In article ,
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My computer currently has two hard drives (one 40GB and one 120GB for a
total of 160GB). And I have two optical drives, so my motherboard is
full of IDE devices (2 channels, 2 devices per channel, 4 devices total).
I'm looking to buy another hard drive in the 160GB-250GB range (depends
on whatever is cheapest per GB). I want it to be as quiet as possible
(dorm room). Depending on how things go I may be getting it a buddy
hard drive shortly thereafter.
So, should I go with IDE or SATA? Either way I'm going to have to use
an add-in PCI card. Also, which manufacturers or specific drives do you
recommend?


Or an external 5400rpm drive in a USB/firewire enclosure
that you can power-down when not needed. That option
will work if you have USB 2.0 or Firewire ports.

Last I looked, barring sales, 160GB drives were the
sweet spot.