfer rate

Earlier, I wrote that there are two USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 standards. Now I will explain what they differ. The USB 2.0 standard has read speed up to 18 Mbps, and records up to 10 Mbps. The USB 3.0 standard has a read speed of 20-70 Mbps, and records 15-70 Mbps. Here, I think, nothing needs to explain.

Now in stores you can find flash drives of different shapes and sizes. They can be in the form of decorations, bizarre animals, etc. Here I would advise you to take flash drives that have a protective cap.

6. Password protection

There are flash drives that have a password protection function. Such protection is carried out using the program that is in the flash drive itself. The password can be installed both for the entire USB flash drive and part of the data in it. Such a flash drive will first be useful to people who carry corporate information in it. According to manufacturers, losing it can not worry about their data. Not so simple. If such a flash drive falls into the hands of an understanding person, then her hacking is just a matter of time.

Such flash drives are very beautiful, but I would not recommend buying them. Because they are very fragile and often broken in half. But if you are a neat person, then feel free to take.

Output

Nuances, as you noticed, a lot. And this is just the top of the iceberg. In my opinion, the most important parameters when choosing: Standard flash drive, volume and recording speed and reading. And everything else: design, material, options are just a personal choice of each.

Good afternoon, my dear friends. In today's article I want to talk about how to choose a mouse pad. When buying a rug, many do not give it any meaning. But as it turned out, this time you need to pay special attention, because The rug is determined by one of the comforts of comfort while working for PCs. For an avid gamer Choosing a rug is a separate story. Consider what options matches for the mouse are invented today.

Variants of carpets

1. Aluminum
2. Glass
3. Plastic
4. Rubberized
5. Two-sided
6. Helium

And now I would like to talk about each form in more detail.

1. First, I want to consider three options at once: plastic, aluminum and glass. Such mats are very popular among gamers. For example, plastic mats are easier to find on sale. According to such mats, the mouse slides quickly and accurately. And most importantly, such mats are suitable for both laser and optical mice. Aluminum and glass rugs find a little more difficult. Yes, and they will cost a lot. True, there is for what - to serve they will be very long. Data rugs of species have small disadvantages. Many say that when working, they are rustling and a little cool, which can cause discomfort in some users.

2. Rubberized (rag) mats have a soft slip, but at the same time the accuracy of the movements are worse. For ordinary users, such a rug will be just right. Yes, and they are much cheaper than the previous ones.

3. Two-way rugs, in my opinion, a very interesting variety of mouse mats. As it is clear from the name from such mats two sides. As a rule, one side is high-speed, and the other is high-precision. It happens that each party is designed for a certain game.

4. Helicing rugs have a silicone pillow. She supposedly supports her hand and removes the tension from it. For me personally, they turned out to be the most uncomfortable. For its intended purpose, they are designed for office workers, since they are sitting at the computer for all day. For ordinary users and gamers, such mats will not fit. On the surface of such mats, the mouse slides very badly, and they are not the most good accuracy.

Dimensions of carpets

There are three types of rugs: large, medium and small. Here everything first depends on the taste of the user. But as it is customary, large mats are well suited for games. Small and medium are used mainly for work.

Design Carpets

In this regard, there are no restrictions. It all depends on what you want to see on your rug. The benefit is now on the rugs that do not only draw. The most popular are the logos of computer games, such as Dota, Warcraft, line, etc. But if it happened that you could not find a rug with the picture you need, do not be upset. Now you can order a print on the rug. But such rugs have a minus: when applied to the surface of the rug, its properties deteriorate. Design in exchange for quality.

On this I want to finish the article. From myself I wish to make you the right choice and be satisfied with them.
Who has no mouse or want to replace it with another I advise you to see the article :.

Microsoft's monoblocks were replenished with a new monoblock model called Surface Studio. Microsoft presented his novelty recently at the exhibition in New York.

On a note! I wrote an article on a couple of weeks ago, where he looked at the monoblock Surface. This monoblock was presented earlier. To view the article, click on.

Design

Microsoft has a novelty company's finest monoblock in the world. With a weight of 9.56 kg, the display thickness is only 12.5 mm, the remaining dimensions of 637,35x438.9 mm. The display dimensions are 28 inches with a resolution of more than 4k (4500x3000 pixels), aspect ratio 3: 2.

On a note! The resolution of the display 4500x3000 pixels corresponds to 13.5 million pixels. It is 63% more than 4k permissions.

The monoblock display itself is a sensory, enclosed in an aluminum case. On this display it is very convenient to draw the stylus, which ultimately opens up new possibilities of using a monoblock. In my opinion, this model of the monoblock will like creative people (photographers, designers, etc.).

On a note! For people of creative professions, I advise you to see the article where I viewed the Monoblocks of this functional. Click on dedicated :.

To all the above, I would add that the main chip of the monoblock would be possible to instantly turn into a tablet with a huge working surface.

On a note! By the way, Microsoft has another amazing monoblock. To learn about him, go through.

Specifications

Characteristics I will present in the form of a photo.

From the periphery I will note the following: 4 USB ports, MINI-DISPLAY port connector, Ethernet network port, Card-Reader, 3.5 mm audio socket, webcam with 1080r, 2 microphones, audio system 2.1 Dolby Audio Premium, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Also, the monoblock supports Xbox wireless controllers.

Price

When you buy a monoblock, it will be installed Windows 10 Creators Update. This system should go out in the spring of 2017. This operating system will be updated Paint, Office, etc. The price of the monoblock will be from $ 3,000.
Dear friends, write in the comments that you think about this monoblock, ask questions. I will be happy to talk!

OCZ has demonstrated new SSD drives VX 500. These drives will be equipped with the Serial ATA 3.0 interface and are made in a 2.5-inch form factor.

On a note! Who wondered how SSD drives works and how much they live, you can read in earlier me a written article :.

The novelties are made on 15 nanometer technology and will be equipped with microchips of the tochiba MLC NAND flash memory. The SSD drive controller will be used tochiba TC 35 8790.
The range of drives VX 500 will consist of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB. According to the manufacturer's application, the read speed will be 550 MB / s (this is all drives of this series), but the recording speed will be from 485 MB / s to 512 MB / s.

The number of I / O operations per second (IOPS) with data blocks of 4 KB can reach 92000 when reading, and when recording 65000 (this is all with arbitrary).
The thickness of the OCZ VX 500 drives will be 7 mm. This will allow them to be used in ultrabooks.

Prices of new products will be as follows: 128 GB - 64 dollars, 256 GB - 93 dollars, 512 GB - 153 dollars, 1 TB - 337 dollars. I think in Russia they will cost more.

Lenovo at the GamesCom 2016 exhibition introduced its new IdeaCentre Y910 game monoblock.

On a note! Earlier, I wrote an article where the game monoblocks of different manufacturers had already considered. This article can be seen by clicking on this.

The novelty from Lenovo received a 27 inches frameless display. The display resolution is 2560x1440 pixels (this is QHD format), the update frequency is 144 Hz, and the response time is 5 ms.

The monoblock will have several configurations. In the maximum configuration, an Intel Core i7 generation processor is provided, the hard disk capacity of up to 2 TB or 256 GB. The amount of RAM is 32 GB DDR4. The graphics card will answer the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 either GeForce GTX 1080 with the Pascal architecture. Thanks to such a video card to the monoblock, you can connect a virtual reality helmet.
From the periphery of the monoblock, I would allocate the Harmon Kardon audio system with 5-watt speakers, the Killer Doubleshot Pro Wi-Fi module, a webcam, USB ports 2.0 and 3.0, HDMI connectors.

In the basic version of the monoblock IdeaCentre Y910 to be used in September 2016 at a price of 1800 euros. But the monoblock with the version "VR-Ready" will appear in October at a price of 2200 euros. It is known that the GeForce GTX 1070 video card will be in this version.

MEDIATEK has decided to upgrade its Helio X30 mobile processor. So now developers from MediaTek design a new mobile processor called Helio X35.

I would like to briefly tell about Helio X30. This processor has 10 cores that are combined in 3 clusters. Helio X30 has 3 variations. The first - the most powerful consists of a core of Cortex-A73 with a frequency of up to 2.8 GHz. There are also blocks with Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of up to 2.2 GHz and Cortex-A35 with a frequency of 2.0 GHz.

The new Helio X35 processor also has 10 nuclei and it is created on 10 nanometer technology. The clock frequency in this processor will be much higher than that of the predecessor and ranges from 3.0 Hz. The novelty will enable up to 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The POWER VR 7XT controller will most likely be responsible for graphics in the processor.
The station itself can be seen in the photographs in the article. In them we can observe compartments for drives. One compartment with 3.5 inches connector, and the other with 2.5 inches connector. Thus, a new station can be connected to both a solid-state disk (SSD) and hard disk (HDD).

DRIVE DOCK Dimensions are 160x150x85mm, and there is no 970 grams weight.
Many, probably, the question arises as Drive Dock station connects to a computer. I answer: this happens via USB port 3.1 GEN 1. According to the manufacturer's application, the sequential read speed will be 434 MB / s, and in recording mode (sequential) 406 MB / s. The novelty will be compatible with Windows and Mac OS.

This device will be very useful for people who work with photos and video materials at a professional level. Also, Drive Dock can be used to backup files.
The price for a new device will be acceptable - it is 90 dollars.

On a note! Previously, Randuchintala worked at Qualcomm. And since November 2015, he moved to Intel's competing company.

In his interview, Randuchintala did not talk about mobile processors, but only said the following, quoting: "I prefer to talk less and do more."
Thus, the Top Manager Intel made an excellent intrigue to his interview. We have to wait for new announcements in the future.

Right? What manufacturer to prefer? What kind of volume should be a hard disk and why is the entire disk space not visible in my system? Do you know such important characteristics of the hard disk as: Form factor, cache, spindle speed, linear reading speed, hard disk access time? How to check the hard disk and? What is SSD and why he is faster than a simple HDD hard drive, but there is also? ? Why is it better to buy two disks for good performance of a new computer: HDD and SSD? We will reply to all these questions in our article.

Hi friends, choose a hard drive completely simple, and optical drive is even easier, but we will touch this question at the end of the article.

Types of disc

In stationary personal computers (PCs) and laptops use hard magnetic disks (HDD) and modern solid-state drives (SSD) based on memory chip.

HDD. (Eng. HDD - Hard Disk Drive) - Electronic-mechanical device designed to store information on it. It has a large volume, but low speed and are used both to install the operating system and the storage of user files.

The hard disk is made of aluminum or glass plates covered with a ferromagnetic layer and is a device that works on the principle of magnetic record. When working inside the hard disk everything is in motion. Magnetic heads that are written, reading, erasing information hover over the surface of the magnetic plate of the hard disk at an altitude of 10-12 nm and never touch their surface, as they are easy to damage. HDD has long been obsolete for a long time and in the moment the future will be completely ousted by SSD.

SSD - Solid State Drive (SSD, SOLID-STATE DRIVE) - a non-mechanical storage device based on the memory chip of similar RAM or flash memory. SSD stand is much more expensive than HDD and have several times less than a smaller volume, but high speed and are used to install the operating system and some programs to increase the speed of the PC. As you already understood, inside SSD there is not practically no mechanics. SSD faster than HDD almost 5 times.

SSHD. There are also SSHD hybrid discs that have both a magnetic plate for storing data and a small volume of solid-state memory to increase the speed of operation. But they still did not fit, as they cost quite expensive and at the same time they have little fast memory. The best option is to install individual HDD and SSD disks.

Form factor

The form factor is called the size of the hard disk in inches. Main sizes of hard drives:

2.5 "" - HDD drives for laptop and SSD.

3.5 "" - HDD drives and hybrid disks for stationary PCs.

For laptops, only the HDD and SSD size of 2.5 "" are used.

For stationary PCs, the HDD of 3.5 "" sizes are used, and SSD solid-state 2.5 "sizes are installed in the housing using a special attachment, which sometimes goes with it, but most often you have to purchase it additionally. Read our article on SSD solid-state drives, all the details there.

Please note that the screws for fastening the disc in the PC housing are rarely equipped with a disk and if you do not have them and the case does not have anywire fasteners, then ask 4 things from the seller, they usually have them full.

Interface

The interface is a combination of data exchange technology (standard) and the corresponding connector for connection.

IDE - Outdated parallel data interface, used a wide 40 or 80 pin connector and the corresponding plume for the connection. Data transfer rate up to 133 MB / s. The IDE interface disks are almost not performed and are much more expensive.

The IDE interface disc can be considered only to connect to the motherboard that does not have a newly new connectors (SATA), but in most cases it is more expedient to acquire a more modern hard disk (SATA) and to connect to the old board, it will be cheaper and it will be available in Subsequently rearranged on a new computer.

The only drawback that the disk connected through such a controller may not always be able to install the operating system (OS), since the drivers on the controller are installed after the system is installed. But such a disc can be used as a file storage.

SATA. - The first version of the high-speed serial interface, uses a thin contact connector and the corresponding plume for the connection. Data transfer rate up to 1.5 GB / s. This version of the interface was used on the first HDD 2.5 and 3.5 "" and such discs are no longer available, but compatible with newer versions (SATA 2 and SATA 3) and can be connected to a motherboard with a connector of any of these versions.

SATA 2. - The second version of the high-speed serial interface, uses the same connector and loop as SATA first version. Data transfer rate up to 3 GB / s. This version of the interface is still used on HDD 2.5 and 3.5 "" and old SSD 2,5 models. It is compatible and with an older (SATA) and more new (SATA 3) interface versions and can be connected to the motherboard with a connector of any of these versions.

SATA 3. - Third version of the high-speed serial interface. Data transfer rate up to 6 GB / s. This version of the interface is used on modern HDD 2.5 and 3.5 "" and SSD 2.5 "". It is compatible with older (SATA and SATA2) interface versions and can be connected to a motherboard with a connector of any of these versions.

Note that the SATA 3 does not fit the loops from the old interface versions (SATA and SATA 2)Since they have insufficiently high frequency characteristics. SATA 3 loops are thicker and usually have black. They commemorate with motherboards having SATA 3 connectors, but they can be purchased separately.

It should be noted that the interface speed in any case significantly exceeds the possibilities of any modern hard disk and for the SATA 3 interface disk can be quite enough for the SATA first version connector on the motherboard. However, in practice it can be different, so it is still recommended that the SATA version of the motherboard interface was not lower than the SATA version of the hard disk interface. This is especially true of fast SSD disks having SATA 3 interfaces, which are desirable to connect to the same SATA 3 connectors on the motherboard, otherwise the disk can not work at full speed (up to 30% slower).

The first SSD discs had the SATA2 interface and can still be found on sale, but they, as a rule, do not differ in high speed.

Power connectors

In addition to the differences in the interface types (IDE and SATA), old and new discs are also different and power connectors.

Discs with IDE interface had a 4-pin Molex power connector.

Transitional disks with SATA interface, with the goal of compatibility with old power supplies, had two power connector: old 4-pin Molex and a new 15-pin SATA standard power connector.

At the same time, they usually had a preventive note that it is impossible to simultaneously connect the power to both connectors, but some users managed to do it.

All modern disks with SATA interface have a 15-pin SATA standard power connector, but may in the absence of such a connector in the power supply unit of the old PC through a special adapter from the 4-pin Molex connector.

By the way, the data transfer wire is called - an interface loop, and for connecting the power to the power cable.

Capacity

Modern HDD for PC (3.5 ") have a capacity (volume) from 500 to 3000 gigabytes (3 terabytes).

HDD discs for laptops (2.5 ") have a container from 320 to 1000 GB (1 TB).

Quick solid-state drives (2.5 ") have a capacity of 60-240 GB.

For a modern home PC, the standard for today is the HDD of 1 TB, which will allow you to place about 700 films or 5000 songs in ordinary quality or 290000 photos in high quality or 100 modern games (usually in different combination).

For a simple office PC, the minimum volume of 320 GB will be sufficient.

For a laptop, if it is not used to store multimedia or archive data, the optimal 500 GB disk volume, but it is possible to 320. If it is used as the main home PC, it is better to look at the 750-1000 GB disk.

For professional use or serious hobbies, you may need a hard disk with a volume of 2-3 TB, and may also be several such disks. Note that if the BIOS of your motherboard does not support UEFI, then when installing OS on a 3 GB drive, the system will not see all of its volume, about 700 GB will remain unused.

SSD discs are not used for storing information, as they have small volumes and high cost. They are used only to install the system and some programs to increase the speed of the PC. The 60 GB SSD disk is enough for installing Windows 7 or 8, but it is desirable to still acquire the SSD of the amount of about 120 GB, since the first Windows is inherent "to grow", and secondly, you will want to install some powerful on this disk A program or toy and thirdly - this volume is not promising. A 240 GB SSD is cool, but still expensive and in principle do not need.

When choosing a disc, keep in mind that it is not a reliable data storage and they are recommended to duplicate on an external disk, otherwise you risk losing everything. If you plan to follow this advice, then you will note that you will need to purchase an external disk close by volume. For example, to create copies of files from 2 home PCs (or PC and laptop) with disks 500 and 1000 GB you will need an external disk with a capacity of 1500 GB. If you buy a volume of 3 TB for your PC for your PC, then how much will you still need to spend on a similar external disk?! Better 2 disk of 1 TB.

Spindle rotation frequency

The bulk of modern HDD 2.5 and 3.5 "" has a spindle speed of 5400 or 7200 rpm. In general, the higher the speed of spindle speed, the higher the speed of the disc.

Most of the HDD 2.5 "" has a spindle speed of 5400 rpm, in principle it is normal, since the noise and heating and the consumption of such a disk in the laptop will be less.

Most of the HDD 3.5 "" has a spindle speed of 7200 rpm, but there are models at a speed of 5400 rpm. I would not recommend to take the latter, since such a decision is doubtful for a normal quality disk for PCs and they work a little slower.

There are also fast HDD 3.5 "" with a spindle speed of 100,000-15000 rpm (for example, WD Raptor series), but they are quite expensive (from $ 200 per TB), and faster by 30%. In addition, they are also quite noisy. Better for this money to buy SSD on 128 GB and HDD per 1 TB.

SSD has no spindle, as it consists of a memory chip, so there can be no speech about the speed of its rotation.

Buffer size

The buffer size is called the cache volume made in the form of a memory chip on the hard disk controller electronic board and designed to speed up its operation. Than cache memory more, the speeds of the disc is higher.

Old hard drives had the volume of buffer 8-16 MB.

Modern HDDs have 32-64 MB cache.

In principle, the difference in the speed of the same hard drives with 32 and 64 MB of cache-memory is insignificant (less than 5%). But no sense to acquire a hard disk with a buffer size of less than 32 MB.

The most modern and expensive hard drives have 128 MB cache, but they are not yet particularly common.

Linear reading speed

Linear read speed means the speed of continuous reading of data from the surface of plates (HDD) or memory chips (SSD) and is the main characteristic reflecting the actual speed of the disk. It is measured in megabytes per second (MB / s).

Old HDD drives with IDE interface had an average linear read speed from 40 to 70 MB / s.

Modern HDDs The SATA interface disks have a medium linear read speed from 100 to 140 MB / s.

SSD discs have a medium linear read speed from 160 to 560 MB / s.

The linear reading speed of HDD disks depends on the density of data recording on the magnetic surface of the plates and the quality of the mechanics of the disk. Basically, all HDDs of one generation discs have a close recording density, so higher speed speaks primarily about the quality of mechanics. At the same time, the HDD disk with better mechanics is not much more expensive. Here, the main thing is to be able to correctly select the disk model, which is complicated by the fact that the sellers rarely indicate their high-speed parameters. This information has to look for yourself.

The linear reading speed of SSD discs depends on the speed of the memory chip. But, unlike HDD, SSD discs with faster memory are much more expensive. Select the SSD disk model is much easier, since the sellers always indicate their speed characteristics.

For modern HDD discs, a good indicator is the average linear reading rate of 120 MB / s, for SSD disks - 450 MB / s.

There is also such a parameter as a linear recording speed, which respectively reflects the recording speed to the disk and is also measured in MB / s. For HDD discs, the recording speed is usually less than the speed of reading and is not taken into account when choosing a disk. But for SSD disks, the recording speed may be the same as the speed of reading or less and you need to pay attention to it. It is desirable that the SSD disk would have the same recording and read speed, for example, 450/450 MB / s.

Access time

Access time means the speed with which the disk finds the required file after accessing the operating system or any program. This time is measured in milliseconds (MS). This parameter has a big impact on the speed of the disk when working with small files and not large - when working with large.

HDD discs have access time from 12 to 18 ms. A good indicator is the access time of 13-14 ms, which indirectly indicates the quality (accuracy) of the mechanics of the disk.

SSD discs have access time about 0.1-0.2 ms, which is 100 times faster than HDD disks! Therefore, you can not pay attention to this parameter when selecting the SSD disk and it is usually not specified by the sellers in the prices.

Manufacturers

The main manufacturers of HDD disks are:

Fujitsu. - The Japanese company, previously famous for its products, is currently represented by a small amount of models and is not very popular, but leads a very democratic pricing policy.

Hitachi. - The Japanese company, as previously, is also characterized by the stable quality of hard drives, as it introduces only proven reliable technologies, so the model range of this company is updated somewhat slower than that of competitors. By purchasing Hitachi hard drive, you won't lose, getting good quality for an acceptable price.

Samsung - This Korean company came to the hard disk market later than the rest and their quality at that time left much to be desired. Samsung discs were made in cheap buildings, heated and quickly failed. Today, Samsung, in my opinion, overtook all its competitors and produces the fastest and high-quality HDD discs. The price of them may be slightly higher than that of competitors, but it is worth it.

Seagate. - American company, pioneer in the field of technologies used in hard drives. Once famous for the advanced solutions and the quality of their disks. Now the quality of the hard drives of this company, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired. I do not recommend them to the acquisition.

Toshiba. - The Japanese company, which can be said about everything, too, as well as Fujitsu - she was also famous for high quality, and now represented by a small amount of models in our market. In this regard, there are problems in the service of such manufacturers.

Western Digital (WD) - American company specializing in the production of hard drives. Her discs were always considered more reliable. For example, they used better than that of competitors bearings, but because of this they were always more noisy. Like Hitachi WD discs have always had a less stable quality of manufacture. But, recently, the disks of this company are not allocated outstanding characteristics, such as Samsung. I would position them between the quality of Hitachi and the seagate-groovy.

In general, I would advise you to choose between Samsung and Hitachi, as the highest quality, fast and stable.

Manufacturers SSD.

With the selection of the manufacturer of SSD discs, the situation is somewhat different. Since they consist of a memory chip, then they produce their companies that produce RAM.

As proven manufacturers, I would recommend the following: Corsair., Crucial, Intel, Kingston, Ocz., Samsung, SanDisk, Toshiba., Transcend..

It is better not to acquire SSD famous Chinese brands, such as: A-Data, Apacer, Silicon Power.

Price

As for HDD discs, the price of them more depends on their volume. The dependence of the brand, model and even the quality is not so significant (5-10%), since buyers rarely pay attention to such moments. Accordingly, it is not particularly appropriate to save on the hard disk. Just choose the desired volume, good manufacturer and check the specifications, such as linear reading speed and access time. I will not give prices for HDD discs, since the pricing in this segment is not adequate and more depends on marketing tricks. These prices can fluctuate in from year to year by 2-3 times, both towards reduction and in the direction of the rise. I described a similar situation in an article about RAM. For example, after flooding in Taiwan in 2011, prices for hard drives flew by an average of 2.5 times, and there is another wave of the financial crisis, etc., because of which the prices for them still have not returned to adequate technical progress level.

Purely theoretically, the HDD parameters of the disk can be found at the model number on the manufacturer's website, but in practice it has rarely succeeded, as it was quite difficult for me to find and understand this parameters on the manufacturer's website. But there is a much easiest way.

There is a fairly popular program for testing the speed (and some other parameters) of the hard disk operation - HDTune. The manufacturer's website has a paid (limited trial period) and a free version of this program.

http://www.hdtune.com/

But to select a disc, we do not need us. We are interested only in test results in this program made by other users.

HDTUNE allows you to define two basic parameters - linear read speed and random access time.

In addition, according to the character of the graph, the quality of the mechanics of the disk can be determined.

Here is an example of a disk with conventional mechanics

But with a very high quality and accurate

Noticed the difference? If the disk has a good mechanic, then besides its high-speed parameters, such as linear reading speed and access time, the linear speed schedule will have a beautiful, cyclically repeated form, and the point of measurement of random access times will be placed quite obese.

In order to find the test results of the tests of the disk you are interested in entering the number of its model in search of pictures in Google. Now almost all sellers point in the price list of the model, before it had problems and it was necessary to go to the store or to a warehouse, whatever to look at the drive to live, or get sellers on the phone that for some reason they didn't like it very much)

Find at least 2-3 similar pictures to make sure the objectivity of the tests performed. Pay attention to what the desired model would be indicated in the picture.

Optical drive

We define the interface: IDE - for old PCs without SATA connectors or SATA - for all new PCs. If you do not find the IDE of the drive for your old PC, then you will need to purchase SATA drive and PCI-SATA controller.

Define which drive you need: DVD-RW (also called DVD Super Multi) or Blu-ray (more expensive drive for disks of the same name). If you do not have Blu-ray disks and do not know why you need it, you don't need such a drive).

We choose popular manufacturers: asus, lg, samsung and choose the cheapest of the available models, they will not differ almost. If you like to reinsure, you can choose the most expensive model, the difference in price will be meager (no more than $ 5).

You can also purchase the drive of such manufacturers as: BenQ, HP, Lite-ON, Pioneer, which can have special recording modes and branded software, if you know why it is necessary. It is not necessary for normal users, but there may be problems with warranty service.

What is worth paying attention is to color. It happens: black, silver and white (already found rarely). This is important if you want the drive harmoniously fit into the design of the hull of your PC. If the housing of your PC is black or silver, then the black color is suitable. In addition, the black drive panel is made of black plastic, while silver is always painted and in the process of operation, the paint can be stitched.

DVD drive costs - $ 20-30. The optimal price is $ 25.

The cheapest Blu-ray drive costs $ 65. The optimal price is 75-85 $.

That's all friends. We really hope that we helped you choose a hard drive for your computer!

The range of hard drives is so huge that it is necessary to choose which hard drive to choose for a particular problem, it is very difficult. Therefore, I tried to write a kind of brief guide to the world of hard drives, in which I will talk about the directions of development of the "screws" industry and give examples of using certain models.

I will not be particularly deeply going to the story and narrate everything that was invented and implemented for more than half a century, and I will tell you mainly about what a modern user can face, coming to the store or look into the system unit.

Since the creation of the first HDD (Hard Disk Drive) has changed much. Let me remind you that only the principle of operation remains unchanged for such a long time - rotating the magnetized plates and read information from them - this is exactly what all models are combined.

The number of hard drive manufacturers is constantly reduced - constant absorption and mergers led to the fact that manufacturers remained three - Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba, and for the first two there are more than 90% of the market share. On the other hand, the number of models that differ in size and technical characteristics is constantly growing.

Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba - all who managed to survive in a severe competitive struggle

And all because the scope is becoming increasingly, and the requirements are tougher. Special purpose modifications appear for operation in different devices in addition to the computer.

Form factor 3.5 and 2.5 inches.

All variety of hard drives can be consecrated into two large categories defined by the size (width) of the device in inches. In other words, there are so-called "large" hard drives - 3.5 inches, and small - 2.5 inches. The more drive, the greater the size of each plate in it, and the more information is placed on the device.

The maximum volume of "big" hards reached 10 TB, while most of the "small" container limited to one terabyte (you can find models and 2 TB on sale - it is too expensive).

Comparison of two and three-link HDDs.
The difference in sizes and weight is visible to the naked eye.
Also differ heat dissipation, noise level and power consumption

The first group (3.5 inches) is used in ordinary stationary computers. In any desktop it is worth exactly the device on which both the operating system and user files are stored - images, video, music and documents.

"Kids" are installed mainly in laptops. Due to its size, they do not occupy a lot of space, they do not heighten a portable PC, and, in addition, they consume little energy, extending the battery life.

However, "small hard drives" is both additional use - they are often used in home media players, allowing you to record a huge number of video and audio materials, in external hard drives connected directly to a computer (DAS), as well as in network file storage (NAS).

NAS is a typical example of using hard drive.
This file storage connects over the network and carries 4 hard disk

Here we approach the second important difference between these groups - energy efficiency. If tiny dual-lithe devices when load Consume within 2-2.5 watts (and at idle is at all less watts), then the elders are more voracious and can eat about 7-10 watts.

This quality allows small bidders without an external power source, they are powered directly from the USB port of a computer or even a smartphone (as well as a tablet). Let me remind you that the USB 2.0 port at a voltage of 5 volts gives a current of 0.5 amps, that is, the power issued by the port is 2.5 watts (or 4.5 watts for USB 3.0).

An example of an external hard disk.
A USB port is used to connect.
Inside is 2.5-inch hard drive

It is for this reason "kids" very often used in external hard drives - the power of the USB port is enough to feed the device. That is, such a drive self-sufficient device - it requires only a short cord for communication in the computer.

But when using three-way drives, external nutrition is required. Therefore, they are little suitable for convenient transportation - just do not put in your pocket, you will still have an external power supply to carry with you, and then it sometimes takes places more than the device itself. This explains the popularity of the use of laptop hard drives as portable drives.

External HDD 3.5 inches.
The size of the power supply is comparable to the device itself.
What compactness and speech can not be about

Multimedia players use both classes. But at the same time, compact models contain 2.5-inch hard drives - this not only significantly reduces dimensions, but also reduces energy consumption, noise and vibration, which is important when watching a movie or listening to music. If you need a silent media player or storage, then such hard drives are the most appropriate choice.

Medialier - allows you to watch video and listen to music.
Connects to the TV and has a remote.
But inside the same hard drive 3.5 inches

Third important quality - weight. "Adults" models weigh quite a lot, so their use is excluded in portable devices, hard drives, cameras, laptops, etc., while "kids" do not pull the pocket and do not waste the technique.

Liliputs 1.8 inches.

Also there are also tiny models of the form factor of 1.8 inches. Their capacity is even smaller, but the price is quite high. Therefore, they were used only where exceptional compactness is required. For example, in portable MP4 players. True, in connection with the rapid development of Flash-memory, they are less and less in demand. And at the moment they are almost ousted by Flash.

Tiny hard drive 1.8 inches (second from above).
I could not stand the competition and wounded by Flash.
Bottom HDD 3.5 inches, on it - HDD 2.5 inches

SATA and IDE interfaces

Simple language, the interface is connectors with which the computer is connected to the motherboard or to another device.

IDE interface

Pretty ancient means of connecting hard drives. For sale no longer find such HDD - they have long been removed from production, however, some of the most new models of computers can still meet such hard drives.

They differ in that two devices are connected through one cable (loop). Moreover, on the HDD themselves, jumpers (jumpers) needed to exhibit which device will be primary, and what auxiliary. Old-timers are perfectly remembered how much nerves are spent on the proper installation of jumpers.

Loop for connecting two IDE hard drives to the motherboard

Maximum throughput - 133 MB / s - Modern models have long exceeded this mark. How to connect such a device to modern cards that do not have the appropriate connector, you can read in the article how to connect the old IDE hard disk to a new computer

SATA interface

Modern connection interface. Each hard drive is connected by a separate cable, which eliminates the setting (as in IDE). In addition, the interface bandwidth is significantly higher. There are several versions of SATA, differing only by speed.

Detailed information about how the connectors look like in the article "How to connect a hard disk to a computer".

Moreover, if the IDE of Winchesters 2 and 3-inch instances had different connectors, non-compatible connectors, then SATA both class devices use identical plugs.

Hard disk thickness

While the 3,5-inch hard drives are the thickness of an important role playing, the younger fellow is important. It nominally its value in laptop hard drives is 9.5 mm.

HDD thickness is determined by the amount of magnetic plates. The greater the plates, the greater the hard drive, but the thicker it turns out the end device.

Portable discs usually carry from one to three plates ("big discs" - three to five plates). Therefore, their thickness can vary from 7 mm (with one plate) to 12.5 mm (with three plates).

The standard and most common option is 9.5 mm at two plates. They are used in most laptops. When buying a thicker (and more tank), the model can be encountered with the impossibility of installing in a laptop - the hard drive is simply not placed in the corresponding compartment.

Comparison of models with a thickness of 12.5 and 9.5 mm.
The first one plate has more.
The rest of the model does not differ

Therefore, when buying a device for replacement in a laptop, you must look at the thickness. Moreover, there are only 7 mm thick discs in ultrabooks that differ in compactness.

But the industry does not stand still, and manufacturers have already presented the hard drives with a thickness of only 5 mm (with one plate). But they only appear on the market and fairly expensive.

On the other hand, in portable external hard drives there is no point in chasing the thickness, so they sometimes put hard 12.5 mm. In this case, the container can reach the one and a half and even up to two terabytes.

Rotation speed of hard drives.

Another important point to which you want to pay attention to the purchase of hard drive is the speed of rotation of the spindle (and plates). At the "slow" models, it is in the range of 5200-5900 rpm (standard - 5400 rpm).

Such models are not very hot, no noisy, almost do not have vibration, however, the performance of them is relatively low. The main purpose is computers and devices with a weak or missing cooling, as well as systems, the main requirement to which are silence - for example media centers and players.

A more high-speed group with a frequency of 7,200 rpm has a higher productivity, but heats up and noise is significantly higher. But the main problem with the domestic use of such models is the vibration, which is slightly lower. Earlier, the operating system was installed on such hard drives - the high speed of rotation ensured a low access time to information, which had a positiveness of the responsiveness of the system.

The next group of hard drives is 10,000 rpm and more - an extreme line of hard drives, which has extremely high performance. The heat dissipation is so high that such discs require a separate radiator.

But with the advent of SSD, the need for hard drives with a high frequency of rotation in the home sector almost disappeared. The system is placed on the soliditor, and the data is stored on the traditional disk. The use of fast disks is justified only in the corporate segment, where the requirements for noise and vibration are low, there are still great demand for them.

It should be noted that the models of the last group are especially quickly displaced by SSD. The speed of terethelniks is incommensurable above, even compared to the fastest samples of hard drives - about it can be read in the article comparing SSD and HDD velocities. At the same time, they are completely silent, consume less electricity and almost do not heat, and the price of them is often even lower than the "fast HDD".

Test results for SSD VERTEX 3 and HDD Seagate 3 TB.
SSD performance is significantly higher.

Due to the development of technologies and the growth of the recording density on the plates, the speed of reading the "low-kind models" has exceeded 150-160 MB / s, which is higher than that of the most rapid instances of 1- or 2-year old. So they can only call them conditionally.

HDD container

The peculiarity of the existing position in the market is that due to technological complexity, the growth rate of the capacity of the storage tank is constantly slowed down, so it is not worthwhile to wait for a huge increase as it was before.

At the moment, the maximum of 3.5-inch hard drives - 10 TB, but the most optimal for the price for gigabytes are five-capacity models.

In laptop hard drives, everything is much easier. If you drop exotic models, then the optimal volume is 1 TB, and it is maximum in a standard 9.5 mm case. For most purposes, such a disk is enough with interest.

Noise level and vibration

Often one of the main requirements for the operation of the house is comfort. No matter how strange it sounds, but a low level of noise published by the drives.

Models with a low spindle rotation models usually work much quieter of their fast fellow people who publish a permanent low-frequency whistle. In addition, the vibration is transmitted to the computer housing (or other device), so when operating two or more devices with a high frequency in one case, vibration is repeatedly enhanced.

You probably had to hear an irritating low-frequency hum, published by the case. The culprit is precisely fast HDD working in a pair (and more). The best solution is to use economical low-robust models.

Temperature and stable food

Modern drives are very complex electronic devices, their durability strongly depends on the operating conditions. First, discs (first of all 3.5-inch) must be cooled correctly. Driving a dust radiator in a laptop or improper organization of movement of air flows in the desktop can lead to work at elevated temperatures, which significantly reduces the life of the HDD.

Additional cooling from Zalman.
Allows you to reduce the temperature by 5-7 degrees.
Very effective grace in housings with poor ventilation

Comfortable temperature for the drive is below 40 degrees. The range of 40-45 is still tolerant, albeit unwanted. It is extremely recommended to use a disk at higher temperatures.

It is possible to see the temperature by regular utilities or third-party programs, such as HD Tune or CrystaldiskInfo (both free).

The second important point is a stable food - more relevant for stationary computers. The old power supply with frying elements, non-smoothing voltage jumps, may be the cause of the failure of the hard drive.

I have had many times to hear from buyers a lot of unflattering reviews about HDD manufacturers, for example, when "dying" two purchased disk in a row, but the reason ultimately turned out to be in a poor-quality or old power supply, after the replacement of which everything came to normal.

Hybrids

The story would be incomplete without mentioning hybrids. This is such a type of HDD in which the traditional disk is complemented by a low-capacity flash memory with a storage device (due to which the price is though higher, but non-imminent). The flash drive contains the most part used files (or blocks) of the hard disk, increasing performance. The capacitance of the hybrid is the same as in conventional HDD, and much more SSD volume.

But, in my opinion, the hybrids did not particularly fit. If you need money saving - it is better to do without SSD, and if you need performance, it is better to buy a full-fledged soliditor.

The only place where the use of hybrids is justified - in laptops, they have only one storage compartment and install two devices immediately will not be released.

When using 3.5-inch hard drives, I recommend using the drives of the Green series production of Western Digital, working almost silently, and for NAS (and media players), as well as with the joint use of two and more drives, I recommend to stay on the Red producer series.

Western Digital series Red.
Wonderful representative of silent hard drives.

The vibration in the Red line is minimized, so even with the simultaneous operation of four copies, vibration and annoying low-frequency hum will be invisible.

Among the laptop hard drives are pretty good Hitachi series TravelStar and WD Series Scorpio Blue. It is only important not to forget about the thickness of the devices in the event of a replacement of HDD to a similar larger tank.

Seagate devices are also not bad, but usually they are slightly more expensive (for 3.5 inch models), and they are slightly higher.

And do not forget about the correct operation of any HDD, do not overheat the Winchestera, otherwise it will be too vehicle.

After the release of the new Windows 10 operating system, the experts of our site often began to apply for questions regarding the choice of reliable Winchester. Especially users are interested in which HDD to choose under the system to guess with the amount of memory, with the speed of the device and its reliability? The answer to this question we will present in this article.

What is the hard disk to choose for a specific operating system?

The question of which HDD is to choose under a certain Windows, worries many users. Finding him the answer is simple enough. You need to go to the Microsoft website and view system requirements for hard drives for each individual Windows.

Recall that for normal operation, the following systems need:

• For Windows XP from 1.5 GB of free space;
• For Windows Vista from 20 GB for installation and 40 GB for normal operation;
• For Windows 7 from 16 GB to install a 32-bit and from 20 GB to install a 64-bit version;
• For Windows 8, you need from 16 GB for a 32-bit version and from 20 GB for a 64-bit OS. However, these requirements are understated. We recommend using discs on Windows 8, on which free space from 30 GB;
• For Windows 8.1 from 18 GB for a 32-bit version and 22 GB for a 64-bit OS;
• For Windows 10, manufacturers are underestimated. To install, you need from 20 GB of free space and from 50 for normal operation.

Because all the requirements specified by the developer requirements for a free place on HDD are too low, we recommend that you consider the number of installed applications, games, music collections, photos and movies, which also require additional gigabytes. Therefore, the optimal volume for the specified operating systems will be HDD from 250 GB, and better from 500 GB and higher. If you are interested not only by the volume of the drive, it is worth considering some more recommendations.

Hard disk with a large amount of free space does not guarantee a quick start of the system and good speed of programs. It allows only to store as much information as possible. Therefore, an important issue in the choice of HDD is its performance. Moreover, modern online games, photoshop and video editors are hard to system. And the higher the speed of the disk, the faster the software is responsible for user commands. But how to determine the speed of the drive robots? How to do this we tell in Russian and only with a real example.

If you want to check the disc before purchasing per performance, enter in any search engine query "HDD model, manufacturer, volume and add a word review". The tests always indicate the speed of the device.

If you intend to check your disk, then the HD Tune Pro program will suit. After its installation, you need to go to the "Benchmark" tab (in the Russian version of "Disk Monitoring") and click "Start". The test for reading and writing the file will be launched. Test data will be specified in the right menu.

However, in addition to high performance in disk, it is important to have such technology as NCQ (embedded command queue). What does it mean?

With a frequent access to a specific program, a file, the disk remembers the command and path to the object. When recording, the speed response speed is significantly reduced. However, so that this mode is working, you need the SATA controller to work in AHCI mode, which can be turned on in the BIOS settings. Therefore, when buying an HDD, the choice should be done in support of the availability of NCQ technology.

It is also impossible in this block to miss the question regarding the speed of spindle rotation. The higher this indicator, the faster the disk is running.

Distinguish discs at the next spindle speed:

• 5400 rpm - these are "green discs", in which low energy consumption and acceptable speed for data reading. For recording, these disks are not suitable.
• 7200 rpm - Golden middle. HDD with such speed spindle speed rotation, have good records and data reading indicators, however require a lot of energy. In a PC with a small case for such HDDs you need to install additional cooling.
• From 10,000 rpm - these are the most productive discs. Often they are bought for servers. However, the high speed of revolutions can lead to an HDD overheating. Therefore, such discs are not installed without additional cooling.

Cash memory is a special type of memory, which is a kind of buffer for storing data, which are already read with HDD, but not transmitted for subsequent processing. Also, the cache is responsible for storing the data to which the system turns most often.

In theory, the more memory has a cache, the faster the system will respond to user requests. There are discs on sale with the following configurations of the free space for cache:

• 8 MB and 16 MB for laptops;
• 32 MB and 64 MB for computers.

The best configuration is 64 MB.

Most modern drives have SATA III connection interface (for an external disk it is USB 3.0). However, not all motherboards support this type of connection. Therefore, before buying an HDD, it is necessary to double what connections are to connect the hard drive on your motherboard.

You can find on sale the following types of interfaces:

• IDE (ATA) - the speed of the disk with such a connection is 1000 Mbps.
• SATA - the data transfer rate is 1500Mbps.
• SATA II - Data transmission is carried out at a speed of 3000 Mbps.
• SATA III - data transmission is carried out at a speed of up to 6000 Mbps.

You can argue about the manufacturers of hard drives for a long time, as there are many of them, and each individual model has distinctive characteristics. However, the trinity of world leaders can be allocated.

Hitachi is a manufacturer who produces the most durable HDD. Despite the fact that their price is relatively high than in WD, the hard drives work quietly, fast, truth, warm. They are recommended to use with an additional cooling system. The period of operation of one such disk is 8 years.

Western Digital. The disks of this manufacturer can be divided into 3 categories:

• Green (color indicates tone stickers on the housing) - disks with low energy consumption, average speed of work, a decent life lifespan.
• Blue - good in work. Heat within the normal range. Serve up to 10 years.
• Black - the fastest and most reliable discs. However, there is a minus: noisy and warm. Without additional cooling it is not recommended to install.

Seagate is the most famous HDD manufacturer. In general, the disks of this brand are in demand, but the defective devices come across. From practice, you can allocate if such a disk has not started "refrigerated" in the first year of work, it will last long enough.

The choice of disk is personal, but considering the above tips, make it right.