Finding the Right 2.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive
Keeping your data where it is safe and accessible is a big concern for computer users. Choosing the right internal hard drive is a key part of achieving that. Companies like Samsung make a lot of different models, so there are a lot of options to sift through.
How Much Hard Drive Space Do I Need?
- One of the most obvious reasons to upgrade your HDD is if you ran out of space on the previous one. Modern hard drives can get very big. 250 GB or 500 GB hard drives are common, but high-capacity HDDs can contain multiple terabytes of storage space.
- How much capacity you need in a hard disk drive depends a lot on how you use your computer. Storing a lot of big games and DVD-quality movies will naturally take up a lot more space than if you store a few documents locally. A lot of users will be fine with a 250 GB hard drive, and 500 GB is more than enough for most people. Heavier users may need more than a 500 GB hard drive, such as a terabyte or more. Of course, if you are upgrading because you ran out of space, you should choose an HDD that is bigger than your current one.
Which Features Should I Look At?
- Form factor is a major consideration when looking for new internal storage as a hard disk drive that is too big wont fit your computer. Hard drives are usually either 2.5 inches and designed for laptops, or 3.5 inches and designed for desktops. See the manufacturer site for size details.
- Most internal hard drives connect to the motherboard via a SATA connector. The SATA type on your HDD should be the same SATA type that your motherboard has to maximize performance. Later generations like SATA III are backwards-compatible with earlier SATA types, but the speed of data transfer will be limited by the older connection. Newer SATA generations transfer data more quickly than older ones, with SATA III running at 6 GBps compared to the 1.5 GBps transferred by SATA I.
- Hard disk drives rely on a spinning disk to store data. Spinning the disk faster provides quicker access to any individual piece of data on it, speeding up loading times. Hard drives typically run at either 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM.
What Alternatives Do I Have?
- If you just want to increase your total storage capacity, you could consider an external hard drive connected by USB instead of an internal hard drive. Data transfer rates are a bit slower than an internal drive, but they are much more portable as you can carry them around on their own.
- Solid state drives are increasingly common with manufacturers like Samsung making them in large numbers. The big advantage of solid state is the extremely fast read and write speeds compared to an HDD. Loading times are much quicker. However, you can expect to pay more for a 500 GB SSD than a 500 GB hard drive, and extremely large SSDs are less common than multi-terabyte hard drives.
Content provided for informational purposes only. eBay is not affiliated with or endorsed by Samsung.
>