2mb vs. 8mb cache

[JediJorgie]

i just bought a new hdd at office depot today, an 80gb 7200rpm with 8mb cache on sale for $60 after rebates. right now i am running a maxtor 40gb 7200rpm, but with a 2mb cache. i was thinking i would just use the 80gb for movies, music and games, but now i'm thinking i might reformat with the 80gb as the master hdd. would i notice a performance improvement with the 80gb, or would i just be wasting my time?

thanks,
jorgie

 

[DannyBoy]

Yes you would notice a performance increase using the 8mb cache drive.

 

[yhelothar]

just the size increase would give you more performance.... plus the added cache would give you even more performance...

bigger hdd = denser data=faster transfer rates..

 

[sniperruff]

faster startup time for me using a 8mb cache HD, also i know it loads faster than a 2mb cache drive (7200 rpm for both) since it gets me into game servers always first. not GREAT speed increase but it's only minor, but why not?

 

[JediJorgie]

bump

 

[Mitzi]

I found my new WD 8Mb cache drive considerably faster than my existing IBM 27Gb 7200 boot drive....go for it!

 

[Erasmus-X]

This has been debated several times before....

To answer your question, yes, more cache does make a difference. But, there are a lot more things that contribute to a fast hard drive than what meets the eye.

Case in point: Western Digital and Maxtor's 8 MB "special edition" drives. Just about any review you'll read indicates that the WD stomps all over the Maxtor in terms of overall desktop performance. Both drives have 7,200 rpm spindle speed and the same buffer sizes. The difference lies in platter densities and of course, how well the drive was optimized to use a large buffer.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
just the size increase would give you more performance.... plus the added cache would give you even more performance...

bigger hdd = denser data=faster transfer rates..

not necessarily. they could both be 40 gigs/platter drives, in which case peak xfer rates would be pretty similar. though its more likely that the 40 gig is a 20 gig/platter drive since its "old". of course, the way people around here are, last year's drive would be old

my 800JB is a couple seconds faster at game load times than the D740X it replaced.

 

[JediJorgie]

thanks for all the advice guys, i'll be installing windows on my 80gig soon.

here's another question, is this hd cooler a good one? i'm not worried about its cooling capabilities, i really just want a temp monitor that will hold a hd. are their better temp monitors than this one? i've seen plenty of them, but i want one with LED instead of LCD lights. any suggestions?

 

[Jmmsbnd007]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
just the size increase would give you more performance.... plus the added cache would give you even more performance...

bigger hdd = denser data=faster transfer rates..

Bigger HDD = more platters.

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

Bigger HDD = more platters.

No...sometimes bigger=same platters but more dense. Depends on generation of drive. you can have an 80 gig drive with one dual sided platter and an 80 gig drive with 3 platters...

 

[Jmmsbnd007]

Originally posted by: TROGDORdBURNINATOR

Bigger HDD = more platters.

No...sometimes bigger=same platters but more dense. Depends on generation of drive. you can have an 80 gig drive with one dual sided platter and an 80 gig drive with 3 platters...

No sh!t sherlock. The same drive model/gen will have the same platter density.

 

[MadRat]

The real mystery is if the hard drive cache is faster than simply using cached data in the main memory...

 

[SexyK]

Originally posted by: MadRat
The real mystery is if the hard drive cache is faster than simply using cached data in the main memory...

Well, the way I understand it, they work together. The cache on the HD has it's own logic that goes and gets data off the platters before it's even requested by the system. Obviously this is all speculative, but they have good algorithms for that kind of prediction. So when the system requests a piece of data from the disc, if it's in the HD Cache then it won't need to go get the data physically off the drive at all. A large cache just increases the probability that the requested data will be available.

If the data needed is already in the main memory, then the request will never go to the HD at all. So basically, they serve different purposes within the system.

Kramer

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: JediJorgie
thanks for all the advice guys, i'll be installing windows on my 80gig soon.

here's another question, is this hd cooler a good one? i'm not worried about its cooling capabilities, i really just want a temp monitor that will hold a hd. are their better temp monitors than this one? i've seen plenty of them, but i want one with LED instead of LCD lights. any suggestions?

temp monitoring for hard drives is mostly pointless. go with what you think looks cool if you must have it

 

[Jmmsbnd007]

Cooling? If it's a particularly hot drive, just blow some air over it.

 

[Tbirdkid]

You also shouldnt have to reformat. Their is a disk copy utility with your new hdd that you can use that will transfer all your data very well to the other drive. Then you can format the 40 gigger and do that one clean. No data loss or nothing. I have successfully done it and so have some of my friends. Good luck though.

 

[JediJorgie]

Originally posted by: Tbirdkid
You also shouldnt have to reformat. Their is a disk copy utility with your new hdd that you can use that will transfer all your data very well to the other drive. Then you can format the 40 gigger and do that one clean. No data loss or nothing. I have successfully done it and so have some of my friends. Good luck though.

Yeah, i was thinking about something else when i wrote my first question. i dont know why i said i would reformat.

 

[SUOrangeman]

3-yr warranty on WD's 8MB drives.

-SUO

 

[snidy1]

I could notice quite a differance when I went to 8MB

 

[addragyn]

6MB of DRAM hasn't gotten this much credit in a long time...

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Their is a disk copy utility with your new hdd that you can use that will transfer all your data very well to the other drive.

Drive Copy from Powerquest does just this..No fuss, no muss.