Time for an HDD upgrade me thinks!

[willythecat]

It's time to upgrade my ancient HDD for something with a bit more space and oomph! (it's an IDE drive btw).
Don't know yet about the size of it, will have to think about that one.
All l know at the moment is there are brand names out there (ie Western, maxtor etc), drive speeds (ie rpm and seek times) together with cache?
So, what would you advise me to look for that has good specs.
Thanks

[soybean]

Do you need to stay with an IDE drive, or does your computer also support SATA?  The selection of IDE drives on the market is diminishing as SATA continues to grow in usage.  Newegg.com's selection of IDE drives is here.  Most likely, you be getting a drive that runs a 7200 rpm.  And, most drives now have at least 8MB of cache.  I would not get one with less than 8MB.  So, pick your size and price. 

[patio]

Along with the good advice above whether you choose IDE or SATA i'd say based on experience Western Digital or Seagate won't steer you wrong...

[alltools nobrains]

Im new to the world of building and upgrading systems but at tiger direct I found several ide to sata adapters and sata to ide just not sure how compatible with older systems

[willythecat]

As per usual, thanks for all you help.
Blimey Pata(IDE) and Sata. Does it really mata?
All l know is my motherboard is an MSI MS-6712 which has two ide slots and is running AMI Bios V07.00T (if that helps). The manual and the AMI bios only refer to IDE connections.
I see that nobrains mentioned an adaptor from IDE to SATA and l'm wondering whether it's really worth all the hassle in changing. I'm not a great techie and just use the computer for general use.
Is it just as easy as adding this adaptor then? What about the Bios which only has IDE entries in it? Sounds a bit complicated to me!
What l am thinking then is to stick with IDE (WD or Seagate), 7200rpm, and cache of 8mb (thanks for the pointers) unless you really thing l should change to Sata.
Thanks

[patio]

Just buy an IDE HDD...don't screw around with adapters for no reason.

[willythecat]

Thanks Patio (as ever)
Message understood, over and out.
(ie l'll get an IDE drive with specs mentioned previously)
Thanks mate.

[patio]

No problem Willy...