Internal Hard Drive
Provides the space to store programs, documents and data.
What is an Internal Hard Drive and what does it do? Hard drive is where all your documents and data from your computer are stored. It is the computers long term memory.
The size of a hard drive is measured in gigabytes (Gb), The larger the hard drives size, the more information it can store. A computer can have several hard drives installed in order to boost its storage capacity, allowing you to store more, documents, music, videos and games within your computer.
Why do I need one? Without a hard drive you cannot store anything on your computer.
What is available and what are the benefits of each? Whilst Hard Drives come in many different sizes, there are two main connection types. PATA and SATA PATA is the older style of connection for hard drives which some computers may use. Newer style computers will more than likely use the faster and newer SATA style connections. Converters are available to convert between both SATA and PATA connections.
Hard drives also come in two physical sizes, 2.5 Inch for laptops and 3.5 Inch for desktops. Depending on which you have depends on what size of hard drive you need.
Hard drives either come as the traditional type which uses a series of discs to store data or as a solid state drive (SSD) which has no moving parts.
How do I know what I need? This depends on what you are using your computer for and what type of motherboard you have. An AGP graphics card will not fit in a computer PCI slot and visa versa. An entry-level card will allow you to play some games and watch movies etc. If you want to get the best out of your games and watch HD movies. Cards with greater memory and faster processors will allow you to do so effortlessly.
See our capacity guide below for a guide on what hard drive size can suit your needs.
