Hard Disk Drives (HDD)

Hard Disk Drives are need to store information. These devices will store your operating system (Microsoft Windows, Linux, Unix etc.), games, your own personal files you have created and much more.

These Drives are connected to the Motherboard to send and recieve information by either IDE Cables or SATA Cables. Some HDD's connect via a controller card that will slot into a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slot.

Most Hard Drives are either IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) Drives or SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) drives. The name is only important to the type of cable you need to buy for connecting to the Motherboard. You must also remember to check to see if your Motherboard is compliant to the Hard Drive you wish to buy. Not all Motherboards may support SATA Hard Drives. SATA Hard Drives can be faster than an IDE Hard Drive and the SATA II(2) Hard Drive should be faster than both.

The Hard Drive that connects via a PCI slot is called a SCSI, these Hard Drives are commonly used for servers and mass storage. These Hard Drives have a cable that runs from the device to a PCI Controller card which slots into the PCI slot.

SATA Hard Drive

IDE Hard Drive

SCSI Hard Drive