November Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 4

Storage

Two Western Digital Raptor 74GB SATA, 10000 RPM w/8-MB Cache

Current Cost: $356
Months on list: 5
Price Change: -$12

As Serial ATA continues to drive PATA to extinction, we will continue to support the current SATA format, and look forward to drives with SATA2 and NCQ support. This is a bit different than some other technologies, as Serial ATA drives are usually priced equivalent to their PATA counterpart. Both our AMD and Intel systems come equipped with motherboards supporting SATA and RAID so it's only natural that we take full advantage of it. Considering we like to squeeze every ounce of speed from our systems that we can, the additional performance a dual-disk RAID 0 array is a welcome feature. For those of you who consider data integrity more important than pure speed, we recommend you use a RAID 1 array, where the second drive acts as a mirror of the first, keeping your data safe should one hard drive fail.

Currently, there is no higher-end Serial ATA hard drive than the Western Digital 74GB Raptor, and if one is good, then and two running in RAID 0 mode is even better. The Western Digital Raptor drives one of the very fastest desktop SATA models on the market, with a blazingly fast 10,000 RPM spindle speed, 8MB of cache, and 74GBs of storage. With only 74GBs of storage, and priced at $178 each these drives are very expensive for the capacity, but certainly worth it for the extra performance.

CD-ROM/DVD-RW: Pioneer 16x DVD+RW/-RW DVR-108 OEM

Cost: $72
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

This month we have upgraded our optical drive selection to a 16x dual-layer capable DVD recorder. While dual-layer media has not yet hit the market in mass quantities, 16x media has, and our new drive can take full advantage of it. The Pioneer 16x DVD+RW/-RW DVR-108 has support for a vast array of optical media such as 16X DVD+-/R, 4X DVD+-/RW, 2.4X DVD+R DL, 32X CD-R and 24X CD-RW which means that anything written with this drive will take no time at all. Considering this Pioneer DVR-108 drive can be found for only $72, this is a super value for one very high-end piece of hardware.

The Pioneer DVR-108 is also available with either a black or beige faceplate, which allows you to mix and match according to personal preference .

Floppy Disk Drive: Generic 1.44 Floppy Disk Drive

Cost: $8

For those of you who still continue to cling onto the age-old technology of 1.44MB floppy disks we still include one in our extreme machine. Any old floppy drive will do, but we recommend sticking to a known brand like Panasonic, Sony or similar.