upgrade hard drive

For the computer techies here, how difficult is it to replace a hard drive? I only have 40GB right now and I'd like to upgrade to 160GB at least. I have a Dell Dimension 2400. What should I be shopping for in a quality hard drive?

I'm fairly familiar with the inside of a computer, I've upgraded my own video and audio cards before, put in additional ram, etc.

Seagate is the only way to go. Cheap and most reliable drives around. It's also one of the easiest upgrades you can do.

If you have Symantec Ghost (which I can send you) you can ghost disk-to-disk and not miss a beat.

If you're planning on having your machine for a while, I've been retrofitting machines where I work with RAID cards and installing dual SATA drives in a RAID 0 array (which sounds complicated, but is super easy to do) which will not only double the RPMs of the drives you're using, it'll greatly speed up what you're doing. Of course since the machine is older you'll get bottlenecked by a couple of things, but you wouldn't believe the difference that configuration made in my office machine. My boot up is something like fifteen seconds from button to desktop.

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148103)

Keep in mind I don't do any gaming. Pretty much just internet stuff, email, and of course working on the site with front page, some minor photo editing, etc. I do download alot of music, so that's my primary reason for needing a bigger drive. Currently I have all of my music on a 80GB external drive, but I'd feel safer with my music backed up in two locations.

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148103)

damn that's super cheap

True. I don't do a whole lot of gaming. My reason for going with RAID is just because I hate to wait for anything. Setting up RAID makes everything I do almost instantaneous. If anything, that drive I sent you is going to make a nice difference. That machine probably had a slower RPM and a smaller cache.

Upgrading is not hard at all, just remove power and IDE cable from hard drive and pull it out. Just make sure you have a Anti-static wrist strap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-static_wrist_strap) on while upgrading less you want to fry your mobo. Radio shack should have them.

damn that's super cheap

Yeah, I mean it's a nice upgrade regardless. If you want Ghost, give me a shout via PM, unless you're planning on doing a clean install.

Seagate is good, but I've always gone with Western Digital drives and never had a problem. They're VERY reliable and the best in my opinion. Price-wise, they're about the same as Seagate too.

I just put a 160GB WD drive in a computer I built for my dad last week, cost $52.99 from Newegg. (weekend sale)


Just be sure to get the right kind of connection, although there ARE adapters. Your 40GB drive is most likely an IDE connection and your mobo probably doesn't have the faster SATA drive connections, so make sure you buy an IDE drive (slightly cheaper than SATA drives anyways).

I have a WD 120GB drive in a PC I built myself nearly 3 years ago and have had ZERO problems with it.

Buy from Newegg, they're awesome...cheap, FAST shipping, GREAT customer service...

Don't buy from a store like Staples or Office Max, you'll pay double.

I'd get THIS one:

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144203)