I don't know if this goes into this section but could anyone advise me which hard disk should i buy for ripping, storing and listening to MPC's?

Is the speed (rpms) of much importance?

Speed is almost irrelevant. Even today's slower hard disks can easily handle a 30x ripping speed. You should buy a large and quiet 5400 rpm drive, for instance a Western Digital WD600AB or some Maxtor drive.

so you say 5400 disks are quieter? is loudness of disk important?

5400 rpm disks are not only quieter but have usually longer life expectations and generate much less heat.

It depends on your personal preferences whether HDD noise is an important factor or not. Personally I would prefer 5400 rpm disks to any usage since they are absolutely silent nowadays. You'll learn to appreciate it, I tell you.

I also hear WDCs and Maxtors are preferred amongst people. I've been using a silent 40GB IBM 5400 rpm HDD for quite some time now but some people claim larger capacity IBM's have unusually high failure rate or something.

Go here for more information on hard drives:

www.storagereview.com

Click on the "LEADERBOARD" link on the top for recommended hard drives. The Western Digital Caviar WD600AB is the currently recommended 5400 RPM ATA hard drive.

If you want whisper quiet operation both on idle and read, check out the Seagate Barracuda ATA IV (various caps. up to 80 GB [read approx 74.5 - 76 GB]}. The fluid bearing is the selling point here. I have one, and it certauinly lives up to the claims of quiet op. It does not need any special mounting sleeve to acoustically isolate it like some other drives do, and it does not generate excessive heat (even the 4 platter 80GB version).

Quiet operation is important if you want to run your PC as an audio device in a listening room.

I thought Seagate was bought out. Maybe it was Conner...

Sure enough - Seagate owns Conner!

And Quantum was bought by Maxtor [img]3878355077[/img]

Actually, BarracudaIV has only 2 platters in the 80GB drive, since each platter can store 40GB of data.

My mistake: the drive is so bloody heavy in its caddy that I just thought it had 4 platters.

Easy. Buy the biggest hd you can afford. Just remember to back up all those MPC files so in the event the hd crashed you can easily put them back onto another drive.