Simviation Forums

Does a HD speed play a role in the FS2004 operation?

A local store has a Maxtor 200GB 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive on sale for $100

Before I consider that, is the speed of the HD important?  
I'll opt a higher speed if it will improve FS2004 performance.

Every little bit helps...

Well yes a fast HDD will help load times thats about it, maybe a few more FPS. EIDE has I think 130 MBp/s data transfer cap and SATA, the faster format has a 150 MBp/s data rate cap and people with SATA say it is alot faster; Windows and the system as a whole is alot faster especially if you get 2 of them and set it up on a RAID 0 Data Stripping Array or check out Western Digital Raptors they are 10,000 RPMs, SATA  are very very good if you go with SATA and high end HDD those are the way to go then you can invest in another later and RAID it... but if you dont care about that little extra speed and have a budget to stick to an EIDE drive should do just fine...(An EIDE drive will also RAID making its speeds comparible to that of a single SATA drive) Here is a link decribing what RAID is: http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/what_is_raid.html

Dang that's a lot of mumbo jumbo  :P

I'll opt for this: Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 200&DEPA=1

I don't have plans to invest in another and "RAID" it.

Good?

Yeah I am sorry I got to typing and didnt make a whole lot of scence about half way through :/ well yes thats a good hard drive but it is only 37 gigs so theres not going to be a huge amount of space; you install windows on that your down to 35, then FS and its addons your down to at least 31 gigs, currently my FS is 10 gigs but if you dont plan to have a 10 gig FS then you should be ok. That drive is a great drive...I have never set up a WD SATA before but I did do a Seagate and I needed to do a boot disk with the Seagate patition program on it...seeing that is an OEM drive your going to need to get any required software from Western Digitals web site, shouldnt be to hard...but that hard drive right there seems to be the HDD of choice for people that want to set up a RAID Array wich you can do if you need more space later...it wll be very fast on its own too

(My first post has been edited to make scence and has a bit more added info now that ive had me a Coke )

[quote]Dang that's a lot of mumbo jumbo

Yeah I am sorry I got to typing and didnt make a whole lot of scence about half way through :/ well yes thats a good hard drive but it is only 37 gigs so theres not going to be a huge amount of space; you install windows on that your down to 35, then FS and its addons your down to at least 31 gigs, currently my FS is 10 gigs but if you dont plan to have a 10 gig FS then you should be ok. That drive is a great drive...I have never set up a WD SATA before but I did do a Seagate and I needed to do a boot disk with the Seagate patition program on it...seeing that is an OEM drive your going to need to get any required software from Western Digitals web site, shouldnt be to hard...but that hard drive right there seems to be the HDD of choice for people that want to set up a RAID Array wich you can do if you need more space later...it wll be very fast on its own too

(My first post has been edited to make scence and has a bit more added info now that ive had me a Coke )

I checked Western Digital website and I don't see any driver or software download for the OEM drive I listed.

I'm going to purchase this one instead:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 366&depa=1

78 gigs @ 10,000 rpms  ;)

I checked Western Digital website and I don't see any driver or software download for the OEM drive I listed.

I'm going to purchase this one instead:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 366&depa=1

78 gigs @ 10,000 rpms  ;)

Its the one I have. Good choice. Rock solid with great performence.