Need help in buying 2 harddisks.confused with buffer size,perpendicular recording....

[tango_cash]

hi people i want to buy 2 hardisks.
i am thinking of a 320gb SATA hdd which i will put inside my computer with my existing hdd.
and the other one a 250gb PATA hdd which i will put in a casing to use it as a external hdd.the reason i am buying a PATA hdd is bcoz of lack of avalibility of SATA casings,and i have been told they are costly and unreliable.
now my config is 2.8 p4 with H.T,915 intel orignal mobo.
i am getting the above hdd for-:
320gb SATA - 3700/-
250gb PATA - 2800/-.

i want to know

1.) which company is best??? the vendor tells me segate is best.
but i have a segate 250gb SATA hdd and it makes noise whenever
some data transfer takes place.that is annoying so this time i want to
buy a hdd that makes less noise.

2.) whats with the new SATAII hdd's. are they any good??are they
backward compatible to SATAI??bcoz i think my mobo supports only
SATA I hdd's.

3.) how much does buffer size matter?? i have heard there are 2 buffer
sizes 8mb and 16mb. Can i get 16mb buffer size for my PATA 250gb
hdd also??

4.) i have also heard that there is a segate hdd with perpendicular
recording.Is there a price diffrence between the regular hdd and the
perpendicular hdd.will it be compatible with my motherboard.
also can i get a PATA perpendicular recording hdd for the 250gb hdd i
want to put in the casing??

[zyberboy]

1. WD and seagate are the best.
2. Yea its backward compatible(but procedure differs with company,first chk that)
3. go for 16mb model , i think seagate has pata with 16mb buffer but its diffcult to get and not worth for pata model.
4. segates 320gb 16mb model is Per recording.

i wud suggest segate 320gb, becoz my wd320 gb is not silent wen reading.

[praka123]

^the seagate's few models(made in china) lacks acoustics(silencer?),hence too much noise!my sata 80GB is one such ,although its working fine for the past 4 years

[zyberboy]

^segates some new models also makes noise.....but my 5yr old segate is quite.

[tango_cash]

is the segate 320gb perp recording hdd with 16mb buffer SATA I or
SATA II????
one more thing is if it is SATAII and i use it with my mobo which supports SATA I then will i get the performance benefit???
and will the 16mb buffer and perpendicular recording thing be useful if i plug the SATAII hdd in the SATA I mobo???
and how exactly are SATAII hdd backward compatible, do i need to use some converter cable or something??
has any one used a SATAII drive in a SATAI mobo???
any idea about it's price???

[zyberboy]

seagate 320gb is sata 2.
U wont get the performance benefit of sata 2 hdd in sata 1 mobo, but the performance difference is small.
For backward compatible, some drives use jumpers and some brand uses special drivers ,chk the procedure for segate.

and its better to ask any having segate 320gb abt its sound before buying.

[Batistabomb]

^the seagate's few models(made in china) lacks acoustics(silencer?),hence too much noise!my sata 80GB is one such ,although its working fine for the past 4 years

i heared sata drives facing some sort of problems in vista and xp ,dual boot installations,is this true ?

[Pathik]

^^ nope.. Not in Vista.. And in some cases in XP

[tango_cash]

i bought the ST3320620SV and it has 16mb buffer but i am not sure it has perpendicular recording or not.http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...&locale=en-US#


is there some site where i can see comparison of performance and feature of this drive and the ST3320620AS.http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...&locale=en-US#
which one is better????

[janitha]

i bought the ST3320620SV and it has 16mb buffer but i am not sure it has perpendicular recording or not.http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...&locale=en-US#


is there some site where i can see comparison of performance and feature of this drive and the ST3320620AS.http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...&locale=en-US#
which one is better????

Seagate 7200.10 and 7200.11 series drives are perpendicular recording ones.
ST3320620SV does not belong to that and is meant for surveillance industry.
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...&locale=en-US#
ST3320620AS is from7200.10 series.
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...&locale=en-US#