help me choose a hdd just to install os+apps+games (no data will be kept in it) so need a ultra fast & low random access time HDD 
choices are:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB (Single Platter)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB (Single Platter)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 320GB (Single Platter)
cannot afford a raptor 150GB or 320GB+ HDD just to install os+apps+games but need 200GB+
get a Raptor …i believe anything less will be insult to your godlike rig…
get a 74 gb raptor…just for OS and a few applications
lol i already fill 150GB with game installations 
games are not exactly tiny nowadays & raptor speeds are matched by my 3 choices just the access time is not matched 
hmmm… then…get a 320 single platter…and play the games fast and uninstall them…
well i can’t play fast
4k budget max
see if you can stretch the budget to 5k.
friend just got the seagate 7200.11 500gb hdd for 5k. around 90-95mb speed on them.
Want random access? Get the 160gb Barracuda 7200.9. Single platter, good transfer rates and better access times than the 250 and 320gb platters!
The 250 and 320 gig drives have high random acces times. the seagate 7200.11 i believe has good times tho. Not sure abt the 160 gig drive
2X 160 GB drives and Raid 'em :devil2:
get the 320 GB single platter WD , i just love WD drives 
^^Single platter drives have high access times..
i shiver at even the thought of RAID :no:
now the 7200.11 500GB has a random access time of 12-13ms, the 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB is 15-16ms & WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 320GB is 15-16ms
so now I’m more confused as 5k seems overkill for a hdd just to install os+apps+games :S
any comments on 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB?
the 7200.11 500gb has around 12ms access time.
a friend of mine (tarunactivity here ) runs a 2X 320 GB raid setup
check out his HD tach score
http://www.techenclave.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3440&d=1187458386
A chart showing boot time of various HDDs… it is from an Article dated 30 Oct 2007, so the newer HDDs from Seagate and WD are not included in tests… what surprised me is that the Hitachi 1 TB 7K1000 is LAST 
this HDD is mentioned as one of the fastest HDD even today by the Guru’s in Storagereview !!
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8848/systemboottimesot9.gif
The Barracuda 7200.11 finds itself near the back of the pack in our system boot time test. At least it has some company; terabyte drives from Hitachi and Western Digital are also slow to boot our test system, suggesting that capacity may play a role here.
source: Seagate’s Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive - The Tech Report - Page 5
buying a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive will update price after buying it
I’m also looking at the same model, if I understood the seagate webpages and TE posts correctly, this offers NCQ only at SATA 1.5gbps but not if you remove the jumper for SATA 3gbps.
The ST3500***6***20AS offers NCQ at 3gbps but only has 16mb cache… while the above one (320AS) has 32mb cache…
got a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB for Rs. 4654 all inclusive today
will be installing on 5th/6th April, 2008
how to check for SD15 firmware without installing it?
Oi…Udit , dude, same thing , same requirements, pls temme if the drives what you wanted from it, so i can go ahead with the decision..
well my decision was based on the random access time which is lowest on Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB below 5k