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Kickass Gaming Rig Guide |
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Written by Rodney Reynolds
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Tuesday, 17 April 2007 |
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Page 11 of 16
Hard Disk Drive(s):
Selecting a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is next. The first decision is whether to go
with a single HDD or two HDDs in a RAID0 configuration. RAID stands for
Redundant Array of Independent Disks or Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. A
single HDD is inexpensive but will be slower than two HDDs in a RAID0
configuration. The disadvantage to a RAID0 setup is if one drive is corrupted
all data can be lost. If you wish to find out more on RAID, please
click here.
There are four main features to consider when selecting a HDD: Interface,
Rotation speed, Buffer size, and Access Seek Time. There are two interface
types, IDE and Serial ATA (SATA). Select a HDD with SATA or SATA II interface
since it’s a newer technology. The rotation speed should be 7200 RPMs or
greater, preferable 10,000. The buffer size should be 8MBs or greater,
preferable 16MB. The average access seek time should be less than 10ms.
PLEASE NOTE: The latest technology is storage is static drives. These drives are
essentially very large flash drives, but they connect to the SATA port on the
motherboard. The advantage to this technology is there are no moving parts,
which means they are extremely fast. The disadvantage is they are very pricey
and don't offer the much storage capacity.
I'd recommend
Optical Drive:
Next decision is getting a DVD burner. There are plenty of CD/DVD Burners on the
market so lets narrow the search. You should look for one that is capable with
DVD±R @ 16x, and supports dual-layer DVD media at 10x. I would also recommend
getting one with a Serial ATA interface, instead of the older IDE interface. If
the drive doesn’t have extra faceplates to match your case color, you can
purchase them separately.
If you wish to purchase a Blue-Ray
drive,
click here
I’d suggest the following:
Floppy Drive:
Next up is the floppy disk drive (FDD). The floppy drive is quickly becoming an
endangered species and in many cases it’s not required. Although, it is required
when configuring a RAID setup on Windows XP in order to install the RAID
controller drivers. A Floppy Drive can also be useful for flashing the
motherboard’s BIOS. Please note, with the upcoming Microsoft VISTA Operating
System, you will be able to use a flash drive or other removable media instead
of a floppy drive.
I’d recommend a
1.44MB floppy drive with a black faceplate
Flash Drive:
The next item is something every gamer needs, a USB2 flash drive. They are
small, portable, and fast. This makes them really convenient for backing up or
storing data. They come in sizes ranging from 128MB to 32GBs, but I would
suggest getting a 4GB or 16GB model. Also, some flash drives have dual channel
technology, which gives them a performance boost over the standard USB2 drive.
I’d recommend a the following:
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