Of Motherboards and Hard Disks

I have dropped my previous idea of making a desktop that would be controlled via remote desktop. Now that I have taken my desktop to hostel, I decided that it's time that it should have an update.

As I am a storage freak, the first option before me was to do an Hard Disk upgrade. As of now I have 1*80 an 1*500 GB hard disks. The 80 Gb one holds the OS n other installed softwares. The 500 Gb one holds multimedia stuff. It was terrible to see its state. In n 500 GB disks, there is less than 5 Gb worth of space left !!!.

The next option before me was n motherboard update. I have two motherboards - Asus P5G-MX , and original Intel G41 . I have bought the Intel board just 3-4 months back, but I dont like to use it for many reasons. First the board has a poor layout. Second there is no heatsink over the southbridge. As I keep my system running 24*7, its not a good idea not to have n heatsink over the southbridge. On the other hand my Asus board which is based on 945 chipset has n good layout and also features a heatsink over its southbridge. The only drawback of this board is the availabilty of only 2 SATA ports.

So I decided to sell the Intel board. The board is only 4 months old, so I m gettin a fair bargain on the board (abt 2.2k). Next I did an extensive research on the motherboard's available in the market. I found that most low-end boards have intel G-31 or the G-41 chipset. Now the G-31 an G-41 have terrible reviews over th net. The boards that had p-43 or P-45 chipsets still costed well over 5K. So I have decided to stick to my old Asus board an will upgrade when it dies completly or I need more than 2 SATA ports.

Now comming back to Hard disks, My experience with seagate has been good, but my 500 GB disk has some issues. There are many re-allocated sectors in it and considering that the disk is only 5 months old, it's not a good thing at all. The disk is also of the in-famous 7200.11 series which has serious BIOS issues. All these points made me skeptical about investing in seagate again. I had aleardy decided to invest in an 1 TB disk as the cost per Gb is very less ( Less than 1.5 or 2 TB disks). I looked in the local market and very soon got the idea that the guys over stock very less 1 TB disks as the demand around is of 320 GB max. Those did have 1 Tb disks had of Seagate make and Western Digital Disks were rare to found even in 320 GB models. So I deicded to opt for an Seagate 1TB disk which is of 7200.12 model. The series has excellent reviews over the net. So I got an 1Tb disk with the SATA and power cable all for 4.5 K (that's Rs 4.5 per GB !!!)

Now I an transferring data from my 500 GB disk to the 1Tb one and I seriously hope that the 1 Tb disk lasts atleast for more six months.

PS- A new issue has cropped up. My UPS has died and is giving 0 backup. I think that it;s time to buy an battery for it, considering the fact the old one has lasted well over 5 years.