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Simple Hard Drive Question

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mvsfan:

--- Quote from: iamnaeth on March 12, 2010, 04:54:59 pm ---I want to expand the storage capacity on the PC in my arcade so that I can add some more games / videos / etc.  Unfortunately, the PC is rather dated and only has IDE connections.  I wanted to add ~1TB more space.  So my question is simple.  Are USB external hard drives stable enough for regular use and is the connection fast enough to not cause a lag while playing?  If the answer to both of those is yes, can anyone recommend a good hard drive?  Thank you!

Your difference will only really be Apparent when your loading a game up, because of the way Mame works. it loads your rom into memory first, off of the hard drive. then it will play as fast as your processor and Ram will let it. Except for Chd's you really dont need new hardware.

so if you dont mind waiting for it to load in the first place, their isnt a problem. Does anyone remember Sega Cd? yes, they tried full cinematic games like Night Trap, problem was that they constantly accessed the cd drive and you had to wait and wait and wait just to get a small bit of action. The best use of that platform was simple (but Long) games like Sonic CD where once a level loaded, (rather quickly) it got dumped to the sega cds Ram first, and it was full speed ahead until the next level had to load. its basically the same with Mame.

Oh, also to mention is that if you dont like to wait a bit or if loading is painfully slow, you can always get a Sata card. Just dont expect the same performance as onboard Sata, although it will be better than ide.

Nate

--- End quote ---

mvsfan:

--- Quote from: mvsfan on March 14, 2010, 07:04:41 pm ---
--- Quote from: iamnaeth on March 12, 2010, 04:54:59 pm ---I want to expand the storage capacity on the PC in my arcade so that I can add some more games / videos / etc.  Unfortunately, the PC is rather dated and only has IDE connections.  I wanted to add ~1TB more space.  So my question is simple.  Are USB external hard drives stable enough for regular use and is the connection fast enough to not cause a lag while playing?  If the answer to both of those is yes, can anyone recommend a good hard drive?  Thank you!

Your difference will only really be Apparent when your loading a game up, because of the way Mame works. it loads your rom into memory first, off of the hard drive. then it will play as fast as your processor and Ram will let it. Except for Chd's you really dont need new hardware.

so if you dont mind waiting for it to load in the first place, their isnt a problem. Does anyone remember Sega Cd? yes, they tried full cinematic games like Night Trap, problem was that they constantly accessed the cd drive and you had to wait and wait and wait just to get a small bit of action. The best use of that platform was simple (but Long) games like Sonic CD where once a level loaded, (rather quickly) it got dumped to the sega cds Ram first, and it was full speed ahead until the next level had to load. its basically the same with Mame.

Oh, also to mention is that if you dont like to wait a bit or if loading is painfully slow, you can always get a Sata card. Just dont expect the same performance as onboard Sata, although it will be better than ide.

also id never use a usb drive for anything besides backup, they are just too slow.

if you do go for an external hard drive to back things up, get something like a western digital that has USB, and ESATA. some even have firewire too.
that way, your covered on all bases.


--- End quote ---

--- End quote ---

WhereEaglesDare:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132009&Tpk=rc-212

I have used a couple of these in file servers I have built, they work great (in WinXP, haven't tried vista or 7 yet)  Real easy to configure, and VERY RELIABLE.  Plus, it has an extra IDE connector so you could potentially add 4 more drives just from this card, 2 SATA + 2 IDE.  For 20 (This Card) and 80 bucks you got 1 TB SATA internal, when the externals are about the same price, but I think this is much more reliable than any external.

and if you are going to buy a new hard drive ONLY BUY WESTERN DIGITAL AND NEVER BUY A  SEAGATE.

mvsfan:

--- Quote from: WhereEaglesDare on March 14, 2010, 07:13:20 pm ---http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132009&Tpk=rc-212

I have used a couple of these in file servers I have built, they work great (in WinXP, haven't tried vista or 7 yet)  Real easy to configure, and VERY RELIABLE.  Plus, it has an extra IDE connector so you could potentially add 4 more drives just from this card, 2 SATA + 2 IDE.  For 20 (This Card) and 80 bucks you got 1 TB SATA internal, when the externals are about the same price, but I think this is much more reliable than any external.

and if you are going to buy a new hard drive ONLY BUY WESTERN DIGITAL AND NEVER BUY A  SEAGATE.

--- End quote ---

actually the only thing i like equal or better than WD is MAXTOR. both have been nothing but rock solid reliability over the years for me.

as far as customer support goes, i dont suppose anyone remembers Maxtor Maxblast software.

Maxtor Maxblast was the absolute ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- until someone somewhere decided that it should only support maxtor drives.

now, the only way to go is the Ultimate boot cd.

WhereEaglesDare:

--- Quote from: mvsfan on March 14, 2010, 07:55:51 pm ---
now, the only way to go is the Ultimate boot cd.

--- End quote ---

Agreed, I got it on a bootable thumbdrive since all types of hard media is obsolete, CD,DVDs, even BluRays, obsolete.

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