Cheap 250gb hdd

[chubblies]

Fairly cheap I thought, cheapest I could find same model was for £103 from ebuyer.You will need to visit an Aldi store to get one though.
£79.99, available from 13th Jan.

Spec:
Simply upgrade your existing computer, by following the clear installation instructions, with this fantastic Western Digital 250Gb internal hard disk drive. Ideal for those computer users who have ever-increasing amounts of information to store like digital photos and digital videos
• Product comes complete with full telephone support
• Manufacturer’s three year warranty
• Compatible with most computers
• 250 giga byte internal hard disc drive.
• 7200 rpm
• 2 MB Cache
• 80 GB per pallet for state-of-the-art area density
• Ultra ATA/100- for up to 100 MB/s transfer rates
• Fluid Dynamic Bearings for noise sensitive computing environments

[canardo]

good drive i got one from pc world a while back and its very nice :0

[QfanatiQ]

Looking for Aldi now. Cheers.....Q

[evilsatan]

Wouldn't mind getting one of these, hope they are in stock if I manage to get to Aldi.

http://uk.aldi.com/special_buys/product_221.html

[Porthos]

Cheers mate, will look to get one of these. :thumbs

[whatnow]

OR get one of these, still a small 2mb cache but 160GB for £38, that's tasty. Shame it's out of stock but when it's in stock i'll be getting one for sure!

http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/invt/sp1604n

[Shinobi]

slightly off-topic but will that 160GB drive work in an x-box?

[chubblies]

Yes, any ide will work, and as long as you have a recent bios, it will see above the 137gb limit of the old bios

[flipper321]

Should be.. it looks like it's lockable...

http://xboxdrives.x-pec.com/?p=list&v_modelnum=SP1604N

[mladen]

its just the 2mb cache that concerns me really.

Anyhow, they are also going to have some Glossy A4 photo paper (200gsm), 50 sheets for just £4.99

[shedsounds]

Forgive me but in simple terms whats effect of just a 2mb cache and am I right in thinking min of 8mb should be sought? Also wondering if either of these will be any good for a sky+ upgrade

[tiggerbiker]

it would work very well for a sky upgrade, the Samsung SV1204H is known to work very well as an upgrade for the sky boxes, it has a 2 mb cache and 5400 rpm so the only difference with this pcworld HDD is its faster and slightly bigger.
the cooling fan inside the box will be on most of the time but thats not a problem unless you use the box as a pillow!!!!!

[shedsounds]

cheers but for a pc, 2mb has what effect?

[NuMbNuTz]

nice one mate, perfect for storage :whistle

[chubblies]

cheers but for a pc, 2mb has what effect?

I think the cache is where the hdd temporarily stores the raw data from the actual disk ready to send it to the ide cable, so I guessing it will be slower if you are accessing high speed files or a lot of files at the same time. The hdd in my laptop is 2mb, and its never had a problem streaming videos etc I think it boils down to making a difference on a test bench, the majority of people wont notice any difference....

[john107]

I think the cache is where the hdd temporarily stores the raw data from the actual disk ready to send it to the ide cable, so I guessing it will be slower if you are accessing high speed files or a lot of files at the same time. The hdd in my laptop is 2mb, and its never had a problem streaming videos etc I think it boils down to making a difference on a test bench, the majority of people wont notice any difference....

[Q-Buster]

And the point of your post john107 is? (not to increase post count I hope)

Q-Buster

[pete252]

The cache from my understanding is where the most recently accessed files are stored and because this is RAM memory then it makes the drive appear faster. Therefore a bigger cache is better. If you are wanting BIG files from your hard drive then the cache is not an issue, drive speed is though. In my opinion this drive is quite fast enough for normal use, mega overclocked gamers may have a different view though.

Great price though - gonna get me one !!

Pete

[shedsounds]

Thanks all, will have a dabble and if it causes a problem will put it in the kids pc. Seen a report that 7200 spins are too much for sky+, recommends 5400 so that the fan isnt on 24/7

[Simate]

Thanks all, will have a dabble and if it causes a problem will put it in the kids pc. Seen a report that 7200 spins are too much for sky+, recommends 5400 so that the fan isnt on 24/7

I know nothing about sky+, dont even have one but couldnt the fan be upgraded too?