I hate to be that guy...

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but, as i am new to this and because i have read review after review after review and post after post, i just feel contradicted with opinions.

i have to choose some memory for my first build, i have bought some ram, but i am struggling to see the difference between hard drives other than slight differences on transfer speed.

i have usb3.0 available to me so this has opened my options up slightly, but in terms of going for a HD as a standalone memory unit or havin a HD and an SSD for the operating system im not sure where to start.

i like the look of the western digital my passport drive, its simple and reasonably priced, and to be honest, the rest of my rig isnt the absolute top end anyway so im not too fussed with squeezing every last drop out of it.

so really, im just wondering if this is a good choice for hard drive, and would i actually need an SSD for the operating system, i am in two minds, as if it is not necessary, then i could just save the money, but if there is a massive difference in performance then what would people recommend.

cheers guys
 
Soldato
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You have posted in the wrong section, with computers "memory" is RAM, we don't call storage "memory" when it comes to hard disks, SSDs and so on.

As for the question you have asked, an SSD does provide a very noticeable increase in speed when it comes to your OS, booting and shutting down are significantly quicker, as are opening applications and so on.
 
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ah my bad, sorry, ill delete the post and take it to the other forum.

thank you for the reply though, its an opinion shared by most so i think ill just have to go for it and research some SSDs and try and find a good deal for both

thanks again
 
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You seem to be a bit confused about a few things mate. usb 3.0 will only be needed for a hard drive or ssd, if your going for an external solution.

For a desktop most go for a 120gb ssd for your OS ( Windows ) and then a 1tb hard drive for storage. Just be sure to go for SATA 3.

What do you need to no about ram, all you need to no is the speed really, if your going for Haswell, go for the fastest you can afford, as Haswell likes it fast. The other numbers like 9, 9, 9, 24, is just the timings which, you don't really need to no about until you come to overclocking it,
 
Soldato
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As others have suggested here, I would also recommend an SSD for OS and applications and then a 1TB+ HD for your media and storage.

An SSD really does make a huge difference in a system and it would pretty much be the first item in my shopping basket when buying a new system.

Either of the below (depending on space requirements) would be your best bet in terms of an SSD.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.98
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
Total : £197.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
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Ah yes i was going to have an external drive as my main drive, only because i have literally thousands of albums, and because i write my own music, i could whip it out and then go to the other bands mates with it

Thank you for the suggestions, i think the 120GB one would be perfect, pay day yesterday so ill get that now :)
 
Soldato
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Ah yes i was going to have an external drive as my main drive, only because i have literally thousands of albums, and because i write my own music, i could whip it out and then go to the other bands mates with it

Thank you for the suggestions, i think the 120GB one would be perfect, pay day yesterday so ill get that now :)

SSD for OS portable 3TB drive for the music?
 
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SSD has been bought now, just trying to work out how much music i have already, how much i have in hard copies and how much i will have in 2 years or so before i get the hard drive, i cant see myself having 3TB worth though ;)
 
Soldato
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Associate
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Agreed with having 2 copies. Having everything purely on an external volume is a dangerous move, especially as you plan to transport it regularly. Hard Drives don't cope well with being dropped. That would be a lot to use!

I have a WD my passport ultra 2TB for external storage and it's very good. Nice and quick (even on USB2) and compact too.
 
Soldato
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I am sure that you can get a little program (It may come with an external drive or I "think" that the raid part of the Intel chipset) for a while has a data duplication setting so basically whenever you plug it in to the pc it will automatically set a data duplication going so you have the same on the internal drive as you do on the external drive. I think its made for people that have laptops so they can sync their laptops with their external storage when they get home or to the office etc giving redundancy incase of fault/damage/theft. You would use it the other way round as your pc is static and you may transport your external hdd to other places.. :)

Oh BTW.. if you are cloning your old drive to your ssd make sure you offset the partition on your ssd like this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html if you are doing a fresh install it does it automatically ;)
 
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