NationStates Jolt Archive

So, for a third (and probably not last) time, I have a computer-building question, and so I turn to the tech experts at NSG.

In buying a hard drive now, and I'm trying to decide a few things about which one I should get. First question is, OEM vs. Retail: Is it worth spending the extra bucks for the retail or is the OEM a better deal?

Second, how important is transfer speed and cache? I'm looking at two similar models of a hard drive:

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=299 and
http://www.amazon.com/7200RPM-Buffer-Serial-3-5INCH-Caviar/dp/B000FBSREU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-0592774-8360803?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1181175310&sr=1-2

There almost the same, except the first has an 8mb cache and 3gb/s transfer speed, and the second has a 16mb cache and a 300mb/s transfer speed. Which one is a better drive, and which one is a better purchase?
Thanks!

Similar?

Item model number: WD3200KSRTL
MODEL: WD3200AAKS

To my eye, the only significant difference is the packaging. Buy the cheaper one.

Flip a coin. Always works for me. :)

Similar?

Item model number: WD3200KSRTL
MODEL: WD3200AAKS

To my eye, the only significant difference is the packaging. Buy the cheaper one.

Hmm, I didn't notice that.

But where does that leave the differences in cache size and transfer rate.

Wait a minute here. One is 3 gigabits per second transfer rate. The other is 300 Megabytes transfer rate.

The 3 Gb/s is actually 375MB/s unless Amazon doesn't know the difference between capital B and lowercase b in bits and bytes.

And...from a preliminary search on the net, the 375MB/s is actually 300MB/s due to 8B/10B encoding (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8B/10B_encoding). They're the same transfer rate. (I thought a 300mb/s transfer rate was a bit low for a sata)

Wait a minute here. One is 3 gigabits per second transfer rate. The other is 300 Megabytes transfer rate.

The 3 Gb/s is actually 384MB/s unless Amazon doesn't know the difference between capital B and lowercase b in bits and bytes.

And...from a preliminary search on the net, the 384MB/s is actually 300MB/s due to something. They're the same transfer rate. (I thought a 300mb/s transfer rate was a bit low for a sata)

Oh! Thank you! That makes a lot of sense then! So the amazon one is both cheaper, and has a larger cache. I think I'm gonna go for it! Thanks again.

Oh! Thank you! That makes a lot of sense then! So the amazon one is both cheaper, and has a larger cache. I think I'm gonna go for it! Thanks again.

No prob. Just beware the lowercase and capital b. :D Huge difference.