Hard Drives and other storage devices
Hard Drive prices have fallen more than for any other computer parts, over the past 10 years. As an example, in 1995 cost per 1 GB of hard drive space was around $150. By 1998 a cost per 1 GB dropped to around $50. Next few years saw the biggest drop in prices and increase in speed from 5400 rpm to 7200 rpm. By 2001 price dropped to only $3 per 1 GB. Today, you can get 2GB of space for less than a $1. Quite amazing, eh?
Today it is quite silly to buy anything bellow 80GB, but because of the very small price difference, get at least a 160GB hard drive. Most of today's hard drives spin at 7200 rpm (rates per minute). If you want higher speed get hard drives that spin at 10000rpm, which are a little bit more expensive.
As of time of this writing, 15000 rpm hard drives are emerging. They are still quite expensive but expect a drop in these prices soon. However, most users do not need this speed.
As a reference, a hard drive selling in $60-$80 price range the is a good buy, in size, quality and speed terms, for 99 percent of the users.
My favorite brand is Western Digital.
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