As the computer market expanded to dimensions that could not have been foreseen a few decades ago when IBM rolled out the popular 8088XT based personal computers, most computer parts are 100% compatible, but also very different, even if we’re talking about different revisions of the same product from the same manufacturer.
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One of the trickiest computer parts is the hard disk. While specifications are often very similar, the smallest thing can mean a 50% lower or higher performance and/or durability. In terms of rotation per minute (RPM) desktop and laptop hard drives can be divided in two categories: 7200RPM and less than 6000RPM. While most hard drives are based on 7200RPM technology, this is not an optimal speed for any of the hard drives models to date.
For example Seagate recently demonstrated that 5900RPM is a better choice when it comes to power consumption and noise. 3.5” 5900RPM desktop hard drives made by Seagate consume around 3Watts of power and are equipped with 8, 16, 32 or 64MB of integrated cache. While for large file storage there’s absolutely no need for a large cache, for operating system installation and software a minimum of 32MB is needed to function properly.
The hard disk on the left is a single platter model with only 8MB of cache. Although rotation speed is low and cache size is small, this thin hard drive delivers a 60MB/s transfer rate speed at the beginning of the disk, slowly going up to 120MB/s at the edge of the disk. The average speed is around 90MB/s, which is very impressive for a 3Watt low-rpm single-platter hard drive.
In conclusion it’s almost impossible to compare computer parts like hard disks without looking at benchmarks first. More platters or higher rotation speed don’t always mean efficiency or higher value. Tomshardware.com periodically updates its hard disk benchmark charts, you may want to check it out before purchasing a new hard drive.
Other computer parts are easier to compare, for example graphics cards are very well named, so the customer can tell in which category they belong to. nVidia now released GTX 465/470/480 cards, all high-end, and before them all available graphics cards were renamed to GT/GTS/GTX 2xx. ATI adopted the four figure names a few years ago. They all start with ATI Radeon, followed by the number, 5xxx being the latest.
GT is slower than GTS, which is slower than GTX. The first number tells us the generation 1, 2 or 4 and the last two number the effective speed, for example GT 240 is slower than GT 250. ATI cards abandoned suffixes to simplify things starting with the 3xxx generation. The first digit reveals the generation and the last three their speed. 3450 is slower than 3650, but also slower than 4350, so here you have to pay extra attention to the generation too. For the complete hierarchy list check out this review.
Memory modules are also easy to compare. Their speed is expressed in MHz, ranging from 400 to 2400 (at the time of writing). Only enthusiasts who are looking for good overclocking options have to do more detailed research on this subject. When non-standard settings are used memory timings, maximum supported voltage and other specs are also very important.
Motherboards are a bit more complicated, because they have more parts chosen in different ways on different models. Usually you have to look at the FSB (front side bus) that represents the maximum data flow between the CPU and other parts of the computer. Memory speed is becoming less dependent on the mother board, because all new processors have integrated memory controllers, so the motherboard provides basically the passive slots. Please note that computer stability is defined mostly the motherboard, because all decisive components are on it, so it’s best to avoid choosing the cheapest ones, spend around 50% more than the cost of the cheapest model.
Because power consumption is lowered every year thanks to new technologies, power supplies are becoming irrelevant in the system stability equation. It’s important to choose one with a proper max power and big (variable speed) fan to keep noise down. Other specs matter only for high end systems and overclockers.
