Difference between System Drive and Storage Hard Drive?

[shadowz]

What are the differences between the above two components? I'm thinking of buying a gaming rig from Scan and there are two separate sections for these things in the menu where you can choose your parts. Sorry for the beginner question!

[Skulltrail]

The system drive is where the operating system and other programs will be installed to and run from (allthough nothing is stopping you running programs from the storage drive). The storage drive would be where photos, videos and documents etc. would be stored.

The difference is that the storage drive is probably a larger capacity but with a lower spindle speed (5400/5900 compared to 7200). This will reduce the power draw (hence cooler) and make it cheaper but not as fast.

I would go with an SSD as the system drive instead of a 7200, budget permitting.

[Georgy291]

speed

system, you want it fast 7200+ or SSD (id say new pc, a SSD as a requirement)

storage, cheap very large capacity slow drive. runs cooler, uses less watts

[ik9000]

speed

system, you want it fast 7200+ or SSD (id say new pc, a SSD as a requirement)

storage, cheap very large capacity slow drive. runs cooler, uses less watts

+1 I just got an SSD and can't belive the difference it's made. I've moved the windows user directory to a partition on the 7200 HDD and it hasn't really suffered for it. I'd definitely recommend this approach if you have a small SSD as it keeps the caches and user files from cluttering up the SSD space. Anyone wanting to do this there are some good instructions here:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how...ia_storage_ssd

I didn't bother with the last bit about redirecting the programs folder though. Easier to just create a folder on the partition and install into it - which is working just fine for me.

[BeeP]

Cheers for the link ik9000, looks like some good info on there.

[shadowz]

Thanks for the responses guys!