Hi,

I am planning to buy a new hard disk, but I don't have much knowledge in this field. I would like to ask your opinion on choosing the best hard disk. I have take a look on the quatation of this particular computer store in my area. There are two choice that in my mind
1. 40GB Maxtor ATA 133/ 7200 RPM/ 2MB cache
1. 40GB Western Digital ATA 100/ 7200 RPM/ 8MB cache

For this moment, I feel for the western digital. But I'm not really quit understand about the "ATA 133/ATA 100". What is that stand for? It is important in determining the speed and the performance of the hard disk?what creteria should I consider when buying hard disk?
Which one is more important. The cache or the "ATA 133/ATA 100"?

There also some other manufacture like seagate and quantum. What I want is the hard disk which is 40 GB in capacity. And the most important thing is that it is fast enough and best in it performance. Please help, I really don't have much expirience and knowledge in this matter... and thanks in advance

:(Dont fret on what hard drive.
Both are just fine.

Life can be spent in better pursuits than to decide whether to buy this or that.

Go for the Western Digital which has a 3 year warrantee.

Ivy, marshallzulu, is right about the western digital hard disk drive. You should get the Western Digital. But if you still would like to know why you should pick Western Digital over Maxtor or other hard disk drive (HDD) brand names like Quantum or Seagate and if you would like someone to explain it to you, then I'll be happy to.

Please bear with me 'cause I will be a little lengthy. Actually, Maxtor bought out Quantum, so this makes easier for you to choose. However, I, for one, still would recommend WD 'cause of the following reasons: (1) First thing is WD is the pioneer in EIDE HDD technology. IBM may have invented HDD in the '70's when it first came out with the so-called Winchester hard drive, but it was WD that gave the HDD the really big, big push. WD put the first "E" in EIDE which is the more common type of HDD today and the one you are asking about. (2) WD HDD is much quieter than most other hard disk drive brands, including MAXTOR and even quieter than SEAGATE. Now, RPM means "revolution or rotation per minute", which is the speed at which a disk drive rotates. The faster, the better. ATA and EIDE mean the same thing. ( If we really want to get picky, ATA is a standard, while EIDE is the trade name for the 40-pin interface for HDD cable.) ATA stands for Advanced Technology Attachment & EIDE stands for Electronic Integrated Device Electronic. ATA 100 or ATA 133 is the data transfer rates in MegaByte per second or MBps. Of course the faster, the better, all other things being equal. Now, cache is a term for temporay storage area or buffer and a technique to help speed up data access electronically. Since, the hard disk drive is a mechanical device by design that's not too fast by itself, it make sense to find a way to retrieve data faster electronically when data is already in the cache. And so, basically, that's what a cache is used for; it is built right into the HDD, along with its controller. That's what is meant by the word "Integrated" in Electronic Integrated Device Electronic. So, you can see that ATA 133 will be faster than ATA 100. However, (3) WD'S hdd has 8MB of cache. Since 100 and 133 speeds are not much that far apart, I would rather go with WESTERN DIGITAL hard disk drive's 8MB cache over the MAXTOR's. There you have it--the jist of it. HDD technology is actually a lot more complicated but that is the basic stuff you need to decide which hdd to buy. I could go on and on about other things like latency time, air flow, head flight, data density, or translation (and that is just warming up, lol), but I probably tired everyone to death already, so that's it . Happy shopping! :D