Dell hard drive options

[Tostada]

A friend of mine wanted to get a Dell and was asking my opinion of what to get. He doesn't really do anything that needs much power (he's using AOL over his DSL connection -- that kind of guy), but he tends to keep computers for a very long time (he's upgrading from a P3-550).

I was recommending the XPS 400 with a Pentium D 930 (just because it's runs cooler than the 820), 2 GB, and a GF 6800 (so he can have something that's not a TurboCache/HyperMemory card).

As far as hard drives, though, I'm not sure what they're using. The options are:

250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 8MB cache [Included in Price]


320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 16MB cache [add $50 or $2/month1]


500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 16MB cache [add $180 or $6/month1]


DataSafe 160GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive) [add $40 or $1/month1]
Your digital photos, music, and other critical files are just too important not to protect. Get Dell DataSafeTM - A Dell Exclusive backup solution!


DataSafe 250GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive) [add $120 or $4/month1]


DataSafe 320GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive) [add $220 or $7/month1]


320GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 160GB SATA 3Gb/s HDDs) [add $40 or $1/month1]


640GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 320GB SATA 3Gb/s HDDs) [add $220 or $7/month1]


500GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 250GB SATA 3Gb/s HDDs) [add $120 or $4/month1]

I'm thinking maybe they're using all Seagate stuff, since Seagate has 16MB 320/500GB drives, but I think all their 250GB drives are 8MB cache. I'm really not sure, though.

This guy isn't going to come close to using 250GB. He's not going to do video editing, and probably won't see much of any benefit from RAID 0. I'm thinking he might as well just stick with the default 250GB drive, but if the 320GB drive is a faster drive, he can swing the $50 pretty easily. Of course the $40 for a 320GB RAID 0 also looks like a good deal, but two 160GB drives might actually be slower for everyday use since they're probably previous generation drives.

I just don't know. I can't make much of a decision without knowing the specific drives they're using.

Obviously the "DataSafe" drives are just mirrored instead of RAID 0. If it would be easy to break the RAID, it might be nice to just get that and turn off the mirroring then put all his data on the 2nd drive.

 

[Dragoon42]

Originally posted by: Tostada
A friend of mine wanted to get a Dell and was asking my opinion of what to get. He doesn't really do anything that needs much power (he's using AOL over his DSL connection -- that kind of guy), but he tends to keep computers for a very long time (he's upgrading from a P3-550).

I was recommending the XPS 400 with a Pentium D 930 (just because it's runs cooler than the 820), 2 GB, and a GF 6800 (so he can have something that's not a TurboCache/HyperMemory card).

As far as hard drives, though, I'm not sure what they're using. The options are:

250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 8MB cache [Included in Price]


320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 16MB cache [add $50 or $2/month1]


500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 16MB cache [add $180 or $6/month1]


DataSafe 160GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive) [add $40 or $1/month1]
Your digital photos, music, and other critical files are just too important not to protect. Get Dell DataSafeTM - A Dell Exclusive backup solution!


DataSafe 250GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive) [add $120 or $4/month1]


DataSafe 320GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive) [add $220 or $7/month1]


320GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 160GB SATA 3Gb/s HDDs) [add $40 or $1/month1]


640GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 320GB SATA 3Gb/s HDDs) [add $220 or $7/month1]


500GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 250GB SATA 3Gb/s HDDs) [add $120 or $4/month1]

I'm thinking maybe they're using all Seagate stuff, since Seagate has 16MB 320/500GB drives, but I think all their 250GB drives are 8MB cache. I'm really not sure, though.

This guy isn't going to come close to using 250GB. He's not going to do video editing, and probably won't see much of any benefit from RAID 0. I'm thinking he might as well just stick with the default 250GB drive, but if the 320GB drive is a faster drive, he can swing the $50 pretty easily. Of course the $40 for a 320GB RAID 0 also looks like a good deal, but two 160GB drives might actually be slower for everyday use since they're probably previous generation drives.

I just don't know. I can't make much of a decision without knowing the specific drives they're using.

Obviously the "DataSafe" drives are just mirrored instead of RAID 0. If it would be easy to break the RAID, it might be nice to just get that and turn off the mirroring then put all his data on the 2nd drive.

dude you're erisously worried about a speed difference of ms in hard drives in day to day pc usage?

.......

let's rethink this. This guy is upgrading from a p3-550. Will not use anywhere near 250gb...


hrm...let's see, let's pay extra for more space...

 

[PurdueRy]

Your giving a guy that was ok with a PIII 550 MHz an XPS? Do you want to waste his money?

 

[Varun]

All of our Optiplexes at work have (had) Maxtors which are in the process of dying. I just received a Seagate as a replacement today, so maybe that is the way they have gone now.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Its whatever they get bulk off... I order 500 gx270, first batch maxtor, 2nd batch wd, 3rd batch seagates... they're all within 1 month of each other..

scsi end, fujitsu, seagate and hitachi..

notebook, wd, hitachi and samsungs.. haven't seen a seagate 2.5.. but it doesn't mean they dont have them

 

[0roo0roo]

don't do raid 0, thats just not gonna work, the speed difference isn't noticable for most or worth the risk. you aren't going to get a real hardware raid controller on most dells anyways. get raid 1 mirroring. he doesn't sound techie, so just get him mirroring and save him some grief. speed difference between 7200rpm drives is not worth quibbling over, go by price and size requirements. if you really wanted speed you could get 10k rpm raptors..but thats not practical for him.

and breaking the raid? why would you want to do that? he doesn't need the space, safety is the main concern, no downtime no loss of data. plus since its on your advice it better not loose all his stuff when one drives dies. you def should stick with mirror. you don't want to biuld him some fantasy uber computer, you want something as solid as possible.

 

[Tostada]

OK, I guess it's not worth worrying about if it's so random what you get.

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Your giving a guy that was ok with a PIII 550 MHz an XPS? Do you want to waste his money?

I see where you're coming from. This guy doesn't need much of a computer, but the bottom line is that he's a millionaire and a good friend. He's also really cheap and a hypochondriac. An interesting guy to be dealing with. He's probably not going to do anything but use iTunes and AOL, but he's also probably not going to upgrade the machine for 5 years.

I was thinking, for example, if the 250GB drive is an older generation than the 320GB, it might be worth getting the 320 ... or if the 320GB is the perpendicular Seagate (which I really haven't seen any reviews for) that might be an issue.

The DataSafe 160GB option is probably a good idea (just regular mirroring I'm assuming), but is that a good idea using whatever integrated controller Dell has?