I really don't see the point in re-using a 3yr old hard drive as anything other than a storage drive.
Economy.
He is on a budget, thus savings like salvaging HDD off the old computer and Windows 10 preview are good ways how to get maximum for the money.
Spending 80 or 55 USD on new drive means you need to downgrade some of your components that will be way more expensive and difficult to replace later on, adding new drive later on the other hand is very easy.
Funny note regarding to reliability and getting a new drive - new drives whithin first months have about same failure rate as 5 years old drives
Then again, what matters is the usage, not the time the drive is out of assembly line. "Wearing out" a HDD in home system isn't really happening.
While SSD is nice to have, it is still a luxury component.
All fair points. As far as reliability, the problem with standards drives in a home situation is they are just fragile finicky little bastards, i guess nowadays that lan parties aren't even remotely commonplace anymore, its likely the PC will sit on a desk a never be moved, so shock and physical jolts and such aren't as much of an issue.
But you are correct, the thing about most electronics is they generally either fail very quickly (usually a bad solder point or something dumb like that, out of the factory), or they last forever, barring any user related failures.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
It looks like the debate goes smoothly with many good suggestions.
My only suggestion would be that you reconsider getting a solid state drive. The difference it makes is just as important and useful as a faster CPU/GPU.
Comments
All fair points. As far as reliability, the problem with standards drives in a home situation is they are just fragile finicky little bastards, i guess nowadays that lan parties aren't even remotely commonplace anymore, its likely the PC will sit on a desk a never be moved, so shock and physical jolts and such aren't as much of an issue.
But you are correct, the thing about most electronics is they generally either fail very quickly (usually a bad solder point or something dumb like that, out of the factory), or they last forever, barring any user related failures.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
It looks like the debate goes smoothly with many good suggestions.
My only suggestion would be that you reconsider getting a solid state drive. The difference it makes is just as important and useful as a faster CPU/GPU.