Which hard drive is best to buy for a computer, laptop, TV

As practice shows, no matter what initial volume the drive might have, sooner or later it will be missed sooner or later. And when memory becomes small, the solution is to add or replace the hard disk. There are plenty of such devices in computer stores. But what hard drive is better to buy and how to approach the choice of this element?

Form Factor

Speaking in Russian, the word combination form-factor indicates the size of the device and, as you might guess, its shape. However, do not worry, the shape and dimensions of the device always fit a standard.

3.5 "

This size is considered the most common for hard drives that are installed inside the system unit. There are similar devices that use an external USB connection, but they are not so common. The weight of such a hard drive is great, but because HDD with this form factor is not suitable for portable stations. 3.5 "- devices have several undeniable advantages - a large volume (several terabytes), low price. The choice of this size will be justified if you decide which hard drive to buy for the computer.

2.5 "

Basically, this form factor is used in the production of external HDD. To understand the approximate size of such a device, imagine a floppy disk drive. The price for one megabyte of a similar hard disk will be slightly higher, but the maximum volume is less than for devices of the past type.

1.8 "

Such "babies" are very rare, one might say, exotic. Find similar on sale is almost impossible. The main advantage is small size and weight, but there can not be a large amount on such hard disks.

Interface

The way in which the device connects to hardware that processes information is called an interface. Speaking in a very simple language, this parameter can be called a connector. There are several of their popular species.

USB

A similar interface is available in almost any computer, at least in a laptop, at least in a laptop. The speed at which data can be read and written via this bus is 480 MB / s (or 5 GB / s if a USB 3.0 bus is used). In addition, these "hard drives" can easily be connected to DVD-players, TVs, tablets. Choosing which hard drive is best to buy for a laptop, be aware that devices with such an interface will do the best.

SATA

SATA is a relatively new interface, it has replaced the parallel IDE bus. Most often with its help hard drives are installed inside the system unit. The speed of reading and writing is limited by the 3 Gb / s bar for the second interface version and 6 Gb / s for the third one. On the external panels of the laptop, such a connector is almost impossible to find. Be careful if you choose an external storage, but if you are thinking about which hard drive is better to buy for a gaming computer, the drive with this connector will work best.

FireWire

Very rare type of connector. If your device has a similar input, you can connect the HDD to your computer, but you can hardly use such a device on another PC. It is not recommended to purchase a hard drive with this interface if you plan to transfer information between the devices on it, or if you intend to use the drive as an external one.

Thunderbolt

The rarity of this tire is comparable to FireWire, however, unlike it, Thuderbolt is the latest, not archaic, development. The interface was created by Intel engineers, but so far it can only be found on Apple products. The main advantage of this solution is a high data transfer rate (about 10 Gb / s). If you can not decide which hard drive is best for the MAC system, devices with this interface will be the best choice. The only thing that can alienate a buyer is the high price.

Before choosing a hard disk, clearly determine on which device it will work most often, because the "hard drive" can be connected not only to a computer, but also to a laptop, TV, game console.

Which hard drive is better to buy for a TV

Movies and various videos are used to store on CDs. However, an external drive in this plan is considered a more convenient device. Disks can not be exposed to sunlight, their surface becomes scratched after a few years, and in the course of time, chemical reactions occur in the layer where the information is stored, degrading performance.

Disks of HDD are placed in a sealed enclosure, where neither dust nor light can penetrate. During installation, you do not have to touch the working surface with your fingers. This state of things positively affects the longevity of the device. And the most recent undeniable advantage of an external HDD for a TV is its small size. Multiple DVD racks can fit on a single magnetic drive.

If you are going to purchase an external "Winchester" for the TV, find out before you buy what current is needed for its normal operation. Then find out what power the TV is delivering to the USB bus. In this case, the rule is applied - the TV should give out a third more than the HDD consumes. Do not forget to look in the manual, the hard drive of which maximum volume can be connected.

Remember that not all TVs and media players are able to work with the NTFS file system (so popular with Windows users), sometimes you may need to reformat the HDD into FAT32, and for this you can not do without a computer. If you do not have a PC or laptop, you can contact the service center of the store where the device is purchased. Normally, no additional fees are charged for the formatting operation.

SSD

Usual hard drives work because of the presence of magnetic disks inside the case. Magnetizing and demagnetizing the plane, the device writes data to the HDD. There is another class device - SDD. Such drives can not be called rigid, it will be more correct - solid-state disks. The principle of their work is based on the same technical developments that are used in a conventional flash drive. If you have the ability to connect a hard drive through a SATA-3 cable, you will be very pleased with the speed of reading and writing. Even the most voracious programs and games will start from such a disk in just seconds (and maybe even less). However, if you are going to purchase such a drive, the price will upset you very much. They are considered though the fastest, but also the most expensive. Best of all, this device will work, if you decide which hard drive is better to buy for games.

File system

Any media has a special section on it, it stores all the data about the location of files. The options for organizing this section are called file systems. Previously, FAT32 system was used on hard disks, today the newest format - NTFS is often used. The latter shows itself to work at slightly lower speeds, but it supports the encryption of content, and most importantly, with its help on the disk can be recorded files that are more than four gigabytes in size. Remember that NTFS is not supported by every operating system, and certainly not every device, but FAT32 support is almost everywhere.

Software

If you choose a hard drive for a laptop or computer, find out if there is additional software in its bundle. Often preinstalled software is a complex product for data backup, optimize file allocation and power consumption, as well as protection against malicious software. The first two products are very useful, as often their functions can only perform "native" for the HDD program. Of course, no one cancels the Internet, but if the hard drive is used in a computer that has limited access to the world wide web, the option will be useful.

Which hard drive is best for PS3?

More and more users are abandoning computers in favor of the latest generation of gaming consoles. Such devices have long been able to not only run games from CDs. With their help, you can also "surf" the Internet, watch your favorite videos, listen to music, chat with friends. But there are also drawbacks in PS3, the most significant is the amount of memory.

This problem has become the most acute with the release of modern and quite large blockbusters. For example, such a popular game as GTA V, can not be started at the first releases of the console at all. This is due to system requirements - the hard drive in the console is much smaller than required by the game. The only way out of this situation is to increase memory by installing a new drive.

Few people know whether it is possible to connect the HDD to the PS3 at all, whether it supports such devices, and if they do, they do not understand what hard drive is better to buy. There is nothing difficult to choose a storage device for the set-top box, you can rely on the same characteristics that are important when choosing a hard drive for playing on a PC. PS3 automatically recognizes almost any HDD that will be connected to it. The main parameters on which you need to concentrate your attention when buying an external HDD for a game console is the volume and spindle rotation speed.

Prefixes support any drives with a useful volume of not more than one terabyte. This place is enough for installing a lot of video games, and for a collection of video and audio materials. When deciding which hard drive to buy, do not forget about such an important parameter as the spindle rotation speed. It must be 7200 revolutions per minute or more. On such a device, downloading games will not take much time, and during the gameplay the picture will not "slow down". When using slower HDDs, this can not be guaranteed.

By the way, it should be noted that the consoles work not only with classic drives, but also with solid state drives. When choosing an SSD, everything is much simpler - except for the volume, no special parameters will not have to be studied.

Conclusion

Finally, you need to say that when choosing an external or internal hard disk, you need to decide which hardware will work first, and what tasks will be assigned to it. In advance, learn about the power consumption of the drive, its capacity, the method of connection, form factor. After such an investigation, choosing a hard disk will be very easy.

And yet - the most important advice. Never save when deciding which hard drive to buy. It is often more profitable to overpay for a device released under a well-known brand, even if it costs an order of magnitude higher. Hard drive failure is not only the loss of money, but also the loss of data, which often can not be restored.