August Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 4

Storage

Dual Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (6B300S0) 7200RPM 300GB Hard Drives

Current Cost: $286
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

NCQ (Native Command Queuing) is currently all the rage when it comes to SATA drives, and as we're fans as well, our drive selection also includes this high performance technology. NCQ uses intelligent algorithms to speed up hard drive access time and increase data throughput, and can upgrade the performance of a 7200 RPM drive quite nicely. The nForce 2 SLI chipsets we use in our AMD and Intel systems both support this feature, so it's a smart be to choose a hard drive that takes full advantage of it.

This month we had a few extra dollars left over so we decided to move to a dual-drive RAID setup. We decided to go with two high-capacity SATA drives that also support NCQ. Currently, one of our favorite SATA hard drives is the DiamondMax 10 (6B300S0) 7200RPM 300GB model. In addition to having an ultra high capacity, the drive also supports NCQ, has a 7200RPM motor, and includes a massive 16MB cache. Priced at about only $143, these drives are very economical, and adding two of these into a high performance RAID array is certainly a worthwhile investment.

Maxtor's DiamondMax 10 series of drives are among some of the best performing drives on the market, and the 300GB 6B300S0 is no exception. Not only does this hard drive have NCQ support, but it also has a whopping 16MB cache. The DiamondMax 10 series of hard drives also feature Quiet Drive Technology, and with fluid dynamic bearings, this is one of the quietest models we have ever used. Maxtor includes a full 3-year warranty with the 300GB DiamondMax 10, and at only $286 for a dual drive array, we certainly aren't spending an arm and a leg to include high-end RAID 0 performance in the guide this month.

CD-ROM/DVD-RW: Pioneer 16x DVD+RW/-RW DVR-110 OEM

Cost: $52
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

As the debate between the Blu-ray and HD-DVD continues to rage on, the DVD+/-R market has continued to stagnate, with only minor updates here and there. One of those updates comes from Pioneer, who last month introduced the DVR-110. This is only a minor update compared to the DVR-109, but at this point, we'll take it. The Pioneer DVR-110 features writing speeds of 8X DVD+/-R for Dual-Layer media, 16X for DVD+/-R, 8X for DVD+RW, 6X for DVD-RW, 40X for CD-R, and 32X for CD-RW. Priced at an ultra-low $52, this Pioneer DVD+/-R puts a very little strain on our budget, and is an excellent choice for high performance optical writing capability.

The Pioneer DVR-110 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 continue to cling onto the ancient technology of 1.44MB floppy disks, we continue to 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.